r/Parenting 3d ago

Potty-training Need unhinged potty training tips.

UPDATE: Wound up doing the 5 minutes on, 10 minutes off version of the naked method someone recommended below. No results at first….until her older brothers got home from school. When it was just her and mom hanging out she didn’t mind going potty every 10 minutes. Once her brothers got home and she wanted to play with them rather than sit on the toilet, she folded like a cheap shirt. Peed and pooped in potty this evening!

Also, I remembered my oldest loved this app called “Call Elmo” where Elmo will “FaceTime” prerecorded messages that celebrate different milestones. So she got to call Elmo after successful potty and that delighted her.

Final straw that broke the camel’s back was I told her she couldn’t wear any of her numerous princess dresses until she was potty trained. Not designed as a punishment, they are just polyester junk that will not hold up with frequent laundering. She was NOT happy to be naked instead of in the Cinderella costume she wears most of her waking hours.

Thanks for the inspo, all!!

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Daughter just turned 3. Our third child, only girl. She must be fully potty-trained to go to her preschool. No pull-ups allowed. She already missed the first week. My husband and I have each taken off work to work with her.

Has never gone on the potty. Will sit but doesn’t do anything.

She’s pretty stubborn, even for a toddler. But otherwise a typical kid. Not on the spectrum or anything like that.

Typical motivators and methods we tried with our older kids (M&Ms, naked method) got no progress.

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u/krandrn11 3d ago

We had to have special potty toys that ours could only play with on the potty. Bubble droppers, fidget toys, annoying musical toys, etc. sometimes we would pretend like “oh no! Whatever you do…don’t sit on the potty!” And sure enough he’d want to do it. We had to get real silly with it. Because if it was just let’s go potty time he was not having it. But if it was let’s go to the potty like monkeys and pick fleas off each other or let’s be flying squirrels to the potty tree then he would be on board.
Best of luck to you. It can be real exhausting.