My 3 year old girl wont potty train

Therese - posted on 07/12/2011

My son is now 12 years old but thought I would share my thoughts on potty training and what i went through. My son was not potty trained until 3 and a half years old. I thought he would be the only child in the world never to be potty trained!!! I am serious. I had to send him to a preschool that accepted children still in diapers and found out that almost all of the other children were not potty trained either!! this made me feel a little better. (it's more common than you think) anyway, i tried the naked thing, the putting him on a potty,etc. Nothing worked until one day he just would tell me that he had to go potty and he did. yes, he still had accidents but i always kept two sets of clothes in the car. I remember once we just got to the park and he had an accident in his pants. I did not scream at him or anything I just told him that it was okay and that one day he will be fine. Just to let you know he had to wear pull-ups at bedtime for a very long time after he was potty trained. I mean like until he was in 1st grade. The pediatrician assured me that this was absolutely normal as his bladder muscles still had to mature in order for him to stay dry during the night. He made me feel that is was okay that my son was still wearing a pull up at night. He told me that it is very common but just that people don't talk about this. I would always have my son go to the bathroom before bed and eventually he did not wet the bed anymore. I feel your pain because as i said before i thought my son would be the only person not to be potty trained!!! Thanks to my great pediatrician he alleviated my fears. hope this helped.

THEODORA - posted on 07/08/2009

yessss!After all what i'm reading,we can make a circle of desperate mums with potty trainning!!

My son is 3 yrs old and 2 months....and i'm in the process of potty training.Some time he goes to the potty,most times he has accidents.

I started having him naked...after a week of efforts i bought him a book(story:another child that mother tries to potty training him and at the end the child achieves the big target.)i believe we will make it happen.

Lyndsey - posted on 07/07/2009

My daughter is 3 on monday. We potty trained her last Christmas at nearly 2 and a half. It wasn't easy but she got the message after a couple of weeks after several accidents! She has been brill for the past 6 months with barely many accidents but in the past few weeks has stopped telling me when she wants to pee and just does it in her pants. I've tried everything - treats, punishments, threatening to put nappies back on (which she refuses) and she just keeps saying 'don't know' when I ask her why she didn't ask for the toilet! Arghhh! I'm just trying to ignore it now and hopefully it's just a phase she will get bored with! Good luck everyone, this is the hardest thing I have encountered so far as a Mummy! x

Tanya - posted on 07/05/2009

oh wow, i so thought i was the only one with this problem. My 3 yr old son wont wear undies and is no where near potty trained...he even has loder brothers who are encouraging him but to no avail..my other boys were so easy to train but Ryan wont have a bar of it

Sandy - posted on 07/04/2009

My daughter will be 3 in mid-july and will occasionally tell me when her diaper is "soggy" or "stinky", but if I try to set her on the potty (which I have 3 choices thinking it would help), she screams like I'm abusing her or something! Every once in a while i can get her to sit and even pee on the toilet, but have decided not to extremely push it until she doesn't scream anymore.

Stephanie - posted on 06/30/2009

Ya my son hates the toilet and underwear. I have a 8 month old baby girl and cant afford both there diapers. He refuses will all his might to potty train and waits until i just put the diaper back on him. I ask him if he wants to be a big boy and he says no. He says he like peeing in his diaper. I dont know what to do....and candy doesnt work either...im going to try a potty chart this summer...ill let you know if it works!

Eveliene - posted on 06/22/2009

same here! my daughter does not go until she has a diaper on to go to sleep in the afternoon, and her diaper is so full then! and she does it again with the diaper at night!

when she is not at school and not asleep, she is wearing shorts, but she uses the potty-thing to get attention from everybody but the potty stays empty!!!

she knows how to because she already went a few times on the potty!

Rose - posted on 06/20/2009

I also have a 3 year old son! And boy i'm having trouble having him to go potty! i have 2 older girls. and they were easy to potty train. but my son is giving me hard time. esp. training pants are expensive. he'll sit on the toilet but not do anything. one day he stuck his foot in the toilet bowl.. crazy boy!!

Lindsay - posted on 06/15/2009

I stayed home for about a week and let my son run around naked. After a couple of accidents, he was really getting upset about peeing on himself and decided he'd use the toilet. He didn't wear underwear for nearly the first year of being potty trained, and only recently will let me wear them. It didn't hurt anything to let him go without underwear, and it kept him peeing on the toilet.

Mikki - posted on 06/14/2009

I am so glad there are other moms out there who understand what I am going through... My son will be 3 in Sept and he says he loves his pull up and cries whenever I put him on the potty... If you get any good advice I would love to hear it!!

Lisa - posted on 06/13/2009

hi my son is nearly 3 and is still not potty trained he uses the potty occasionaly but not all the time. I found is easier to train my daughter who is now 6 all i done was stay in for the weekend and let her run round with no pants on i put her potty in front of the telly and she would sit on it watching her favorite program and if she done something in it i would praise her she was done by the monday of the next week.

Irul - posted on 06/03/2009

guess what?! i havent start my 3-year-old on potty training. i'm leaving the decision to potty train entirely to her to decide. im sure....eventually she'll picked up the idea that wearing a diaper is baby-ish since she's attending school. first, she's kicked the habit of drinking milk in her bottle in class and i assumed peer pressure will then motivate her to potty train....take it easy ya. :) im not at all worried.....

Abbie - posted on 05/26/2009

I hear ya, my daughter was 3 in March and our potty training progress is going slowly too! I hear a lot of people saying not to put too much pressure on a child because that only compounds the problem. Your daughter is not weird, she is just a cautious learner!

