Hi there! I'm new to the forum and thought I could ask some of you that have or are going thru this. I have twins, but I'm only in the process of training my daughter at the moment as she seems to be the one that's showing the signs. She knows where the pee & poop is supposed to go, she can hold it for quite a period of time, she hates being in a wet & poopy diaper and even tells me when she pees to change her immediately. She can pull her pants on and off, she stays dry for naps (tho not overnights yet), she doesn't mind sitting on the potty and yet just won't DO anything on it!

I feel like I've tried everything. I've let her sit for as long as she wants, had running water going, let her play in a little pan of warm water, kept her in undies only (minus overnights) for a full week, used the little potty, the big potty, bribing... Nothing seems to make her go on the potty. I swear my house smells like Febreeze scented urine. This week, I finally just switched to her wearing training pants (like cloth diapers with the plastic liner) and pull-ups. I swore I wouldn't do that, but the accidents were getting too much and even tho she knew she was making such a mess, it didn't seem to prompt her to want to GO in the potty.

So I guess after my book now, my question is do you think she's even ready? I don't know if she's scared of going on the potty or if that sensation hasn't come to her to know she's gonna pee and just can't adjust it yet. Should I just wait a little longer and let her go at her own pace? That's what I'm doing at the moment. I'm just hoping one of these days it will just click. But I'm thinking I might be waiting a long time.

__________________

It sound like she is ready to be potty trained, but doesn't really understand on what is going on. One day a light switch will go of in her head and she will potty train herself.

This is what I did for my dd, she is 3. I put on the cloth underwear and take her to the bath everytime I thought of it, everytime hubby or I want potty and every time we think she doesn't have to go, we just took her. Didn't gave her a choice. Put her on the toilet for 30 seconds and worked our way up to 5 minutes. Even if she doesn't pee we made a huge deal out of it. No toys, no candy and nothing else but hugs, praise and kisses. Saying "Oh that's great, thank you for going pee and know lets clean up." Clean up meaning she raises out her potty, she dumps it in the toilet and she flushes, even if she didn't pee. After that she gets to use the big people soap to wash her hands. I have 2 soaps one for the kids in fun shapes, one in a regular bar of soap and the liquid. I let her choice on what soap to use. And about 15 minutes later even if she had no clue I still praised her for going to the potty. It even got to the point where she made up her only potty song and she had to go potty. She is a heavy sleeper so we are still working on night time potty, but day time is no problem now she goes to the bathroom on her own and washes her own hands all by herself and we still thank her for going potty.

One thing a child will decide when they are ready to be full potty trained.

Mom

__________________