>Potty Training for Dummies, Part III
>As you can probably guess, squeezing my ass onto a child-sized potty and pretending to pee hasn’t really been working for me. Nor has it been working for Baby. Once or twice a day, she’ll ask to go to the potty, only to sit gingerly on its rim for a second or two, jump up, shout, “Naked Babeeeee!” and run away.
Clearly, it was time to invest in The Doll.
The idea came from my mom.
“Dr. Phil talks about this doll,” she told me. “If you use it, you can train Baby in one day. The doll actually pees into the potty! Baby will see it and understand! It costs 40-dollars, but it is so worth it!”
I thought the idea was a good one, but forty bones for a doll that pees? Puh-leeze. Only my mom, to whom The Dr. Phil Show is akin to a religious experience, would spend that kind of money.
Instead, I took Baby to Toys R Us and chose a twenty-dollar peeing doll complete with potty, wipes, and a bottle of talcum powder. We were in business!
When we got home, Baby couldn’t wait to hold her new doll, which she promptly named Potty Baby after nixing my suggestion of Little Miss Piss. I stripped Baby down to her diaper, lined up her potty next to the doll-sized potty, and began my lesson. First, Potty Baby had a bottle.
Next, Potty Baby went pee pee. Yes, she really goes pee pee. I was mightily impressed by this doll’s design, because she only “pees” when she’s sitting against the magnet inside the top of the potty seat. Who was the genius that came up with that one?
I had a little bit of trouble with Baby’s insistence on touching the pee pee. It’s all well and good now, but what if she starts trying to do this in public?
“Okay, Baby,” I said once Potty Baby had gone to the bathroom a few times. “Wasn’t that fun? Now it’s your turn! Let’s take your diaper off! Now sit down on your big girl potty!”
Happily, Baby sat down on her potty. But within seconds, she had scooted off and run into the den.
“No! I don’t like potty! I wan’ be Naked Baby!”
I’d been screwed. Again. And I was twenty dollars poorer.
Now, Potty Baby is going potty a good twenty times a day. Meanwhile, Baby’s big girl potty is collecting dust in the corner.
I might finally be losing my mind this time.
>How about reward or punishment?Go to bathroom (e.g. lock the door), sit there together and say, we will leave the bathroom when Baby goes pee pee in the potty. Or if baby goes pee pee in the potty, she gets a candy, doll or something. Stand firm on whatever reward or punishment that you suggest. Otherwise she will just think “she is going to forget in an hour and just let me play nakedbaby!”.
>she not ready 2 do it yet . kids pee in the toilet when they are ready, . why dont’ you put peepee dolly away for a while and just relax? don’t play naked baby , put the potty chair away for a couple of months, sounds like she is having a lot of fun, but just isn’t quite ready yet.
>Confession time: Even with four kids I still don’t know how to potty train a kid. I don’t think you can MAKE them go, the ball’s in their court and until they’re ready to play I just let it be.My kids were all trained by the time they were 3 1/2.
>Um, the Dr. Phil thing is way more involved than just buying the doll. Did your mom tell you that? It’s like an all day ordeal where you can’t leave the house, and there is ALOT of completely stupid and idiotic stuff you have to do. I don’t know if it works or not, but he guarantees his system of potty training….I was too busy laughing at the dumb parents wearing party hats to notice what his ‘plan’ was….good luck! When you get annoyed, remember that no one goes to kindergarten in a diaper. =)
>I stressed over this too with my first one, but because I knew by the time he was 2 1/2 that he did everything on his own damn time, I followed the books’ advice and decided to put the potty away after the first few unsuccessful attempts. We would still occasionally bring it up – “oh, won’t it be cool to wear big boy underwear once you’re using the potty”, etc., would occasionally ask if he wanted to try again, but never showed much concern (outwardly) if he didn’t. Right before he turned 3, something clicked, he decided he was interested, and SNAP! He was potty trained – he basically did it himself. Now with my second one, things are going more gradually – he is 3 and does use the potty, but we aren’t consistently in underwear and he’s approaching it more slowly. I see marked progress each week, though, and I’m convinced it much less stressful not to make it an agenda item – just to introduce it like something they might want to do, LOL. Good luck with Baby. I know it’s stressful when you feel like there’s a deadline or a goal to meet!! 🙂 Hang in there.
