My 2 1/2 Year Old Will Do "Number 2" in the Potty but Not "Number 1" - Florence,AZ

My daughter did #2 in the potty first as well and would tell me when she had to pee while peeing in her pull up or pantys. At three I erolled her in preschool and with in the first week she was fully potty trained. We just kept working at it.

Don't stress yourself or her. It WILL happen when she's ready, not when your ready.
I suggest keeping pull-ups on her, and let "Mother Nature" do the rest.
I have 4 children ages 2,11,17& 20.
I also had a home daycare for 10yrs. and trained alot of kids.
In the beginning I was trying to hard to get them potty trained because I thought it would be easiest for me.After many accidents on my carpet I had no choice but to keep every one in Pull-ups and the stress level went way down and guess what!? Every one of them eventually trained them selves.
The girls usually did it between 2 to a little over 2 1/2 years where the boys were usually right at 3 yrs.
Every child is different. My own daughter trained herself at 2. However, for what ever reason around about 2 months later she decided she wouldnt poop in the toilet for approximately 9 months. She would go put a diaper on, stand behind a chair and go. Now, that was frustrating!
Hope this helps.
P.

I think your daughter is perfectly normal and the other moms got it backwards... bowel training comes first.

I used to sit with my boys every couple of hours and either read a short story with them to relax them, or i would talk to them. granted, i didn't have such a busy schedule as you do, but it does take patience and persistence. also, it helps if she sees others her age go to the potty too. she may not make the relation between the potty and the timing of it. be persistent and consistent. she will get the hang of it. good luck sis!

The average age for children to be fully potty trained is 36 months, your little one is actually doing well. Keep it light and positive, be patient it will happen in her time. Consider yourself lucky you don't have to change poopy pants.

Mine was typical in she went #1 first and it was harder to get her to go #2.

She started to get trained at about 2 1/2 or 3 but after a weekend at grandmas it was all over. She just stopped going in the potty! Shed tell us she had to pee AFTER she had gone. I was getting NOWHERE.

5 weeks ago I had had enough. My daughter is 3 1/2 and I decided it was beyond time for this to happen. I put up "lauras potty chart" I just drew a grid on a piece of paper and drew underwear, toiletpaper, a sink,a potty, etc in the margins. The plan was that when she went pee or poo, she got a star sticker she could put on the chart HERSELF every time she went(1 for pee, 2 for poo... you should do it the other way around)I then put her in UNDERWEAR! with a plastic cover. She would also get a lollypop each time she filled up 7 boxes with stars. There were LOTS of accidents but overall, it was working...for the first 2 lollypops. Then she just started doing it sporadically.

Then I decided maybe it was too long a wait for the reward. I got a fancy looking jar and filled it with M&Ms. I told her she would get the star stickers AND ONE M&M EACH TIME she went pee. (2 M&Ms for poo, but you should do it 1 for poo, 2 for pee) Believe me, one m&M is enough! AND she would still get that lollypop every 7th time. She was sneaky though. She'd pee, then stand up and be like, I have to go again (to work the system and get another m&M.) LOL Fine by me, I let her work it and get extra m*ms by peeing in the potty more times.

She really liked picking out the star sticker and putting it up herself. She LOVED the M&Ms!!!! That did the trick! After all this time, she now goes pee and poo in the potty every time. I still have to remind her first thing in the morning, or if she is real busy doing something fun she forgets, nighttime training is in progress, but overall I am thrilled.

We also have limited time at grandmas (who does not support our efforts well) She hasn't spent the night or spent substantial time there without us since early Feb!

We TAKE her potty everywhere so if she needs to go we can whip it out on the spot (along with the M*Ms.. stars stay home)

I am SO THRILLED at how incredibly well this has worked (stars, m&M and underwear) I just put her changing table (which she is WAY too big for) on craigslist. Whoo hoo!

Now, it is exhausting to do it this way with all the cleanups but the result is SO worth it. Know what? You got it easier.. there is nothing grosser than trying to figure out how to get a poop filled UNDERWEAR off. EEW... Poop filled diapers are no biggie but underwear... uggh! Nasty.

Good luck!

I've always heard that it is harder to get them to go #2 also, but all of my kids would go poopie in the potty well before they learned to go peepee. What finally worked for my oldest 2 (they are 3) was a potty watch. I set it to go off every hour and they would run in and do their thing. We got ours at pottytimeinc.com. They are fairly cheaply made, but they served the purpose nicely. You can set the time for 30, 60, and 90 min. I also stopped letting them wear diapers--since they don't like to get wet it helped as an extra incentive. My kids also really liked the "Elmo's Potty Time" DVD...

