Potty training - Fight

Gurgle expert Thirza Ashelford says 'At three years I would be very surprised if she is not aware of when she needs a bowel movement at the very least!! Is your daughter still in nappies? If so you may have to make a radical decision and take them off in favour of big girl pants! Before this however, I would give the potty a complete break for a few days up to a week. Don’t even mention it and in fact I would put it away altogether. After this time, you need to have a conversation with your daughter, explain to her that it is now time to stop wearing a nappy (as she is no longer a baby) and you are going to go and buy her some big girl pants and she can also choose whether she would like a potty or a special seat and a step so she can use the big toilet. At three years old she really should be able to understand this! If you have to buy a new potty that she has chosen then go with it if you can! If you really don’t want to do this (and I am sure there is nothing wrong with her old one) ask her to choose some stickers to decorate her potty – she can then stick one on to the potty each time she uses it successfully! Once she has got stickers all the way round you will be pretty much there but you can then go on to using them as a reward chart – you can buy these or make your own – once she has say 5 stickers she gets a special treat (but keep these small! A couple of chocolate buttons or a small box of raisins is quite sufficient!)

Another thing that may help is to dress your daughter in clothes that are easy for her to remove when she needs the potty so it’s dresses and skirts for a while – or trousers with elastic waists but these can still take some pulling down. I would keep to nappies at night for a while but if she objects (well you have told her they are for babies!) do lift her when you go to bed so she can wee and then make sure she can get to her potty when she wakes in the morning. It really won’t take too long at this age! If your daughter is going to pre-school tell the staff what you are doing so they can carry the routine on there as well.

Hi, my little boy is almost 2 and a half. he has had two pottys so far. one is the original shape and the second is shaped like a proper toilet with a lid. When the child wees etc in it, it plays a tune. my lad loves it but more for the fact he now knows that if he gets a cup of water and pours it in, it plays the tune. However he still wont sit and wee on it. He sits on it but insists that i sit on the toilet as him at the same time and then runs out of the room and widdles on the carpet. He is grasping the concept of using a toilet but i am just not going to push him too hard. I keep introducing it to him every couple of weeks and his interest is growing in actually using the potty for its real purpose. I just figure that he will do it when he's good and ready. If its any comfort my neice was 3 and a half before she was potty trained and when she did do it, it took her 4 days and she is also dry through the night too within a couple of weeks of being potty trained. I would personally leave it alone for a while. Keep using the nappies that make them feel wet and she'll get the message eventually. Just dont be too hard on her or yourself. She'll get then when she's good and ready.

All the best! :D

Hey I just watched an incredible episode of Dr Phil the psycologist about problems with young kids and this was one of them. What you neeed (apparently!) is a doll that wees, then you need to fill your kid up with juice, put the big boy pants on and then get them to 'train' the doll to go on the potty. When it does it have a little 'party' as extravagent as you like with horns and hats just so long as its really noisy and exciting. Then keep asking if your LO wants to go, if they say no dont worry about it just keep on with it until they do and make a HUGE deal about when they do it on the potty!! If you dont get any joy for a couple of hours then you could offer a reward if they do it (they did a phone call to thomas the tank engine on the programm as that was the child's favourite character!!) just get a friend to help out!! Hope this helps hun as he says its pretty much guarateed way of sorting it out if they are old enough (they said over 18 months at least so your LO should be fine) Good luck xxxx

Have you let her run round without anything covering her bottom half? When my daughter was learning if she had an accident or skids then we'd let her spend a while without knickers because if she wore them she was more likely to be lazy whereas if she had nothing on she was more likely to want to use the potty. x

All you can really do is give it a break for a couple of weeks, with no mention of potty training what so ever, then start from scratch. It's really important not to get angry or upset with her when she does have an accident and to stick with a reward chart and treats for using the potty, focusing on when she does go rather than when she doesn't. If you're still having trouble after that then speak to your health visitor and see what they suggest. Good luck and hang in there x

Yes tried using the toilet but she won't go anywhere near it and that just starts temper tantrums at least sometimes we can get her to sit on the potty.

Have you tried using the toilet instead of a potty? My little boy wasn't interested in the potty at all, but wanted to use the toilet - he was dry in a week! x