April - posted on 05/23/2009

i am currently potty training my daughter and she has her days where she wants panties then a pullup then nothing.. I let her choose but i find that letting her go in her birthday suit sometimes is easier it just requires a little more watching.. I also try to get her to go to the bathroom and sit on her potty whenever i go ,so she can see that its a normal part of life..I don't think your daughter is weird its just new to her...my daughter gets a kick out of flushing the toilet for some reason so i only let her flush if she uses her potty or the big potty..that seems to be helping with us.. maybe try making up some kind of silly song and dance about wearing panties ro using the potty, i know it sounds like a weird idea but when they see you at their level they tend to relax a little bit...oh maybe try going to the store and letting her pick out some panties with her favorite character or design on them and that might make her feel a little better about wearing them..my daughter loved picking out dora panties and couldn't wait to get home and put them on...well i'm not the best at giving advice, but i hope this helps...

Colleen - posted on 05/23/2009

ok so everyone says girls are different and i agree .i say let her run with nothing on a few hours a day shell get the point!!i remember when my oldest girl [now16]was3 i had a really hard time with it so thats what i did.it dose not sound to good to do but i think it works. i feel for ya...

Sally - posted on 05/22/2009

talk of underwear mine have now been listed as not useful, he will take them off immediately you are thruogh putting them on, so i think its just the age and nothing wrong with ur princess.

Diane - posted on 05/21/2009

my son is 3 and was potty trained last Summer (2½ years old). I think it's very individual. The best way is not to pressure your child. She will potty train when she is pyschologically ready. The more distress you are, the more she will resist. Also, if she's not in daycare yet, she probably cannot compare what other children her age are already doing cos this could help set some kind of "peer pressure" on her to want to do the same, to be part of the pack.

The best time to potty train is also probably during Summer, when it is warm and humid. This is what I did with mine. I stripped him off any diapers. Let him run around bottomless. He'll feel nice and cool and yes, accidents happened but he got distressed when he saw his poo on the floor and learned from it the next time round. Good luck!

Alison - posted on 05/21/2009

I assume she is not in daycare if she is not yet potty trained. Having older girls around could help. Have you tried putting her on the big toilet like mommy? Some kids may prefer that. The good new is that it will most likely be super quick once she makes up her mind. Good luck!!!

Ashleigh - posted on 05/20/2009

I had a wonderful time with my first daughter, she's seven now. But what I think helped was that once she was two and it was warm out, I put a potty in the living room and I let her run naked (with close watch of course)! And she was potty trained in a week. I think it really helped because she realized that having a diaper full up against her all the time wasn't so great. We had no problems after that. Now my second daughter she'll be three in September, she was a little harder. We just kept trying and trying. What we did with her was just put her in underwear and told her that even her big sister wears underwear. So it might help to get an older girl that she loves and looks up to and tell her that that girl wears underwear. She had a few accidents but we just kept changing her everytime she peed her pants and reminded her that that wasnt was big girls do and it feels yucky and she got over it. She was potty trained in about three weeks. Also, reward the good times and try not to focus on all the bad ones. Everytime she goes to the potty give her a little m&m or something tiny. She'll love the attention and realize that the potty is a good thing. Good luck and I hope that helps a little.

Jennifer - posted on 05/20/2009

Some kids you have to make it thier idea. My friends daughter was that way. She was nearly four before she was trained and is a precousous, intellagent, overall pleasent child. She was just being stubborn when it came to potty training. When my friend finally through up her hands in frustration and basically said fine I give up and put her back in diapers her daughter suddenly wanted to wear underware and be trained. She put her off a few weeks and basically refused to let her until the battle went the other way and the daughter REALLY wanted to wear underwear, then she trained almost overnight. My poor friend was so exhausted over it. But then her son turned out to be the same way and so she started with the refusals and telling him he couldn't train, he was too little, not ready, etc and it was a lot eaiser process.

My son trained fairly eaisly at about 2 1/2 but I set him up with underware in his drawer months before we even started and told him everytime he showed intrest in it that he couldn't wear them until he was old enough to potty train and keep them dry and clean. When he was about 26/27months he woke up from nap one day and insisted he was old enough to potty train. I though I'd humor him and let him wear them, he kept them dry the rest of the day. He went a little over a week doing terrific and then changed his mind and and so I said fine and stopped putting them on him. When he was 2 1/2 we set a date to begin training (after we returned home from a family trip) and talked it up. He started wearing underwear that day (because he was "old enough") and went through about two weeks training and he has been wearing underware ever since (about 6 months basically acciden free). I realize I've gotten wordy just trying to give some ideas and be encourageing. It will happen, just harder with some kids then others!

Julia - posted on 05/16/2009

I wont even bother putting undies on my little man. As soon as i put them on him he will pee in them. Of course I think he does it on purpose sometimes.

Your daughter is not weird it just takes time. I feel ya though. I wish the potty training process was just a little easier on us mom's.

Nidia - posted on 05/16/2009

We are in the same problem too. My son hate the underwear, when I try, he cry cry and cry. I'm frustrated!!

Ramona - posted on 05/15/2009

Quoting Ramona:

We are in the same boat my son will be 3 on May 31. He goes when he gets ready and I am tired of having to by pull up and pampers because I have 5 month all. Boys are much harder. I always here mothers who have daughters say it's much easier to train. I guess not.

Ramona - posted on 05/15/2009

We are in the same boat my son will be on May 31. He goes when he gets ready and I am tired of having to by pull up and pampers because I have 5 month all. Boys are much harder. I always here mothers who have daughters say it's much easier to train. I guess not.