June 23rd, 2005
Diaper Free Ashley
» motherhood
Ashley is already toilet trained and diaper free at 18months old! Ahhh, I am inspired again. Yah, I know, this is going to be like the 5th time I am inspired by another toilet trained kid, and maybe the 5th attempt to try out toilet training the kid.
This toilet training issue was one of our discussion topics for today’s playgroup. I think most of us mamas were impressed by the idea of having a diaper free kid at 18months, the cost saving is also very attractive. Some of the mamas are already embarking on toilet training their little ones, and is able to make them wee wee or ungghh ungghh at the potty or toilet bowl, or at least, is able to detect the expressions or signs that they are going. Some are as clueless as me, absolutely no idea what to do, or how to go about doing it. Maybe we are resigned to the idea of letting them wear diaper until they 10 years old.
Helena said she started by catching her son Nythan’s wee wee using a cup. By the way, Nythan is a boy, of course use cup, Yauyau no need to use cup. So, Nythan managed to associate the cup with wee wee time, and later, they made the shhh shhh sound to indicate wee wee time. Perhaps, the first step is to be able to catch them urinating and let them know that action is call 尿尿.
Jacqueline (Ashley’s mom) experience: just make them go diaperless for a period of time. They will pee and wee and shit all over the place, but they will also feel uncomfortable from the mess and will start indicating that they need to go. Well, be prepared to have more cleaning work though. Jacqueline made it sound so simple, I am tempted to try, but the image of her doing her business on my bed terrifies me.
Actually, we have been successfully sitting her on the potty for quite some time already, but there has been zero action. Not even a drop of output and the potty is still clean enough for drinking water. There is not yet any sign of her wanting to wee wee, though she will still freeze and exhibit an ultra serious concentration moment when she does her big business and will start touching her diaper after she pooed. Ok, at least she is aware that the smelly object inside her diaper makes her uncomfortable. Maybe I will start from there.
I wonder what terms parents use for toilet time. I have been using “shh shh” and “bang sai” for a while. Now I think “bang sai” is really too crude and fear that she will shout “我要bang sai” aloud in the public next time. Maybe I will switch to尿尿 and 大便, though they sound equally not classy enough.
June 23rd, 2005 at 4:14 pm
My mum lets Damien go diaperless for around a week and after the initial mess, he finally indicated to my mum that he wants to “shh shh”. However, we had a hard time getting him to poo in the potty. Drama man, no matter how we coaxed, distract him with story book, showed him how we do it (desperate already), threatened him (very desperate already), he simply refused to. He will perform his “bang sai stunt” standing in the shower, and will cry non-stop until the “sai” is out… Until one fine day, he finally tell me: mummy i want poo poo in the potty! Wah, so happy, no more drama thereafter:) Dont’ worry, my mum always tell me: they will naturally want to go diaperless once they’re ready:)
June 23rd, 2005 at 4:29 pm
We also use ss and bs, hehe. Agree with you, quite crude.
June 23rd, 2005 at 4:52 pm
My mom also advocates the let-them-go-diaperless-until-they-cannot-tahan-wetting-themselves type. wah piangz, i totally refuse to do so. Cos it is actually very dangerous to have a pool of urine on your floor and the child might slip and hurt himself.
Dun rush your child, it might backfire. when they are ready to ditch the diapers, they will let you know.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:37 pm
You cracked me up when you mentioned ‘bs’ hee hee… so cute la you! This entry reminded me of a post you did sometime back … thanks for your search engine
Dec 03 2004 where you did a note about Yauyau’s habits.
Potty training seems to be a long journey for us and i think the ‘zeal for it fizzes out sometimes when we don’t see results and head back for the ‘convenient’ way. Fret not! Ashley has displayed that it can be done!
We are not alone. While i thought i am getting some success from Tim being better trained now, it has been really hard to tell when he needs to go. Like Yauyau, he will be all quiet for a moment then shivers after that… *cough* thats when he has peed! *sigh* He loves to stand in the bath and pee too! *Peng san*
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:41 pm
“shh shh” and “poo poo” is quite innocent sounding =) mom said she used to bribe me to seat on the potty by giving me some smarties (those in lil boxes, not the whole tube) n if i poo-ed/pee-d, i get more. i think. lol.
June 24th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
what is wrong with 上厕所??
all the best!!
cheerio,
yl
June 24th, 2005 at 9:13 pm
Great thing about being not in Singapore. I use the bs word and no one knows what I”m talking about!! Anyway, we’re all very laid back here. None at our baby group discusses toilet training, even though the oldest are about 18 months. I say hooray if the child is toilet trained by 18 months, but frankly, I believe they’ll be ready to pee/poo in a pot when they’re good and ready to. Good luck!!
June 25th, 2005 at 10:55 pm
Thanks all, for sharing your personal experience and encouragements. I haven’t strip her from the diapers yet, still trying hard to get her to understand what is pooing is all about.
yl, oh yeah, there is definitly nothing wrong with 上厕所 and it sounds so much nicer. But I guess that three words have to wait a while longer, as it doesn’t differentiate between wee wee and poo poo.
June 29th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
Well, I’m still new in this area. But my Mum did managed to train my little girl to shit in a pot when she is ~6 months. What she did is to get her to shit at a fixed time (usually in the morning after her drink). However, we are not very successful with the peeing (probably it is too frequent). I have read some articles about potty training and most of them recommend to start potty training ~18months of age, when they start learning how to control.