Am I expecting too much from my 2 yr old?

Ellen - posted on 05/08/2012

pull up are not good just buy underwear and tell her she learns to do potty she can wear underwear let her pic out her underwear.days of the week worked for my daughter all the pretty colors. diapers or underwear, she wont like the feel of wet on her skin.

Saira - posted on 11/01/2010

i my 27m is just starting, my doc said that most children are age 3 before potty trained. so dont worry. my son has good days and then days where its like we never started its frustrating but keep at it

Amy - posted on 11/01/2010

I trained my boy doing that "3 day potty training method" where once you start, all diapers, pull ups, etc. are in the garbage.... So there's no confusion, and yes a lot of accidents happen.... ♥ Now that I'm facing training my 2yr. old daughter, I'm not sure I'll use that method. She seems very resistant to the potty right now.....
But as far as accidents, I know many moms who give cold showers for the times when you KNOW your child knows what they are doing..... Just being lazy or too busy to stop and take care of their poop or pee. It only takes a couple times..... Good luck!

Amy - posted on 10/28/2010

oh my gosh, my daughter is the same way... only she does NOT want to go on the potty. when she was about 18-19months she would go on the potty almost all the time... then we moved from louisiana to new york. since then it's back in the diapers/ pullups. she is a brilliant child. she too has an amazing vocab, even speaks some spanish, chinese and sign language, knows her alphabet and numbers.... but she will not go on the potty!!! every now and then she will go after me sitting with her in the bathroom for like 20 minutes, but she just doesn't want to. we tried all kinds of pull ups, the ones that feel wet, the ones that have a cooling sensation... i even tell her "don't pee pee on the princess, she'll get boo boo's" and nothing works. i put regular underwear on her underneath a pull up thinking she wouldn't like that feeling.. but it doesn't even seem to bother her. i've tried the reward system too... with everything.. goldfish to eat- even let her put one in the potty to swim with her pee. tried stickers and even cookies... nothing works! and worst of all... she would go on the potty for the baby sitter the couple times i had her watch my daughter. she just won't go for me!

Kylie - posted on 10/07/2010

my First son was the same. at the age of 20 months he could tell me which colours were which what shapes were what and recognize numbers up to 10. He was also an early walker talker etc....
so i just assumed he would be early in toilet training and started him before he was 2. didnt work out that way the more i pushed him the more he didnt want to do it, so i just let him wear nappies. 3 months before his 3rd birthday he toilet trained himself literally in a week he had no accidents and after 2 weeks he went to bed in jocks has never wet the bed. let them do it in their own time and dont push them is my suggestion :)

Brandee - posted on 10/05/2010

My advise is to not use the pull ups.. Put her in cotton underwear only, especially during the day.. I used the 3 day potty training for my son at 22 months.. My son still has accidents.. He does great at school. Usually an accident on Monday, but then none all day the rest of the week.. Then on the weekends he does fine on Saturdays cause we are usually away from home.. Then on Sundays when we stay around the house he does not go to the potty to pee.. He has pooped in the potty since day 2 of potty training though.. Thank goodness.. We tried cotton underwear at night, but he couldn't hold it that long and I was tired of getting up every single night, so we do use nighttime pull ups (but not regular diapers).. I suggest you get rid of the pull ups during the day because they are too much like a diaper.. You could also try rewards (praise, candy, stickers, etc) everytime she goes potty for a while.. Make it a big deal.. She will do it again and again to get your positive attention.

Tisha - posted on 09/28/2010

I'm having the same issue with one of my twins. He's incredibly smart (counting to 10, knows most of the alphabet, will point to letters he recognizes and say them aloud, knows 100+ ASL signs) and he showed signs of potty training readiness at 10 months old, when he started taking off his own diaper because it was wet or poopy. Since then it's been trial and error for us. He knows when he has to go to the bathroom, because he'll tell us "no poop, wet" etc, but is reluctant to use the potty. What we just figured out is that the potty is probably uncomfortable for him. We just realized that if he sits on it for even a minute, it leaves red marks on him. So we're searching for a potty chair or a potty seat that's cushioned. In the meantime, what we started doing (which has worked so far) is giving him money each time he uses the potty. It teaches him counting, as well as being an incentive, and he learns early on how to manage his money. When he went to the store with my husband the other day, he decided he wanted to buy Spiderman underwear. He counted the money out for the cashier and was so proud. When he got them, we explained to him that Spiderman doesn't like to be pooped or peed on, so he'd have to use the potty. Today he wore his Spiderman underwear and only had 1 accident (we couldn't get him out of the high chair fast enough) and racked up 6 dollars using the potty. When he had his accident he immediately started saying and signing "sorry" to us. We reassured him that it's okay, and next time just try to tell us a little earlier so he can use the potty and get more money. That calmed him down, and took some of the stress of potty training off of him, I think. I think the underwear worked so well because they feel drastically different than diapers, or even training pants. For right now he's in diapers at night, but that's about to change. They sell cotton training pants at Target that have a waterproof outside and are washable/reusable and soon he will be using only those and regular underwear. I think it's unrealistic to expect them to NEVER have an accident, especially at 2, but if MOST goes in the potty, I would count that as a success. I think seeing every accident as a failure to potty train puts too much pressure on kids and sends them the wrong message. We take more of a "errorless learning" approach to it, and it has seemed to take some of the stress of potty training off of him. Oh, and at night we're going to put prefolds or cloth diaper pocket liners in his cotton training pants to have more absorbancy at night.

Nichola - posted on 09/27/2010

My son trained pretty quick like in a couple weeks but he does still have the occasional accident normally at night or if we are playing hard. I dont think they go fully with out any accidents at all untill they are closer to kindegarden age and even then I have friends with kids who still have accidents at night so it will all depend on your kid. just let her do it at her own time and she will get to that point where she doesnt need diapers at all...you will just need a extra set of clothes with you:-) good luck

Beth - posted on 09/17/2010

She actually sounds like she is right on track. I think a lot of people rush to say they their kids are potty trained, when really they still wear diapers at night and have occasional accidents. My daughter is 2 years, 2 months old and I've just started taking her out places with panties instead of a pull-up. She is often dry through the night, but not always. I babysit a two and a half year old who is great during the day (can't remember the last time she had an accident), but she almost always wets her diaper during her nap and at night. So I'd say as frustrating as it is, just be patient :)

Katie - posted on 09/09/2010

my 6yo daughter was the same! she was smart as paint but when it came to toilet training (we started at 2 and a half) she just didn't get it, and she didn't care, she would wee wherever and not bother trying to go. I gave up after 2 weeks and waited a little longer. Eventually she was trained but she was colser to 3yo. Good luck, does she attempt to get to the toilet when she needs to go? at least that would be something to show you should keep trying. My son is 2 and I have just started putting him on the toilet at bath time (hasn't done anything tho) I think i will wait till he takes the initiative and wants to go b4 i try to train him.

Tracey - posted on 09/08/2010

maybe she just isn't totally ready yet. Every child is different for when they can do (or want to do) things. I don't think it;s that big of a deal :) she will get it in time.