Hellobee Boards

No real advice but we went to Disney when LO was newly potty trained. She doesn't mind the toilets but she hated the hand dryers (still does). Disney does not have any paper towels in their restrooms. Only the dryers so I would bring a stash with me from the hotel's lobby bathroom so she can dry her hands.

Wow, this was me last year!!!!!! Hugsss

Breathe. This will be resolved. I had the exact same experience as you. DS would rather die than pee in a bathroom other than his own bathroom at home, and the one at school. He also would rather hold to death than peeing in his pull up. One time he was holding like crazy and crying, we were nowhere near home and I took him into a public bathroom in home depot or something, he actually rolled on the PUBLIC BATHROOM FLOOR (!!!!) and cried and he still wouldn't go. Yikes. We were preparing for our trip to Hong Kong back then, and I had to resolve the problem within 2 weeks. I am shocked I was actually able to turn the ship around. This is what I did:

1. Talk to your daycare teacher. Ask them to talk to your child daily about how when we are at a resturant, when we are outside, and when we need to go, it is OK to go to a bathroom other than the one at home. That's what everyone does. Your daycare teacher has to talk to your child patiently, in depth, every day to reinforce the idea that it is OK. That's what everyone does. And how if your child doesn't do that, teacher will find out from mommy and daddy.

2. I emailed our pediatrician. His wife is a child psychologist. They suggested that we got a bunch of very cheap toys from dollar tree and such (Not stickers, not food) . Each time he pees in a public bathroom, he will get to pick a small toy from your "treasure bag". When he get a hang of it, slowly wean him off of the toy to 2 times = 1 toy, 3 times=1 toy...etc.

3. Our pediatrician + his wife also said, the key is no matter what you do, do NOT stress out, and do NOT make it a big deal. Do not put any focus on if she must use the public bathroom. This is feeding her anti-public-bathroom-sentiments. Just chill out. TALK HER EAR OFF both at school and at home.

4. Luckily our ship has turned around with just the first 3 steps. If it still didn't go anywhere, I was prepared to make an appointment with our pediatrician and let the authority explain to him that that's what we do. It is very normal to use the public bathroom. I think the key is she needs multiple very trustworthy and knowledgable source to tell her that it is OK to use the public bathroom.

So with us, after talking his ear off and telling him that there is a treasure bag with goodies, one day when we were out running errands, we asked hey, do you think you can give it a try, and try out to pee in a public bathroom? DS magically actually said yes. Husband pulled into a pretty quiet Sheraton (hotel), and I took him to the restroom, which is very big, clean and quiet. He did his business (!!!!!), and we get back to the car, cheered and let him pick a toy. The rest was history.

Mind you, mine wasn't afraid of the noises. So you may have to figure that one out. I would say email your pediatrician, I am sure your daughter is not the first one and he/she will have very good suggestions for you.

ETA: I just suddenly wonder - what would happen if you play the hand dryer noise (on an ipad or something, I am sure you can find a hand dryer noise video from youtube) at her home and see if she can pee with the noise? Maybe play that noise as she's peeing, soft at first, and gets a bit louder and louder and practice like that? Maybe she can associate that noise as bathroom noise and it is OK to release and go even though there is that noise?

Good luck to you!!!!

DS has a hard time with this... He really doesn't like the automatic flushers and not knowing when something will be noisy. Honestly, he puts his hands over his ears all the time in public bathrooms! We talk through it and he still likes the cover his ears. He will always ask if the potty will "go by itself". It's frustrating at times but we have thankfully gotten to the point where he is okay if he can cover his ears. Before we had lots of crying over it.

No help, but I just wanted to throw this out there in case somebody didn't know, but if you put a post it note over the sensor of the automatic toilets it will stop it from flushing when you don't want it too. I learned this little trick thanks to morning sickness!

I didn't read any other comments, but make sure you put a pack of sticky notes in your purse. Put one over the sensor on automatic flush toilets before she sits down.

Also, what about ear plugs? You could easily find hot pink ones and make it a game?