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Potty training/bed bouncing
Most of the topics here seem to be about older children, but this still looked like the best place to ask for advice about my two-year-old.
First, she won't stop jumping on the bed. I don't mean little bounces, I mean THWOMP shake the floor jumping. I can sit outside her door and go in and tell her to stop until she falls asleep, every night, but she keeps doing it. I've tried the swat on the butt. I've tried reasoning with her. Ever reason with a two year old? Doesn't work. I've tried repeating "No bounce" over and over till I'm hoarse. The one time I did get her to stop for about a week, I'd gone in and found her jumping and yelled. A lot. Very very loudly. She was scared and I could barely talk for a few days so that's not really an option. I'm afraid to get her a toddler bed, because if she's so hard on her mattress it's ripping, what would she do to a bed?! Now not only is she jumping on the mattress, she's picking it up and wandering around her room with it, flipping it over, putting it on top of toys and leaning it against walls.
Worse than that are the potty training issues. She was doing wonderfully, using the potty several times a day without accidents, and then she got sick. All of a sudden she wouldn't have anything to do with it. That was months ago, and she's just now starting to go back to using it, but not anywhere near regularly. She won't tell me when she has to go, and sometimes she'll sit on the potty for a long time, not going, only to go in her diaper when I finally give up and let her get up. Sometimes she simply refuses to go near it. I've finally got her using it about once a day. Better than nothing, I guess.
Related to that, she won't keep her clothes on. Shirts, pants, diapers, all off if I leave her alone for more than a few minutes. This is especially bad at naptimes and bedtimes, because she'll take her diaper off and wet all over her room. sometimes she takes the diaper off then puts her pants back on, so that she just wets right through them. She does the same whether I use diapers or training pants. I thought at first she must not like it when it's wet, but she does it even when the diaper is clean. If she can't get them off, she tugs and tugs till they're twisted and leak anyway. She has one pair of shorts that are just on the edge of being too small for her, so they're hard to get on and off. If I use those and a onesie under it, she can't get to the diaper, but even they have to be washed sometime, and she's rapidly outgrowing them.
I'm at a complete loss, reduced to tears regularly. Any advice would be so welcome.
Comments
I guess I can give you a couple of tips (or what worked for me). First of all, none of my kids were in toddler beds or mattresses after the crib. They all went straight from a crib to a big bed (I put rails on the sides to keep them from rolling off) My guys never really jumped on the big bed b/c they would fall off (it did happen) and they didn't like that. I think that the toddler beds are an unnecessary expense anyways. Buy her a big twin bed on a frame and just get the fold down rail for one side so that she doesn't roll off of it. Of course, she won't be able to carry a large mattress around and she definitely won't be ripping it. Make a big deal about it when you get it and make it special for her. I see from your pic that you have a baby. If it's her sister, then this kind of attention is mainly stemmed from attention that she's craving, even negative.
My middle child went from a crib to a big bed when he was 18 months old (his sister was born) and he did pretty well with it after he got used to it. Of course, you kind of have to show them how to get off of it backwards and such.
As far as the dressing, undressing issue goes....it's definitely a stage. We had the issue of them taking off their diapers and smearing the contents around a couple of times. I usually kept the onsies on them as much as possible until they were either potty trained or grew out of it. If she's not taking to potty training, I would stop trying, wait a few months and try again with a rewards system. I used to do 1 M&M if mine went pee and 2 if the other. Sometimes a handful of cheerios on the potty worked well (Sink the ships!, is what I'd say) It worked well with my son.
Hang in there. It gets easier even though when you're going through it, it seems like forever and it's tough. Be patient and laugh with her when she runs out naked. Then it doesn't become a power play with her winning. Realistically, she's really just fascinated with the process of dressing and the added benefit is that it gets her some negative attention from you since she's probably figured out that you don't like it.
You'll survive this stage in the long run even if you're sanity is running low right now.
Good luck!
Cadydid