I'm in the process of starting my own business (click the link in my sig to show your support) and I've been very busy putting everything together. Learning everything I can, buying and selling on ebay, and now moderating the Hip Entrepeneurs forum here, I spend a lot of time online. We're staying in a huge house with relatives, and the size of the house actually creeps me out. I have such a hard time keeping track of the kids when I'm working in a house this size. We have two rooms and part of a hallway upstairs to ourselves, and I've tried to get the kids to think of the space as our "apartment". But with the weather turning better, they're always outside, and can't resist exploring the big house. (I was a child in this house too so I understand how cool that is.) The problem is that my daughter has been having difficulty with her potty training. She'll sit on the potty to pee, but insists on pooping her pants. We tried cloth training pants, no help. She's ruined all her panties. Today I gave in and bought some disposable (ugh!) training pants for her. I've asked her to come get me when she needs help with the potty, or if she's pooped herself. She lies about it! She'll poop her pants and be smelly as anything, but insist she went to the potty! The only bathrooms are downstairs, far away from my work room. I cannot work downstairs, some of the people living with us (cousin's evil boyfriend) don't like me and make it difficult for me to get anything done. I've tried asking Shakti to be my "shadow" for the day, but she gets bored to death while I'm working, and it isn't fair to her. I'm not sure if this is something she's doing to get attention because I'm now so busy, or if she's having trouble finding the bathroom on time in this enormous house. How can I solve this problem?
Bring a potty into the work room with you. That way she'll have a potty on the same floor you're on. And don't stress it too much. She won't go to college in diapers. My second son didn't use the potty for a long time. He would always hide in a corner somewhere and poop in someone's shoe. For a year you didn't put a shoe on wihtout checking it first. Come to think of it, I think that's about the time I stopped wearing shoes. She'll get it eventually. Kathi
she might simply not be ready for regular underpants yet. My oldest was four before she started pooping on the potty, but she had been peeing on the potty for over a year or so. She might want more mommy time and attention, especially if there have been some big changes lately and you have been extra busy with other things. whatever else you do, don't make a big deal out of it. Don't try pressuring her to go potty if she can't or won't do it. Just quietly put diapers on her and let her know that if she needs to go potty, she can come ask you to help her take them off and that when she can keep them clean all day long for several days in a row, she can go back to wearing underpants. With my daughter, we made huge progress when I figured out that she didn't want to wear "panties" she wanted "underwear" instead. So we went shopping, and I let her pick out her very own yellow "underwear" (NOT panties - LOL) and that did the trick!!
Both ladies made good points. A potty chair is a great idea, IF the child is ready. I have found kids who just can't seem to learn the potty just aren't ready yet. Some kids learn pee pee training before poo training. If she consistantly poops the pants, she may just not be ready. The first house we lived in didn't have a downstairs potty, so we had a potty chair in the living room. (Nice conversation piece. "Hey, is that some kind of stool?" "No, it a shit box." LOL! And when one of the kids would drop trou to go when company was over.....hilarious.) Having a potty chair might help, but only if she was ready. I find that when toddlers lie about going potty, they really aren't ready. I remember Moon being a nice, little fragrant perfume ball, pants hanging down, filled with diaper dumplings, and denying that she pooped in her pants. ("Moon, honey, did you poop?" "UH UH!") I'd say, "Then, Moon, you had better find out WHO is pooping on your pants, because there IS poop in there, and if it wasn't you, someone is using your diaper without your knowlege." She would just laugh.
I read something somewhere about pooping being such a "feel good" thing for kids, that it freaks them out to change how they poop. That being said, I'd put a potty in your office, too. Maybe a reward system just for pooping? She'll get it eventually, they always do!!
this reminds me of when my daughter was that age, and she was very stubborn about not wanting to poop in the toilet. so i took off her diapers one sunny day and let her go bare-bottomed. well, i was busy doing things and my daughter came up to me and said, "mommy, i didn't poop in daddy's closet". naturally, i was suspiscious of this statement, but i was busy, and i forgot about it. later i went upstairs and smelled something, looked in the closet and yup there it was. fortunately it was dry and easy to clean, but it was so funny! shakti will get it , but you may have some accidents and pooping in shoes and closets first.
Actually she preferrs the bathroom floor. Right next to the toilet, LOL My ex is going to be visiting the kids soon. I'll have him bring the second potty chair with him so I can keep it up here.
