Does anyone have a problem with their daughter peeing too much to potty train?

You child does not yet have a fully developed biological means of controlling her urination. Many experts advise that you relax the pace, and try again when the child is a little older. My oldest daughter did not use the potty until the day of her third birthday, when she announced “From now on I’m going to pee in the potty” and indeed she did just that, with not a single “mistake” from then on.

Why not let her wear pull-ups so her accidents are no problem, except to maybe make her uncomfortable, but still encourage her to use the potty whenever possible? Then you can relax a bit. It will come in time.

As to when kids can physically hold it varies from child to child. My daughter succeeded by age 2½, but my son still has accidents at age 14 (almost 15!). Bladder control is a lot more complicated than you would think. It isn’t controlled by just one part of the brain, but several. According to this research:

“Functional brain scanning by positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging suggest that normal control is exerted by a network of regions in the emotional nervous system, including periaqueductal gray, thalamus, insula, anterior cingulate, and prefrontal cortex.”

All you need is a slight developmental variability and your child might not “get it” until age three or four or older, while a precocious child might get it by age 1.

18 months is early for many kids.

And at 3.5, my daughter is just getting the hang of it and she seems to go all the time. Numero uno and Numero dos. It’s kind of amazing how… er, productive… she is.

Wow! Most kids I know are potty trained by 3, but wow I didn’t really know about the brain part if it. I just introduced it to her to get her comfortable and to know what it is. And I just encourage her. I’m not like making her. I was reading on Yahoo Answers that a lot of people had their children trained at 1, and I read 18 months, 15 months, some said like 10 months, but that might just be someoen stretching the truth a lot cause I don’t think that’s even possible! At 1 some might not be able to walk! But 15 really? Man, that’s sad. I hope he gets better!

@Steverpeeps – Me, too. There is medication that helps some as well as bladder training, so I hope it will end someday soon. He is getting better, however.

There are some folks who subscribed to infant potty training, but they have a lot of time on their hands I think.

lol, that’s funny! I’m glad it’s getting better! Oh, meds, I didn’t think of that, that should help a lot

I’m just grateful and amazed that they make pull-ups that fit him still. Depends are too large.

It has put quite a crimp in sleep-overs, though.

Aw! Yeah! I hope it hasn’t hurt his self esteem! As long as he’s confident he’ll over come it one day!

When she has a little more control and you try it for real, you might try what worked really well for my 3 daughters. Set aside a week and don’t leave the house with the child unless absolutely necessary. Dress her in a longish t-shirt only (no underwear, diaper or pull-ups). Apparently, little girls really dislike the sensation of pee running down their legs so daytime accidents are rare after the first day. In any event, don’t stress too much over it… she’ll get it sooner or later. :)

Oh, and welcome to Fluther!

@augustlan has a very good tip about picking a week to stick close to home and designating that time for potty training. I did that for all three of my kids, and it worked out well.

I’m always skeptical when I hear of very young children being “potty trained.” I’ve read that even small infants can learn to pee when held over a toilet, so I suppose a one year old could learn to go on the potty. However, in my mind a child isn’t potty trained until he or she has some control over the process (can hold it for a little while, stay dry long enough to go grocery shopping, etc.).

With my own kids, waiting until around the age of three made the potty training process so fast and easy. We introduced the potty long before then, of course, but waiting for the actual switch to underwear meant only a few days at most of accidents. At that age, they were all able to stay dry through naps too.

As a side note, night-time training is a separate issue. Your child will probably be able to stay dry all day long before she is always staying dry at night. When she has three dry nights in a row, you’ll know she’s ready to sleep in underwear, but you’ll still want to be prepared for the occassional accident.

18 months is too young for your daughter. Perhaps wait another 6 months and try again. I had one that potty trained herself at 18 months, but wet the bed every single night until she was 5. The other didn’t potty train until 3, and only had one night accident after that.

Well, we are showing her and encouraging her everyday, just to keep it in the back of her mind. She gets it, but can’t hold it yet, and that’s fine. If she can’t she can’t you know? She loves the potty though, so it’s not too young, especially since she did go pee on it once. My question was just when can they generally have physical abily to control that muscle. I now 2 and 3 years olds can understand better, but I also know if you work with them that they can do it earlier. So, I know they’re capable of doing it between 1 and 3! Just speaking medically, so if they’re are any pediatrishitans out there that know that would be great! But the no pee for 3 nights in a row was useful info!

Some kids can control their bladders between 1 and 3, but some cannot. Often, the ones with the worst time of it are boys, especially boys later diagnosed as ADD/ADHD. It has to do with brain development.

As one medical site says:

” For infants and young children, urination is involuntary, meaning they have no control over it. Wetting is normal for them. Most children achieve some degree of bladder control by 4 years of age. Daytime control is usually achieved first while nighttime control comes later.

The age at which bladder control is expected varies considerably.

* Some parents expect dryness at a very early age, while others not until much later.

* Factors that affect the age at which wetting is considered a problem include the following:

o The child’s sex

o The child’s development and maturity

o The child’s overall physical and emotional health

o The culture and attitudes of the child, parents, and caregivers”

Developmental psychiatry by Michael Rutter agrees that most children will achieve daytime control by the age of 3, but many will still have night time control issues at age 5. Boys have a harder time of it than girls. If you read the chapter you will glean more information about the “typical” rate or process by which bladder control is achieved.

Wow, ok, that’s helps a lot and makes a lot of sense. I comepletly understand that nighttime control will take longer. So, yes thank you, that makes a lot of sense.