>Potty training is torture. I HATED EVERY minute of every day trying to get mine to do pee in the toilet and please don’t get me started on the poop. UGH! I hope you get it done and fast. Your daughter is so beautiful and adorable. There really are no words. Except to say I could squish her cheeks….
>I would have opted for Little Miss Piss.I like that name. A lot.Potty training. I don’t even want to go there. But you. You make it sound oh so damn funny.
>I would totally drop the potty subject… It’s Baby that continually brings it up. I started talking about the potty only after she started bringing it out of the bathroom and saying, “I wanna go potty.” Now, she’s very interested in her baby doll going potty. So I don’t want to put it all away when she’s the one talking about it all the time. And I’m not disciplined enough, I’m afraid, to make a big potty push and do it all in one day, like the experts say I should.Also, Sky, with all due respect, I can’t imagine making her stay in the bathroom until she goes potty. I think that would make her fear the potty for life!
>LMAO at “Little Miss Piss”!I just don’t think she’s ready. She’s a female and we all know that us women have minds of our own! LOLRYC: I’m not sure how I escaped the lice when I was younger. I mean, I could see things moving in her hair!!! I’m giving myself the willies just thinking about it.
>Also, I strongly disagree with punishment for not going to the potty.
>I think Potty Baby looks a little dehydrated and drunk. What is she drinking – beer?
>I think you should’ve punctured a hole in the “pee region” of one of those T.J. Maxx keepsake dolls your mom purchased recently. Make those your pee dolls! Take that other one back. It’s obviously not working. ;-))
>Do experts really say to do it all in one day? I’ve never heard/read that. My son’s dad wanted to potty-train the kiddo at an early age — way before the kiddo was interested. (He’s a narcissist and I think it all had more to do with his getting his self-image from the kiddo’s acomplishments or something. Ahem.) I took more of a child-led approach. Of course, the kiddo went to his dad’s house on weekends and was therefore subject to two very different approaches. Ugh. Nevertheless, I strongly believe in making it a non-issue and just checking in with the child every once in a while to see how interested he/she is. Much less stressful that way. We had a potty book that made a flushing sound, and that was fun for a long time before the kiddo ever wanted to use the potty itself. If I were you, I’d just let it go and let Baby play with the potty doll, and not talk about the potty much, if at all. Eventually she’ll become interested and you can resume training then. 🙂
>Take this with a grain of salt, since I haven’t had to potty train my boy yet. I’m a special ed preschool teacher and have done it in the classroom though. If Baby is really interested in the potty and the doll, you could start rewarding the doll for going potty. This is easier in preschool than at home since more often than not there’s a potty-trained kid on the toilet peeing right next to the kid you want to train. Anyway, pretend to give the doll Baby’s favorite candy or a sticker and make a really big deal about the doll going potty in the toilet. Don’t ask Baby to use the potty. If she asks and then just pretends just shrug and say “candy/stickers/whatever are for kids who go pee in the potty” and then drop it. Just keep repeating that if she asks for the reward and keep rewarding the doll for using the potty. If she actually pees in the potty make it the biggest deal ever. Call in other family members to make a big deal. Make her a certificate. I haven’t seen Dr. Phil but that may be where the party hats come in. This approach works a lot with kids because they aren’t getting any pressure to actually use the potty. They do it because they really want the candy/stickers/etc. Oh, this can lead to tantrums when you first introduce the idea that the reward is for using the potty and they aren’t going to get it unless they use it. I’ve done this with 3 to 5 years olds who I knew were ready for it so I didn’t feel bad about just riding out the tantrums.Cari
>My mother “claims” that we were all trained by the time we were 2. She sat us all on the potty as soon as we could sit up. Whatever mom. Baby is adorable. I love love that last picture. The time span between my oldest expressing interest and actually going pee pee in the potty was several several months! Hang in there! The good news is that she is interested in it.