I have never potty trained a child, since my daughter is only 15 months old, so if you want to disreguard everything that I have to say you are welcome to..lol
I remember a class in psychology telling my that the average potty training age is 3 which someone has already mentioned earlier. I have also read alot about bed wetting and many people took their kids in to the doctor becuase of how frustrating it can be and their doctor said it was because their bladders are underdeveloped and not to worry because they will grow into them. I wonder if that is why some children potty train earlier and some later. It may just be harder to control it when they have to go, they may not know until they are already going...when they feel it.
good luck.
I will be looking forward to cleaning up all the messes everyone is talking about in the next couple of years..lol

I think every other mother you talked to was misinformed. The experts say they will always do #2 first. Then #1 and then nighttime. Sounds to me like she is perfectly normal so I wouldn't worry. And don't push her or it will just make it worse. Of course I have a 2 1/2 year old boy who won't even think about using a potty at all so I think you're doing great!

My daughter did the same thing. Instead of rewarding her for going potty in toilet, I rewarded her for keeping her diaper dry. I started out by giving her a reward (in our case stickers in a special little notebook for the potty worked) each time she kept her diaper dry for 2 hours. If she pooped in the potty I gave her an extra reward. Then I slowly extended the time between rewards. I had tried everything before this and my daughter was 3 1/2 at the time. Nothing had worked. Once I finally tried this it worked like a charm. I can't remember how long exactly it took, but I don't think it was more than a month or so. She had an accident or two after that when she got busy and distracted, but it wasn't much. The point is that I rewarded her for keeping the diaper dry instead of going potty (because in her case she would go sometimes, and then other times when she was busy playing she wouldn't).

Good Luck!

I did not want to have to clean up potty messes all over my house. So I decided that I would start by putting her in a pull-up and then every two hours, I would take her into the kitchen or bathroom (which is not a carpeted area) and take the pull-up off. She would play and have fun and the first few times, she peed on the floor but that was okay because it was easy to clean up. After that she would tell me that she had to go. We have a few accidents but not many.

Also, with one of my other children... she refused to potty train. At about 3 1/2 years I decided to try something that I had never done. I got 6 little containers and filled them with different types of candy. When she went potty, she got to choose what kind of reward that she wanted. She thought she was in control because she picked the reward. I'm the one that bought them and I didn't ask what she wanted though. That worked well for her.

Hope this helps,
K.

My daughter did the exact same thing, and though #2 in the potty is better, it was still very frustrating. It just took time and a TON of patience. I wish I had a better answer. My daughter knew what she had to do, she just had to decide to go #1 in the potty.

I'm in the same boat!! My daughter just turned 2 in February and has been pooping on the potty since May of last year. She'll peepee on the potty only when she poops. We've tried the cool alert pull ups and everything short of just putting her in regular undies (I think I'm not ready to clean up I admit) My daughter is too smart and knows that pull ups are just another form of a diaper. She also could care less when her older cousins use the potty-it's just another reason to play in the bathroom. Let me know if you have any success. Sorry I couldn't help, but at least your not alone!

Since she is still only 2 1/2 you can wait. Ask her. "Do you want to go pee-pee on the toilet or do you want to wear a diaper? it is your choice" Then Tell her that you would like her not to think about it now. (when you ask a child, any age not to think about something, they usually can't stop thinking about it)

Cute story:I tried training my daughter early (earlier than my boys) it was going okay, but not perfect. When my daughter was just a few months shy of 3, grandpa said to all the grandkids: "who wants to go to Costco?" when she chimed in "I do". he said, "I'm sorry i can only take the kids that are potty trained" she replied "I am!", and from that day forward she was!

Are you using pull ups or underpants? I have found that using pullups makes it harder to potty train since it feels like a diaper. I know, it stinks to have to clean up accidents, but she might do better with #1 if she actually feels wet. Also, try letting her pick out favorite panties that she won't want to mess up. One of my friends had to actually throw away several pairs in order to help her boy understand that if he pees in them, he can't wear them anymore. Good luck!! My 3 yr old (the 5th child) still won't do anything on the potty....

E.

Good for you on the #2. I know boys take longer but my son had such a hard time with #2. #1 was easy for him. If you think she can do it now, try a little incentive. When we were working on potty training, my husband bought those removeable hooks from wal-mart..the ones that stick to the wall but can be removed without damage. On those hooks, he put matchbox cars in their packages. If my son went #2, he got one. It seriously worked wonders!! And it was great for him to see his prize while sitting on the potty!
Good luck!