Does anyone have potty training tips for girls?

Erin - posted on 08/31/2009

Thanks for all the tips Martina! I will try all of your ideas!

Jessi - posted on 08/30/2009

My daughter has started to potty train herself. She has been coming into the bathroom with me for a while now. One day she told me she had to go poo-poo, so I took her into the bathroom and she went!!! :) I went and bought a potty chair the next day. I don't push her, though I do ask frequently if she needs to go potty. Most of the time if she says yes, she will go. I will also take her in and let her sit on her chair if I am going potty. I give her a sticker when she goes and put one on a chart on the wall. I also tell her good job for trying if she doesn't go, but she doesn't get a sticker. We have been doing this for almost a week now. I am very pleased with her progress and it has not been stressful for either of us. I know they are all different, so I wish you luck!!! :)

Martina - posted on 08/28/2009

I have started to sit my daughter Julia on the potty when she was 7 months old and she was able to sit on her own. I sat her on the potty in the morning, before and after nap and before bedtime. I know it might sound crazy, but I was potty trained when I was 18 months old, so I went with my mom advice! Anyhow, she is 20 months old and she has been in her underwear for several weeks. She still wears the diaper at night but we are working on it. Anyways, I started with the books. I would read to her while she was sitting on the potty until she went. Make it fun, and when she goes reward her with candy or cookie. I tried to push Julia when she was 18 months old, and she wasn't ready... she knew the concept but she wasn't ready. So, if you know when your daughter usually has a BM sit her on the potty around that time... you need to not just potty train but you need to train the bladder and the bowel. Two different things. I am sure she likes her dolls, make it fun, and pretend that her baby doll goes potty and then reward the baby doll with candy and your daughter too, just to show her that her baby doll is doing a great job. It will take time and patience. Then when she goes reward her and tell her what a great job she has done. I with my daughter now, if she doesn't go i won't reward her, because she plays with me because she wants a treat. So be careful here! Anyways, back to tips, so I have cleared my calendar for a week when I started to potty train Julia, so we would stay consistent for a few days. I would ask her every few minutes if she needed to go... also make sure she gets enough fluids so she feels the urge to go. She will start associating the urge with needing to go. Be on top of her, you might even feel like you are the old tape repeating yourself over and over. Few days into it, and I believe she should do well... I take the potty chair everywhere I go now... but the first few days I tried to stay at home. It took me a day to potty train her. But if your daughter doesn't show much improvement she might not be ready. Hope I could help...

Erin - posted on 08/26/2009

I know me and my husband both work full time and I'm due with baby #2 in Dec. so it will be fun. Good luck to you guys too!

Jen - posted on 08/26/2009

Quoting Erin:

Thanks Jen. Yeah I'm not pushing her. I think she's not ready yet. She did it yesterday morning, probably cuz it was new and fun. Now she wants nothing to do with it. Or she'll say she has to go and sit for 1 second and off she runs. Ughhh we will wait and see.

Mine sits there for about 20 mins. before she goes. She'll sit on the potty and play with her bath toys. She pees in pull ups like they were diapers so when I start training her fully we're doing away with the pull ups and using cloth trainers and panties. Our problem is mostly consistency because we both work and she's goes to day care during the day. After we move and get settled I'm going to try to take a weekend a train her. Good luck.

Erin - posted on 08/26/2009

Thanks Jen. Yeah I'm not pushing her. I think she's not ready yet. She did it yesterday morning, probably cuz it was new and fun. Now she wants nothing to do with it. Or she'll say she has to go and sit for 1 second and off she runs. Ughhh we will wait and see.

Jen - posted on 08/26/2009

I always back off if my daughter tells me she doesn't want to sit on the potty. They say the quickest way to train is just put them in underwear and teach them that they have to go in the potty not their underwear. We're going to try this strategy in a few weeks as we're in the middle of moving right now and we don't want to stress her out. lol. I'm a firm believer of trial and error. If one strategy doesn't work we try another until we find what our daughter likes best.