>She’s a stubborn one… just keep reminding yourself that none of them go to college in a pull-up. 🙂 Someday, this too, will be funny!LBC
>I read the “potty training in one day” book, and it was horrible– scolding them if they don’t pee in the potty, and running laps back and forth from the bathroom to where they made the mistake. For what it’s worth, my girl just turned three and still isn’t potty trained, though she has used the potty off and on for the last year as her interest in it comes and goes. The pediatrician said not to make an issue of it, as a strong-willed kid will make it as big a battle as you want it to be.I can certainly sympathise, though, with sitting there next to/on the potty, waiting, while she’s into it, and then struggling to get a diaper back onto a happily naked baby.
>Now I’ve seen it all. Doll porn! I can’t wait for next month’s edition of Lucinda’s Advice Column.
>My daughter wasn’t potty trained until she was 3. She wasn’t potty trained for pooping until after that (of course, we had some major issues with poop, so that should be taken into consideration.)Anyway, my point is, she’ll be fine. Kids don’t potty train over night, and very rarely have I heard of a child being potty trained before 2 1/2. She’ll let you know when she is ready. Until then, invest in diaper stock! 🙂
>It really will be OK. Something will just click one day. Angels will sing, the clouds will break, and Baby will pee. Now, the pooping–that’s hard.
>That is really SO cute. I wanted my son out of diapers when my daughter arrived. It wasn’t going well. We were using the reward system. He would get a sticker if he went, yada yada yada. He really wasn’t interested. Then, a couple of days after his third b’day, he just said, “Okay, I’ll go in the toilet.” As if he’d enough fun at my expense and was ready to get serious. And that was that. It wasn’t training, it was a personal decision on his part. I still laugh when I think of his little voice saying that to me.
>The magnet on the back of Potty Baby’s potty is a brainstorm for the incontinent folks!! Another brilliant idea! Implant a small, nonintrusive device into the coxix (sp?) and keep the handy toilet magnet with you and you are good to go!I think I need some protein…my brain is on a sugar high!Lucinda, your daughter is a living doll!! What a sweet story. Idea–what happens with the potty if you do not allow her to be ‘naked baby’? just a thought OH, and Potty Baby seems to have a bit of insomnia.
>And, Cari’s idea about rewarding the doll is WAY brilliant! 🙂
>I had it a little easier, as Nooze is kept by one of my best friends. When Nooze was almost 2, she expressed curiousity about potty time. Rhonda responded by placing the potty in the middle of the living room and LEAVING IT THERE FOR A WEEK. Every time Nooze asked about it, Rhonda would say ‘big girls pee in it’. When Nooze went for the first time, Rhonda’s ENTIRE FAMILY stood in line, cheering her on. In the living room. Since Nooze LOVES to be the center of attention, that was it!Pooping, however, was a little tougher. That didn’t really happen until she was about 2 1/2.I know it’s frustrating, but hang in there. It will click with Baby one of these days.
>Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, potty training is the pits. I have 2 sons. My first son wasn’t potty trained until he was almost 4! 4! It was embarrasing really. Boy #2 was like almost 3 and wanted to take swim lessons with his brother and I said no because I didn’t want to buy swim diapers. BAM. He was trained. Later on when I asked him why he started going potty in the toilet he looks at me and says, “UM, cuz you stopped buying pullups?” It’s a crap shot, literally.
>Why do I keep coming back here for potty insight? Pah, at least it doesn’t cost me $20.
>I always heard that girls were easier to potty train than boys. Urban myth??
>Unfortunately, they just do it when they’re ready. Then again, I’m sitting here with a 4 year old who still crappeth his pants, so, I guess I’ll retract my platitude.
