potty training

My little girl is 4, she has Down syndrome, it's going to be so hard to potty-train her! I think I'll try this coming summer. Everything I read on the subject seems so contradictory. I wish you the best trying to train your little girl!

I looked over what was written so far, and I think that, in your daughter's case, it might be a case of regression. She probably thinks that her new baby brother gets more attention because he uses his diaper. If I were you, I would relax with the toilet-training issue for awhile but just try to fit in times when it's just you and your daughter doing something together while your husband watches the baby. It could be something just as simple as baking cookies together or going out in the yard to watch and/or feed the birds or it could be something more elaborate such as going to the park or out to McDonald's. Also, when she messes herself, don't clean her up immediately. I don't mean to leave her in her diaper for hours and hours, but long enough that she can't wait to be clean again. And don't put her on the adult toilet but, instead, on a potty chair on the floor. I can tell you from personal experience that, when I was as old as three or four, it felt to me as if I might fall in. My folks helped me to make the transition from the potty chair to the adult toilet by first putting a children's seat over it and, sometime after that, putting a footstool in front of the toilet so that my feet would be on a solid surface while I was doing my business. By the time I was almost five, I could use an adult toilet without needing to be grounded, and my footstool became a place where I could put books, magazines, and the morning paper to read while I was sitting there. Yes, I got in the habit of reading on the toilet way back when I was using a potty chair. I read early--and what I still couldn't read, I made up for by looking at the pictures--and had Little Golden Books in a stack by the potty. I was seldom constipated, so it wasn't a case of taking that long to do my business but, instead, just the nice feeling of relaxing there long after everything had come out okay and reading. I'm almost 54 and, to this day, enjoy reading on the toilet. Speaking of being almost 54, my mom's friend from first grade until she passed away from cancer at the age of 55 had toilet-training issues after her first child (a boy) was born. Charlie had passed the "average" age of being toilet-trained and was still showing no interest in going anywhere but in his diaper, so she was naturally concerned and talked it over with her mother. At the time, she was living in Indianapolis, so her mother told her to take a bus down to Monument Circle and sit there and watch the people. She should look at each one and tell herself that "He got toilet-trained." "She got toilet-trained." It helped her to become more relaxed about it, and Charlie did get trained. She went on to have four more kids (one born too soon and passed on soon afterwards) of above-average intelligence, and her next-to-youngest didn't talk until he was four years old--then, you couldn't shut him up! At one time, he wanted to become a minister but ended up becoming a professor instead! Here's a funny one for you. My goddaughter and her husband have three kids (now all school-age). The oldest was still going in his pull-ups when he was three--and didn't even take the hint when his twin brother and sister (a couple of years younger) began using a potty chair. Finally, his mom came up with a solution. For some reason, Michael had always hated Barney, so she bought Barney pull-ups for him and told him that this would be the only kind of pull-up he would be wearing until he started using the potty instead of filling them. It didn't take any time at all for Michael to start going like a big boy after that! I kid you not!

I would give her incentive, not everytime, but once in awhile for motivation, maybe ice-cream, or a small treat then let her know big girls use the potty, don't use consequences though. Encourage the big girl thing. I'm surprised you're having a hard time because I heard girls are easier than boys! Although, my older son was harder than my second son, so I guess it depends on the child.....

My daughter was potty trianed 2 weeks before she turned 3. We tried the sticker cahrt, we put little toys in a box in thebathroom so when she went she could pick out a "treasure" We bought bigger toys for when she pooped. The best part was the night she saw her older sister getting ready for bed and she asked if she could sleep in her "big girl pants" like her. She sleep through the night and never went back. Don't keep going from underwear to pull ups to diapers it just confuses them stick to underwear and just keep trying. Yelling just makes it worse and switching back my seem like the easy way to go but don't give up. The end is near - good luck

One thing to do when she comes up to tell you that she made a accident in her pants to say thank you for telling mommy. Don't scoled her for doing it because she will be terrified to learn. The more you praise her for letting you know that she is noticing that she needs to be changed, the closer it will be that she will notice that she needs to go. It takes a while. Try taking her to the bathroom several times a day even if she says she doesn't have to go. Even after you have just changed her. Let her get use to sitting on the potty so it won't be so scary for her. You can even do a sticker chart and let her pick out the stickers that she gets for being a big girl and using the potty.