Potty Training HELP PLEASE!!!!

My daughter (former 25 weeker) was TOUGH to potty train. I think I felt pressured because all of my friends had their kids trained and I was embarassed that Kimberly wasn't trained yet. But she was only 3 years old and yet I pushed it, and it was a huge mistake. She didn't have any of the signs of being ready to train (not peeing during naps, being bothered by wet diapers, etc). It was horribly stressful and I used to get so angry and frustrated that I would almost lose my mind. We finally used rewards and a timer and each time she would go she would get a reward. We kept a little potty in the playroom so that she didn't have to stop playing to leave the room to go. Kind of gross, but effective. I would make her sit there while she watched shows sometimes just to see if she would go. It took a few months and then she was daytime trained. I thought we were finally there.... then she would have multiple accidents for a couple weeks and we would have to start the training over. She would be good for a month and then have a week of accidents.
Anyway, it probably took 6 months to get her fully trained and at 5.5 years she is still wearing pull-ups at night. She's a heavy sleeper and nothing seems to wake her up.

And on the flip-side, my son pretty much potty trained himself at 2.5 years old. One day he tried going in the potty and we rewarded him. It took about 2 months until he was completely trained (night time too). But he had showed the signs he was ready so I think that made a HUGE difference. He still had a few accidents in the beginning, and will occassionaly have one now but nothing serious.

Oh, by the way. Because my daughter was so much harder to train we used pull-ups a lot. I don't know if that made it take longer or not. I used them with my son too, and he had fewer accidents and therefore we got rid of them earlier with him. So consider that if you are thinking about going the pull-up route,. If the wet underpants bother her than I would skip the pull-ups because she will be more likely to react if she goes in her underwear. If nothing bothers her (wet or dirty underwear/pull-up/whatever) than the pull-up might just help you avoid the messes more.

Good Luck!
Jackie

I have three kids and each kid is different in potty training. My first took forever. One week before preschool started I got desperate and just took away the tv until he went on the potty. It worked. My daughter was a breeze. She was trained in a day. As for my littlest, we are doing potty training right now. I don't use pullups. I put him in underwear. I rewarded him with gum to pee pee. We had two accidents a day for the first two days then he mastered that. Now I am struggling to get him to poop in the potty. I have tried everything. I am spending more money in underwear I am throwing away then I was in diapers. I tried the little potty by the tv. He will sit there all day but won't poop until he has his underwear on. I am so frustrated!! My house smells like poop from cleaning up his messes!! I don't know what to do!!