>I had a hell of a time with potty training (boys learn, very quickly, that trees and bushes and other people’s cars are an acceptable substitute for a toilet, and they will sometimes refuse to pee in the potty in favor of seeing what they might write their names on in the Great Outdoors. Or is that just my sons?).ANYway–here is what I wish I had tried: every time you, Lucinda, successfully use the potty, reward yourself with something Baby loves (M&Ms are huge at my house; for obvious reasons, a margarita is probably not a good choice, although it’s what I reward myself with for other successes). Make a big happy deal of it to Baby: “Mommy went pee pee in the potty! Mommy is going to have three (or thirty) M&Ms for going pee pee in the potty! Yummy yummy!”But here is the trick: the reward is ONLY for those who use the potty. You, Hubs, the older girls–anyone who pees in the potty. I have been told that in three days, the potty learning child will be begging to pee in the potty. I do not know if this is true, as I ate all of our M&Ms in a fit of insanity on Day Three of potty boot camp and then blacked out, only to awaken days later to a completely potty trained three-year-old.So! Good luck to you!
>Aww man, I am soo glad I read this because I just posted a call for help on my blog for potty training help. My little one refuses to sit as if there is a ring of fire on the seat. She just wants her diaper, but maybe I’ll try the doll. Thanks!
>hahahahaha!! Miss Piss rocks. Maybe that should be my new name ;-)We never did the doll thing – but we had videos, tapes and books. I done brainwashed them good.That last picture kind of scares me. Take the doll out of there … please?
>What a beautiful little girl.Now, she’s a girl, she’ll eventually figure it out how to get the pee in the toilet. My husband still gets most of the pee on the seat and the floor…
>She’s only just 2, don’t worry about it. The Toddler has just finally figured it all out – from both ends – and she’s going to be 3 in July. 2 1/2 is about the age the other two figured it out as well, although my son has bladder-control issues.Let her sit if she wants to, but don’t make a big deal out of it. She’ll go when she’s ready, and not before!
>ROFL! I am cracking up at this. I am also glad you told us about this doll – I was wondering if it would help our 2 year old. I should know though – she sees her 4 older sisters going – wouldn’t that be enough?
>You guys have some great suggestions. Thank you so much. These comments are now a great potty training resource section. I really like the idea of rewarding myself M&Ms, too! Baby LOVES chocolate, so I think that one may work.My mom also said she worked in a daycare center before my brother and I were born and there, the two-year-old teacher had all the parents bring their potties in each day. She’d have “potty time” and all the kids would sit in their potties until they went to the bathroom. She said the kids all were potty trained in no time- The potty trained ones would go, the others would watch, they’d walk around and look in each others potties, the successful ones were rewarded and it didn’t take long before all of them were going.I’m thinking of seeing in a few months if the other moms in my play group want to bring their potties over one day and try this, particularly after a few of their kids are going in the potty. All of our kids are within a few months of each other and they’ve been together since they were 4 months old, so I think it might work…
>I think the reward system is a good idea, but of course you’ll have to come up with some system to wean her off the rewards. Rehab or something.The other thing is, Pull-Ups are great. For when you’re not at home. For when you’re at home, you should 1) cover everything in plastic and 2) put her in underwear. Not the regular big-girl underwear, but the training pants underwear. My kids would pee all day in the Pull-Ups…they’re fantastic at pulling the wet away from the kid and they hardly know they did anything! But in those thick cotton training pants, they can feel the wet. As soon as I started using the cotton training pants at home, my kids were trained in a matter of days. Just a couple of accidents and they realize “Eww. It feels gross to be wet/dirty.” and they used the potty!
>AW they do look so sweet together sleeping!:) With Julia I just said no more diapers and insisted sh used the potty she was trained in two days this way but I it might not work for all moms!Good luck and don’t give up it will happen!:)
>My son was a little shit about the potty thing too. Sadly, it passed and he now pees all over the toilet daily. Good luck, with patience it will happen. In the mean time, thanks for the post. Cuz I’m laughing my ass off at your potty foibles.
>OMG. Thank you for the laugh! I am dreading our potty training, and we are not that far behind you. My mother said that she used a doll with me, but she let the doll pee on my leg — huh? I’m not sure what that was supposed to teach me, but she said that after that, I decided to use the potty. (Maybe I was afraid she would pee on me next?)
