Comments on: The Girl Who Cried Poop

By: MarthaandMe

MarthaandMe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:20:21 +0000

I agree that it should all be about readiness. Both of my kids showed readiness, but then the readiness went away!

By: kb

kb — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:09:04 +0000

Health Freak: Two words next to each other doesn’t mean she should be in college. LOL. She’s got an older sister, and I think that helps with the language stuff.

As for being half-trained–not even close! We’re sitting on the potty all day. I wouldn’t consider her trained until she is in underwear without any accidents. So we have a ways to go…

Shari: I am right there with you! That’s why I am encouraging it! (While it drives me a little insane!)

By: Shari

Shari — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:12:43 +0000

My 2 children both trained before they turned 2. They trained differently though. My boy (still til this day at age 6) likes to hold it until the last possible minute even though he is doing the”sissy dance”, which when he was 3 sometimes resulted in what we would call a mini accident. My daughter enjoys visiting every bathroom, every where we go, even if she knows she does not have to go. While this is hard work, I have learned her bathroom schedule and as a result there are almost zero accidents. My advice to parents would be to not be afraid of training their children at the first signs of readiness. Even though while you are training it IS harder than diapers, the payoff is great because you will never have to clean a disgusting explosive diaper again!

By: health freak

health freak — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:22:05 +0000

OMG, Keira is so smart. I can’t believe she’s speaking in sentences and already half potty-trained at 16 months old! She’s one very smarty girl!

By: tracey

tracey — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:35:47 +0000

I fall into several camps. With my first son, I waited for the “signs.” He had several, was a little over 2, very mature and interested in it, so we began training. About 2 years later, he was FINALLY traned. No exaggeration.

With my second son I said “No WAY am I doing that again!” I didn’t want to train for 2 straight years so I waited till he was older (closer to 3) and had great determination that this was going to go much easier. About 1 1/2 years later (at age 4, like his brother) he was FINALLY trained.

Potty training had become a taboo topic for me. Don’t ask, Don’t Tell.

Along came my daughter. I had no plans on what to do. I was determined to be open-minded and remember that it wasn’t ME who was training, it was them. Her failures would NOT be mine.

So what did she do? She began refusing to poop in her diaper at 18 months and would get constipated. I would put her on the toilet and “help” her poop (nothing gross. We’d just make the pushing face and noises. It’s kind of embarrassing…). And. She pooped. All the time. A few months later my mom bought her princess underwear. She put them on and never took them off.

In my experience? There is no magic answer. But I DO believe that the younger they are, the less power they feel they have over their own bodies. Hence the willingness to sit upon that toilet and do what Mom tells them to do. At 2-3 they have WAY too much interest in controlling whatever they can in their lives (which isn’t much). Once they realize that they don’t “have” to use the toilet, it becomes a power play game.

Good luck. My best advice for potty training is to buy lots of towels and wine.