Stress Free Potty Training Tips for Girls

Your little girl has finally started showing the signs she's ready to try the good ol' potty, however, you've heard nightmares about training and have never had experience in the training department yourself. You feel lost, confused and feel you're going to be eternally stuck changing diapers or pull-ups. Never fear! I'll give you some tips that worked for my own niece and myself when they were in the days of training.

Patience is the biggest key to training that may not appear to have much to do with physical training, however, it has everything to do with how the child will react when doing her business. Remember that while there are wonder kids out there that can be trained in days, some kids take even up to 3 years to be fully trained. You can not, for any reason, lose your cool while sitting in the bathroom with your girl.

Remember that potty training isn't all about just the little girl, it's also about how others in the training process support the positive reinforcement. If you're sitting in the bathroom for an hour getting annoyed and angry, she may bind up and not ever want to go, feeling that going to the potty is bad. Try to remember that even adults sometimes have to invest time in going to the bathroom, too.

Rewards System

Just like adults and older children like to be rewarded for a job well done, so do little girls in the potty training stage. This little bit worked like a charm for my daughter. It goes in a few parts, but it's all one big reward in the end.

The first thing you want to do is invest in those small reward stickers (and larger stickers) and a calendar if you don't have one. Every time your little girl goes to the potty (be it peeing or pooing) be sure she is rewarded with a sticker on the calendar and one big one on her shirt. If you're focusing on one aspect of potty training or both, this works equally well.

I made it a semi-big production in the house. Every time she managed to do her deed in the potty, she would let all the grown ups in the house know and we'd all praise her for a job well done. It may seem corny, but it's positive reinforcement at its finest. Let her show off the calendar with a new sticker and tell her to display her shirt sticker proudly.

Set up a short term goal and a long term goal. If she doesn't make any accidents in her pull-up or diaper for a week, take her out for a treat like McDonald's or even Ice Cream. Once she completes a full week of no accidents, make another goal for a month down the line. Go a little bigger. If she has an interest in a certain style of toy (such as My Little Ponies) tell her if she goes to the potty for a month without accidents, she can pick out one toy.

After this, I set up a two month goal. My daughter is into ponyville and some of the bigger playsets are a little hefty in price. I told her if she went two months without an accident, I would give her that as an ultimate reward. This with the stickers (to keep track of days she goes) worked like a charm. Once the entire time was up, she had no accidents and was ready to wear big kids underwear full time.

Night Training

My daughter, for a while, was notorious for wetting her bed and pajamas. She'd wake up around 2 or 3 in the morning crying because her bedding was soaked. It got mildly stressful to have to change a toddler bed nightly.

The best thing that worked for my daughter was flat out waking her up around 1am and taking her to the bathroom in a half-groggy state. Generally, night time potty training can be quiet and relatively fast. Especially if you can figure out normally when she wets her bed. Keep energy low because, let's face it, you want her back asleep as soon as possible.

Eventually, she will be used to waking up when she has a sensation and the bed wetting episodes will hopefully end. If they don't, you can always consult a doctor in case your child has a weaker bladder.

The Bathtub Method

This one I discovered on accident. My daughter was able to pee in the potty any time, but, getting her to poo was a little tricky for a while. She thought it was gross and whenever we went into the potty, she would bind up and stress out. Instead of making her sit in the bathroom, I would let her sit in the bathtub, just to take a bath.

One day, however, she jumped up and shot straight to the potty. She repeated this often. Then I realized that being in the bathtub relaxed her enough that she felt the sensations (and was less distracted) and she could go. This method tended to work best if she hadn't gone at all during the day when we sat in the bathroom. After she felt incredibly clean and was able to settle right down to sleep for the night.

Training little girls to go to the potty doesn't have to be like pulling teeth. Make it fun, be creative and I hope that the tricks that worked for my little girl work for someone out there.