maybe the best advice ever

I've been trying for months (nine at least) to potty train Allie Grace. We'd get into a good routine with it, and then something would happen and she would have this huge relapse and we'd have to start over. This happened at least four times. She had almost gotten it in June and then ended up with an awful case of strep throat and she wasn't drinking enough to go on a schedule so we ended up back at square one again. I decided to give her a break on the process (more for me to regroup than for her).

At the end of August, I was starting the process again, but she just wasn't wanting to do it. We had a group of women from the Teen Challenge Women's Center in Brandon come speak/sing at our church on August 26. After lunch, I was speaking to the leader and she mentioned her trick for her daughter. She said the stickers, candy, money, etc. didn't work for her and she had been ready to pull her hair out when her grandmother mentioned the best piece of advice for potty training. The advice was to take your child to the store and let her pick out a doll. Explain that the doll belongs to the child if they use the potty in the potty. If they use the potty in their panties, the doll goes up on a high shelf where the child can see it but not play with it until the next time that they potty.

I wasn't sure if it would work for Allie Grace, but we went that afternoon and she picked out the toddler Dora doll. I explained the whole process to her and she said she didn't want to lose Dora and would use the potty. She even asked to go potty at the store! She has only had a handful of times of losing Dora; even those times, she has been super upset and has tried to get her back quickly (as in usually gets her back in under 30 minutes). It's been about a week since she lost her at all.

I have been amazed at the quick change. Allie Grace went straight to panties after getting Dora and we only put her in a pull up at night or when we're going to be gone for a long time and aren't sure if we'll be able to get her to a bathroom quickly. She may not always tell us if she needs to go, but she has definite signs now that she's out of pull ups. She never says, "I need to go potty." It's always, "I don't want to lose my Dora." She also gets really mad when I make her wear a pull up now and tells me they are for babies.