Daughter Pees Straight Forward - Any advice

[Anonymous]

My 3 yr old is doing great at going potty, but when she does, she pees straight forward, rather than down. She ends up peeing over the top of the potty seat and on to her pants, the floor, etc. We have tried having her keep her legs open, her legs closed, or sit back more and it almost always still comes out the front. Any ideas? She is getting extremely frustrated and asked to go back to pull-ups the other day.

[Anonymous]

Have her lean forward on the potty. Are you using a full sized toilet or a little portable potty? The Bjorn potties have a shield in front, mostly for boys, but it might be helpful here.

[Anonymous]

Does she have any problems with a fused labia/labial adhesions? Ask her pediatrician if you aren't sure. It's not uncommon in girls and I believe can cause this pee problem. There are some treatments if needed, though girls often outgrow it.

http://www.drgreene.com/azguide/labial-adhesions

[Anonymous]

Make sure you use the potty with the shield in the front. Our DD used to do the exact same thing when we started potty training. When we put the shield back on, she started to lean forward and somehow figured it out and it's not a problem now.

I always thought it was from my ds trying to teach her how to pee standing up

[Anonymous]

I second the recommendation to have the ped check for labia fusion. It's VERY common and absolutely can cause this.

[Anonymous]

Can she teach me how to do that? It would have been really useful while hiking over the weekend. . .

[Anonymous]

You can sit her facing backwards on the toilet and the flow should go into the toilet, until you get the problem sorted out.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the replies. Her labia are not fused at all, but (probably too much info here) her little vulva does come up pretty far in the front. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. She's using the regular potty so no shield. I'll try having her lean forward or sit facing the back. I think she probably could just pee standing, since she pees like a boy anyway.

[Anonymous]

When you say potty seat, do you mean one of those inserts that makes the opening smaller? We bought one where the hole wasn't big enough so my DD's bum didn't sink in far enough and she ended up having the same problem. We switched to a potty, which worked fine, and now she hops right up on the regular toilet seat. She's 2.5, a little on the tall side, and only had two fall-ins (which she thought were funny, not traumatizing).