[blparent] Potty Training Gone Wrong

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

Hi, all.  I'm back again with another question.  I'm so glad I have this list of people to talk to.  Sarah and I are having no luck with the potty training thing.  I went back through the archives but couldn't find any other posts that really dealt with our situation.

I got Sarah a video about potty training months ago, and she loves it.  I got two potty chairs, one for upstairs and one for downstairs, and she explored them thoroughly and sat on them a few times, first with clothes on and then with her diaper off.  I let her watch me use the toilet, and then flush it and see the water go down.  We talked about hand washing, which she loves, and how she's a big girl now and it's time to move on from diapers.  So far so good.

Then we picked out big girl underpants at the store so she could be just like Mom, and we hit the mother of all roadblocks.  We really talked up the underpants, and Sarah was excited when she wore her first pair.  But when she wet herself, she freaked out and started crying.  I told her it was no big deal, that we would just change her clothes and move on, but that if she got a feeling in her tummy again, she should tell me so we could go sit on the potty.  She wet herself several more times, and got more hysterical with each accident.  Finally, she said she didn't want to pee anymore, and she refused to wear big girl underpants.

Back to diapers we went, and I wasn't worried.  I figured I'd let it ride for a few days and try again.  But every time I've suggested putting on big girl underpants, she cries and says she wants to stay in diapers.  In other areas, she's proud to be a big girl--she drinks out of big girl cups and sleeps in a big girl bed.  But I guess she scared herself when she wet her pants, and she's stuck on that.

Any suggestions?  Do I quit for now and try in a few months?  Is there anything I can do to make training more positive?  (I've tried giving her a sucker for sitting on the potty, but she's so turned off by it now that even that doesn't work.)

Thanks,
Jo Elizabeth


"Some people see things as they are and ask why.  I dream things that never were and ask why not."--Robert F. Kennedy