Toilet Training (Part 2): The Curse of the Big Girl Potty

Posted on Jan 12, 2010 by 2 Comments

potty2

As mentioned in yesterday’s post about the 3 day potty training method, my daughter is now obsessed not with going on her own small potty, but on the actual toilet in our house, which she calls the “big girl potty.” While this sounds great and eventually will be, there are a few hiccups along the way.

My problem with this has been two fold. First, selfishly, I’m hugely pregnant and lifting her on and off that potty is exhausting, not to mention the effort it takes to get up off the floor if I actually make it down there in the first place to help you do her business.

And second, it requires that I actually help her through the entire process when I would much prefer her to learn how to do it on her own. I like her to depend on me for some things – it makes me feel both needed and appreciated as a mom – but I don’t want her to be dependent on me for things that she can learn to do independently. I feel like it’s my role to get her use her own wings to fly, so to speak. So, lesson learned: do not have discernibly different potties, have multiples of the EXACT same potty.

I should also mention that the few times we used pull ups, thinking erroneously that they’d help this whole process along after the intensive process. Sophie couldn’t feel the pee as easily (by design) and that prompted more accidents when she wasn’t wearing pull ups. Now we simply travel with a potty and have learned where the potties are around the city.

She does, however, still wear a diaper at night and seems to be OK with that. The diaper at night does not seem to be interfering with her using the potty during the day.

Now for the poop part. Pooping is a whole different can of worms. The sensation between pooping and peeing is different, as we all know now, but seems to be confusing for little ones. Pooping, for Sophie, causes much anxiety so she waddles around lifting one leg then the other trying to see what’s going on down there.

Lots of stooping to see what’s coming out. Lots of leg lifting. Lots of distressed whining. I suppose I should ply her with apple juice and prunes to get things moving smoothly, now that I think about it…

Anyway, the moral of this story is that peepee and poopoo are two entirely different things. So far, after the 4 days we’ve got pee pee down pat, with only the fewest of accidents when she gets too excited or involved with something she is doing to stop and pee.

As for pooping, we make numerous (and I mean many many many many) trips to the potty before any success. It’s stressful for all involved. Hopefully we’ll get there soon.

photo credit: GoonSquadSarah

Posted in: Baby Stuff, Parenting
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Kate

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Comments

  • Michelle

    I loved this…thanks! I am trying to train my very ready 19 month old to use the potty but am having much more trouble with her than I did with my now 3 year old. I was reading around and found this 3 day method that I had never heard of before. Do you think it really works? Not that I necessarily need her trained in 3 days…I’m just looking for a general system to see if it works for her. I was hesitatnt to buy the $25 download not knowing anyone who has actually tried it.
    Thanks!!!

  • admin

    Hi Michelle,

    The 3 day training method does work, but I think your kid jas to be ready for it. Our daughter had been expressing interest in the potty for some time and when we used the three day method on her it worked great. Her friend who went through the three day potty training marathon with her, however, did not take to it and reverted back to diapers.

    Also be aware that it’s not a foolproof method – there will still be some accidents here and there after the three days are over. And some kids will regress a few months later.

    I will say you don’t have to go out and spend $25 on the three day method download. There’s a good description of it here and that’s all the info we needed to train my daughter. Good luck!