When to potty train?
Potty training is easier when both child and caregiver are ready. Meaning, child can verbalise the need to go toilet and caregiver is prepared to deal with the mess (accidents are inevitable!)
Most children are ready from 18 months to 3 years old, with girls generally earlier than boys.
During lockdown (19 months old), my son started telling us he wanna poop but I was too tired and lazy to train so I decided to wait.
Fast forward to 2.5 years old now, it is so much easier to train! He had about 4 leakages so far.
Also, potty training too early can lead to kidney and bladder problems and even urinary tract infection!
I chose a weekend to start potty training as I needed full day to make him get into the habit of going toilet.
What to prepare?
Brace yourself for accidents. Prepare tissue, cloth, mop etc to clean up the mess. And of course, a potty or kid’s toilet bowl.
He didn’t like the traditional red potty and couldn’t even sit still for more than 10s. Maybe it was too unstable for him. Tried the cow potty and he liked it.
Wanted him to use toilet bowl directly but he was scared…
Lastly, buy some underwear with his/her favourite designs. My son didn’t want to give up on his diaper until he saw the excavator on the underwear.
How long does it take to train?
Depends on individual! Fastest I heard was 2 days and some take up to weeks.
For schools, it usually takes longer as child may be shy to tell teachers. Some successfully wear underwear to school after months. Like with everything else in raising a child, there is no need to compare and feel pressured.
How I train in 8 days…
Started day 1 on a Sunday where I had full day with him. Placed potty near his play area. Was told that I need to bring him to potty every 15-30min but I was lazy. .
So I made him naked and sat on potty until he peed (while he watched TV). I let him indulge on TV as it was difficult to make him sit on potty for long.
After his first pee, I praised him to make him feel good about his achievement.
After tasted success, he was able to tell me he needed the potty. Subsequent pees was 1 hourly interval. I would always praised him loudly to make him know he did well. He didn’t poop on first day.
On the 2nd day, he could take out underwear and use the potty by himself.
As I didn’t want to clean poop, I told him to poop in toilet bowl instead of potty. It wasn’t successful and he poop onto underwear. Showed him how I threw poop into toilet bowl and flushed. Also made him watch how I had to clean his underwear because he didn’t poop in toilet bowl.
On the 3rd day, he was able to tell us that he needed to poop and successfully did it with toilet bowl.
On the 5th day, we decided to let him try underwear to school as there was no accident after 3rd day. But he couldn’t tell teacher and leaked. We found out that the teacher insisted him to stand instead of sitting to pee. He hasn’t learn standing as he was trained to sit at home.
The next school day, we decided to try again. We told the teacher to make him go toilet every 1-2h even if he said he has no pee, and to let him sit instead of standing. Chances are, he will pee (as this is what we experienced at home). Indeed it was a success!
On the 8th day, he was able to express his toilet needs to teachers! We told the teachers to change into diapers if it is too difficult but glad that we all persisted!
After thoughts…
-Don’t have to buy training pants as I went cold turkey and just strip him naked for the first pee. Subsequently he knew that wearing underwear means need to pee in potty as we kept reminding him. Alternatively can just wear underwear with diaper outside if afraid of cleaning the mess. But I find it faster to just wear underwear.
-It is easier for boys to train by sitting than standing to pee.
⁃ It seems easier to train pee than poop.
-It can take about one year to be diaper free during sleeping. We decided not to stress him and let him wear diaper when sleeping until he naturally outgrow it.
Overall, we are glad that we waited till both mummy and kid are more ready. It makes potty training less stressful!
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