>Arianna pretty much potty trained herself. I never really had any sort of battle. One day she just decided it was time to use the toilet. Worked for me! I’d keep her in pull-ups at night for a while, until I was convinced that she wasn’t going to wet her bed. She’s 6 now, and has only ever had an accident like 3 times since she trained herself.Ahhhh….bliss.However, now I have a boy. I’m SO not looking forward to training him. I have no idea what to do w/ that little thing!!
>Thanks for the laugh. The look on that dolls face while your daughter sleeps peacefully is priceless.
>We were at Toys-R-Us yesterday and I was this close to buying Bugaboo a pottying doll–thinking it might be the thing that gets him to finally pee in the potty. But after seeing this, I’m kinda glad I didn’t. I’m with you on the mind-losing thing.
>Awww…maybe my little one needs a “tinkle” baby too. Something has to help. The bribes of new “Dora panties” just aren’t working!
>That doll is evil…. look at its googly eyes… Wide awake trying to hypnotize Baby with tricks to avoid the potty training….’pay no attention to Mommy offering you M&M’s…look only into my eyes…’I was a mean ass potty trainer. I’m surprised the girls are in some sort of Toilets anonymous as a result…
>Well, if you’re not going to use the name “Little Miss Piss,” I’m going to steal it for Lauren’s potty training doll.If Dr. Phil says that it will work, then it will work. You musta done it wrong! He is ALWAYS right!Is there a pooping doll yet? I’d really like to see that one in action. You know, for mechanics, not for perversion. Silly.
>OMG! I have that doll too! But! It’s not exactly working right:http://threekidcircus.com/threekidcircus/archives/2004/07/just_like_a_rea.html
>Did you do the part where Baby gets a celebratory phone call from her favorite character?My MIL taped one of Dr. Phil’s famous potty training episodes fo me and as I recall, you have someone pretending to be your kid’s fave character call the house and congratulate the doll on using the potty. I guess the idea is that your kid will be all inspired to get his or her own personal call from said character and pee in the potty to make it happen.I happen to not like Dr. Phil that much so I never did it but I guess it might be a good a motivator if your child is all ga ga over specific character.
>Izzy, I read the synopsis of the Dr. Phil lesson. The call from the superhero and the potty party that’s supposed to happen when the child goes pee pee doubtless will make Potty Training for Dummies, Part V or VI! Jenny, that story is hilarious! I bought the doll for a friend’s child, too- We went to her birthday party. You just reminded me that I need to e-mail her and make sure she knows how to use it. I didn’t bother to read the directions at first and was sure the doll was broken, but in my case, I wasn’t putting the bottle in far enough and she was regurgitating its contents. Tori- M&Ms are a great potty training idea! I need to try that.Adena- Your child potty trained herself. Now I’ve heard it all. I am very envious!Interstellar Lass- I love your idea of big girl underwear around the house. I think I might get cloth diaper cover panties too, at least at first, to minimize the mess.Mommyof4- The two day idea is a good one, too. I actually would be able to do that this summer- devote two days to keeping her in underwear and trying to train her. We’ll see how she’s doing.Abogada- Cracking up! That sounds like something my mom would say!
>I wrote about the Diaper Fairy on my blog. I’d tried EVERYTHING under the sun (food rewards, sticker charts, bribing with toys, guilt, preschool, every twenty minutes on the pot, going naked, wearing undies and sitting in wet clothes…..even telling her about all her friends who are trained). She was fully trained (even at night) within a day and a half after a visit with the Diaper Fairy. Its been a week, no accidents. She just turned three, it was a big old power struggle in my opinion, the diaper fairy fixed her butt right good. I couldn’t be happier. I outsmarted a three year old. LOL!
>Hi, great story about potty training!If you are looking for some more tips about potty training check out this site: -Potty Training MethodPlenty of tips, suggestions and methods on getting your baby potty trained quickly.