How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

DD turned 2 in December. Still in diapers

We've put her on the potty a handful of times if she woke up dry. So she has peed on the potty 2 or 3 times in the past month. The problem is she never tells us she has to pee or poop and won't tell tell us she went in her diaper. Constantly we have to check her diaper still. Now she says she doesn't want to use the potty and gets upset at the mere suggestion of it.

We have baby #2 coming in a month and I'd love to not have 2 in diapers but I don't want to push too much on her at one time.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

I just got my dd potty trained at 27 months by doing the 3 day method. She wasn't telling us she had to go or that her diaper was wet either. I just decided to try. She got the peeing on the potty within 3 days but the telling me she had to go came within a few days after that. I didn't see any "signs" just figured she can talk, and she's pretty smart so I tried. To my surprise it was pretty easy! I highly recommend the 3 day method! If she's not getting by day 3 then you can stop and know she's really not ready.

How do you know if your child is

You can try, but it's very common for kids to regress when a major change occurs--like a new baby. So even if you train her now there's a chance it won't stick.

How do you know if your child is

We did the 3 day with dd1 at 25 months, two months after dd2 was born. I also highly recommend it. She might regress when #2 arrives, but I would take the chance - you won't have the time or energy to train for a while once #2 is born. I was only able to do it because I had a full time nanny with me for the 3 days! IMO training younger is easier than training when they are older - they don't know to fight you yet. Good luck!

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

I'm a firm believer in 'they're ready when THEY'RE ready, not when you are'

If she doesn't want to go on the potty, isn't telling you when she's gone in her diaper etc. then IMO she's not ready and you'll just do more harm that good by trying to force it on her now.

How do you know if your child is

I would try the 3 day method. We did it with DS when he was about 26-27 months old. He was trained in 2 days and even nighttime.

I have the opposite view on when to do it. If I waited until by DS told me he'd be ready he would be going off to school in a diaper. He would never tell us, if we tried to get him on the potty he would dig and be as stubborn as could be. I just said this weekend works for our schedule and put him in underwear.....he fought it for the first bit but then was going right along with the plan

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

How do you know if your child is

Definitely try to 3 day method. Worked for us!

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

i would not push it at this point with your new baby coming. we are in the same boat. she is starting to self train, it seems. but she's also over 3yo.

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

How do you know if your child is

What exactly is the 3 day method? I've heard it talked about on here but not exactly sure I did a google search and some of the stories I read online sounded a little extreme...

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

Would you mid sending me the 3 day method as well...or at least tell me where to find the details. Is it a book?

Thanks!

Message edited 1/31/2015 12:37:57 PM.

How do you know if your child is

I think my daughter was ready before I was! I wasn't ready for accidents everywhere and to be honest, I thought diapers were just so much easier. She started showing signs when she would tell me she was going pee pee and complaining that her diaper was bothering her. Kept her naked in the house for the first couple days. I found if I put her in undies at first, she would have accidents. It just clicked with her and wasn't a struggle... I'm glad we didn't follow a strict schedule. We were both less stressed and she was completely trained (both pee and poop) within a week. Oh and she trained at 32 months.

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

The 3 day can be simple. Especially if you have wood floors. It works best for 28 months and younger! My dd would still be in diapers not telling me anything if I didn't push it. I don't think it was tramatizing at all for her.

I actually started day one and part of day 2 with the potty in living room. I put towels down wherever she was, but tried to keep her contained to the one room. I had lots of rewards stickers, chocolate etc.

I took off her diaper and pants. Do not use underwear. (It can feel like a diaper in the beginning). She was bare on the bottom until day 4 when we went bowling.

You can't wait for them to tell you. You have to keep putting them on. Have them drink lots of water/juice so they have to go.

On day 2 I actually put dd on the potty and got a bowl of water for her to play with. She then went "by accident" got her reward and began going on the potty after that! I used the bowl of water trick a few times. Or ran the sink water if we were in the bathroom.

Also, every time I had to go potty she came with me. By day three she wanted to only use the big potty.

I put her in diapers at night bc I am preg and working and exhausted! Lol so I wasn't about waking up in the middle of the night to change sheets! She had no problem with this. As soon as she woke up her diaper came off and she went potty. She's a month in, and we no longer use diapers at night!

The beginning of day two I wanted to give up! I didn't because I commited to 3 days! I'm sooooooo glad I didnt! I totally believe in the 3 day method now!!

Re: How do you know if your child is "ready" for potty training?

I'm another huge fan of the 3 day method. My Dd was completely trained in the 3 days and the only thing I did different was I didn't put the little potty in the bathroom. I put it where she could easily get to it. I took every single diaper I had including swim diapers and put them in a garbage bag and in my car to give to a friend. A lot of my friends said they would never do the 3 day method bc they found it extreme as someone said before, but I found it effective.

For naps and overnights, I used those training undies, they are regular undies but with a thicker cotton in the crotch area.

For my DD I think what did it was the fact that as long as she had the diapers, she didn't care about going on the potty bc she had diapers. Once they were gone, that was it. I had a laundry basket full of undies and told her one day that the diaper fairy came and left all of these cool undies for her. She was so excited!

The 3 days weren't easy, but they worked. I think what also really worked was giving her massive amounts to drink so she had no choice but to go and she couldn't hold it!

Poop took a couple of days longer. She had an issue with holding her poop months before potty training, so we had to deal with that, but within a couple days she was doing it on the potty and had no issues with it since. It was the best thing for her to get trained. We dealt with her holding poop for almost a year.

Good luck. I thought it was going to be the hardest thing ever, but it really wasn't. My DD was 3 yrs 3 months.