Toilet-Training: Success!

For about a month or so ago, we noticed that Ian had been randomly keeping his night diapers dry.  Sometimes, he even woke up, took off his pants and diaper, and went to the toilet in the dark.  Although the occurrence of a dry diaper was random at the beginning, he became more and more consistent until a fortnight ago, he had done it for almost an entire week, and was consistently waking up early in the morning to go to the toilet. 

Last week, Hubby decided to take the gamble and put Ian in his undies (although Ian still wanted to wear his diapers!) for the night.  Hubby would warn little Ian not to pee in his undies and to go to the toilet, after Ian had changed into his pajamas.  It was gratifying that Ian had managed to keep his pants dry until now.  And we were glad that he had done it without sacrificing his nightly bottle of milk during bedtime.

Goodbye, diapers!

Toilet-Training: Diaper-free Days At Home

This week, Ian has caught a cough and a runny nose.  Hence, we have been keeping him at home since Tuesday because his nose turned into a leaking tap.  I took this chance to try putting him on his training pants for the whole day. 

Tuesday - Perhaps he was not used to the extended hours of being diaper-free, and poo-ed in the pants.  However, he did a good job of keeping it dry otherwise.  It was my first attempt to let him have his nap in the training pants and it was a success.  I also ventured to let him go diaper-free for going out (fetched Hubby from work and had dinner at my mom's place).  However, he peed in the car seat on the way to fetch Hubby.  Hubby said he was still not ready, and changed him back into his diapers at my mom's place.

Wednesday - Oops, Ian had a little accident.  He poo-ed a little into the pants and quickly ran to the toilet for the rest.  He also peed in his pants once, but had kept it dry through his nap.  I tried to let him go diaper-free for our short outing again.  This time, I reminded him repeatedly not to pee in the car and not to pee on the floor.  He managed to keep the car seat dry.

Thursday - It was a dry day...yippie!  Again, I put him in his training pants on our short outing in the evening.  I reminded him repeatedly again not to pee in the car and on the floor.  He managed to keep it dry, but wet his pants while playing with his cousins at my mom's place.  Hubby changed him back into diapers again. 

Friday - Ian peed once in the training pants again, even at home.  I wonder if this is a regression?  However, he had kept it dry otherwise.  Once we reached my mom's place in the evening, Hubby brought him to the toilet immediately to empty his bladder.  However, he did not pee, and wet his pants in a while later. He also managed to pee into the toilet bowl successfully after the little accident.

After these few days of "training", I realised that Ian needs to go to the toilet frequently in order to keep his pants dry.  I wonder is it normal for children to go frequently?  It is going to be hard to keep him diaper-free for longer trips outside.  :(

Toilet Training: He Stood!

Our little darling gave us a huge surprise on Wednesday night!  As usual, he went to the toilet himself to pee and after I heard the music from his FP potty, I got up from my seat to help him with the cleaning up.  I was extremely surprised to see what he did to his potty - his urine was all over his potty chair and on the floor.  It meant that he had urinated while standing up.  Although it was a big mess, I was very happy that he had progressed to the next step in his toilet training.

I had earlier tried to teach him how to do this, but nothing came out as he stood at the toilet bowl.  And all of a sudden, Ian had decided to stand and urine.  We scratched our heads and wondered what changed him?

We have also started to put him on his training pants when we go over to my mom's place for dinner.  He wet his pants the first time we tried it, but it was probably because he did not detect his urge to go as he had a big quarrel with his cousin and was crying non-stop.  Over the last few days, Ian had managed to keep his pants dry until we returned home.  Once, he was able to tell us that he wanted to go to the toilet, and had stood to pee at his Por Por's house.

At home over the last couple of days, he had been peeing either standing up or sitting on his potty, depending on his mood.  If he decided to stand, he would use the adult potty and so far, he had not made a mess since his first success.  (Ian, thank you for not adding more mess for Daddy and Mummy to clean up!)

We hope that soon, we could put him on training pants during his afternoon naps too.

Toilet-Training: A Collection of Potties

We began toilet-training Ian in August, once I received the training pants that I had ordered from Amazon and a Taobao spree.  We had expected it to be difficult, and it was indeed fraught with difficulties.  We had not much idea on how to start, and began by putting him in the training pants at night, after his shower.  This was to let him feel the wetness when he peed or pooed in his underwear.  It was very tiring as he kept dirtying his undies and the floor.

We had no success in getting him to sit on the potty to do his business.  He resisted very strongly whenever we asked him to sit on it.  This is how his first potty looked like (it was one of the wedding gifts from my Mom).

Whenever we asked him to sit on it, he would point to our toilet bowl and once, we even found him hanging over the seat using his hands to prop himself up.  After about 2-3 weeks of futile attempts to get him seated on his own potty, we decided to splurge on the Fisher Price potty.  It was not very easy to find this and we only saw it at Toyrus and Robinsons (not even the John Little or Kiddy Palace branches that we visited).  There was no sale at Robinsons, but we bought it anyway ($79, IIRC).  We felt that it was really expensive as compared to other normal types of potty seats, and when I paid at the cashier, I was rather apprehensive that the money would be wasted.

Hubby assembled the potty when we got home, and it was a big, big relief when Ian happily sat on it and peed.  There was a sensor at the bottom that would activate songs when he peed or pooed, and this was good, because it enabled us to know whether he was successful or not without having to check.

We had this potty for about 3 weeks now, and recently, Ian has been going to it whenever we are at home.  He has been keeping his undies dry most of the time, except for one or two accidents when he leaked a little and ran to the potty.

I checked with his childcare teachers on whether they could help our potty-training by bringing him to the toilet with the other children who were already trained.  However, they told me that Ian must be able to stand and pee before they could do it.  I did not understand the rationale behind this 'rule', but that meant we had to work harder at home and bring the toilet-training one step further before he could go to school without diapers. 

At the current stage, we still had to put him in diapers when going out.  During our recent visit to the child development therapy sessions, we had faced difficulty in finding a child's toilet seat when Ian had wanted to poo, and he ended up doing it in his diapers after enduring it for some time.  Hence, to aid with our training, we decided to get a travel potty.  I spotted this on Amazon and bought it - Potette Plus travel potty.

Hopefully, this is money well-spent too...