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potty training a 4 year old

My daughter will turn 4 in October. She is very bright and articulate. She has an active imagination and is almost always well behaved. But she will not potty train! Here are the pertinent details:
I just had a second child in June. Since we knew he was coming and knew to expect regression, I didn't push the training over the summer. Now it is time to go back to school and she shows less interest that ever.
She will go potty for my mother in law (which really just makes me dislike my MIL even more), but only because MIL makes her sit on the potty every two hours. If I try that at home she screams and cries.
Pretty panties are not an incentive bcause my mother has bought her those already and puts them on over diapers, so they are not working.
She does not seem to mind be wet or dirty. I tried for a week to use just underwear, but she peed all over the couch, the carpet and her bed. Thankfully the bm messes were contained, but I was the one who noticed them-they didn't bother her.
I would love to hear some ideas or reassurance. I know that she will not wear diapers to her senior prom, but I am starting to get a little embarrassed.
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203342 tn?1328737207
I don't know if this will help or not, but we are in the process of potty training our just turned three year old. He's got the peeing in the toilet down pretty good but we haven't been able to catch him before he poops. My friend told me when he does poop in his diaper or pants to take it to the toilet with him and tell him "This is where the poop goes" and then put it in the toilet and flush the toilet. After awhile, they should understand that the poop goes in the toilet. Also, I had to use training cloth underwear for my son. The pull-ups just didn't work for him. They feel too much like a diaper so he just goes in them. I save those for when we go out or naptime. I hope any of this helps! And I hope we all get our little munchkins potty trained soon! :)
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Avatar universal
I had the same problem with my 3yr old son. My second was born in January of this year and my older one went into regression. He had no interest until about a month ago. I had a couple of extra days off after 4th of July. I ended up making him go around the house without any pants or a diaper. He would pee without one on so he started going in the potty. I actually got the idea from someone else on here. We have the pee thing down, but we are having a real problem with him pooping.
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