Tuesday 1 April 2008

Updates On the Potty


Max is now doing very well without diapers, but Mommy and grandma are still not confident enough to take him out without diapers.

So far he has been able to go to the toilet on his own. Well, the advantage of being a boy is that he can pee standing, so it is actually quite hassle-free in a sense. Usually he'll announce that he needs to "shee-shee" and then pulls off his pants, runs to the toilet and pee by the drain-hole (an adult will have to help him wash his feet and the pee into the drain-hole) and then comes back to have us help him into his pants again.

Today he decided not to use the potty for poo-poo-ing. Micah has been sitting on the toilet bowl for a while now, balancing himself by perching like a bird, holding to the side of the seat. Max now want to do it like his brother because he is now "big boy a-dee". So, for better or for worse, we might have to bear with his insisting on sitting on the toilet. Better, because then we don't have to deal with washing a potty, worse because we will have to make sure he does not slip into the toilet or fall should he decide he wants to jump of the toilet.

Actually, the "big-boy a-dee" (big boy already) came about because of Mommy. He has grown. Well, both the boys have grown quite a bit, and so of late I have been putting Max into Micah's Pajamas at night. Some of Micah's shirts in the daytime too. At first, understandably, Max would ask if I was dressing him in his brother's clothes, to which I would say, "Yes." Then he asks, "Why?" and Mommy says, " Well, because you're a big boy already and you can now fit into koh-koh's clothes. Koh-koh's also big already and can't fit into these anymore." And he echoes, "Max big boy a-dee?" Mommy affirms, "Yes, Max is a big boy already."

Back to potty training: I think Max can hold his bladder than his brother, actually. There had been a few occasions he had woken up with a dry diaper in the morning, whereas Micah had insisted that he is sure to wet himself in bed at night. I guess if they are to already know their biological signals, we should just trust them on it. But still need to try to help get them off diapers at night.

So is there some technique into dealing with this?
I can't imagine f they still need to be in diapers at night at age 6 or 7!!

12 comments:

Lee said...

Hi Kathie, couldn't help smiling see your first pic.
Maybe next time put a Time magazine in his hand take a pic, ha ha.
One father here put a Playboy mag in his young kid's hand while on the potty, looks cute! Ha ha.
Your boys are cute, won't be long you save money no more diapers to buy.
By the way, when you going to give them a baby sister, *wink*? Ha ha.
Stay cool, Kathie, Lee.

hissychick said...

Hi Kathie,

Your boys are just so cute. And yay to Max with the toilet training, he is doing so well.

It seems to be the case that boys are much easier to train than girls. All of A's male friends did it without hassles and most are night trained as well. So I don't know who started that myth about girls being ready before boys.

We have a built in small toilet seat that flips down on top of the regular toilet seat plus a step, which means that A can take herself to the toilet with ease. We just need to get there for wiping!

With nighttime training I believe you simply wait until the nappies are dry for a while and then just have a go. A is like Micah, in that she likes to sneak in her morning wee before getting out of bed so we have no idea whether she is actually dry overnight (and we suspect that she probably is). So I'm ignoring it for now but a little while down the track will talk up how wonderful it would be to wear undies to bed and go from there.

All the best
hissychick

PS For long car trips we have a travel potty, which is a little potty frame to which you attach a little disposable bag. Makes it a breeze.

InfanT said...

Hi Kin,

Just wanna say that i really love listening to how MAx talks. He's such a malaysian boy...

Ann said...

Glad that Max is doing so well...

Micah...hmmm....glad he knows his limitations :) Maybe get him to wake you up when he wants to pee pee. I think he knows he is going to do it, but just too lazy to get up or scared to? (don't know, just guessing!)

But the pics of them sleeping really tickle me! They really very "lan fan"! Did both the pics happen in the same sleeping time? Coz sure looks like Micah and Max have changed sides of the bed.

JLow said...

If I recall correctly, there were 2 things I am sure we did (among others which I may have forgotten- oh no! how could I??)

1. Positive reinforcements.
As with hissychick's "yay", we did that too when we woke to find Caitlin's diapers dry from her overnight sleep. We did this everytime, which really got a chuckle our of her. And on times we found it wet, we just kinda went "Awww look, its wet" and pouted.

2. Chatting- Or more like telling her the way it is!
Once we thought she'd demo-ed enough confidence in her own body signals, we had a good assertive talk with her, like: "We will now stop wearing diapers, ok? If you need to go, just call / wake us, ok?" peppered again with so-clever, let's do another clever thing reinforcements.

I don't know if she was trying to please or impress, and/or willing to try new things (probably more of the latter now that I have gotten to know her better). We never looked back since then.

The challenge these days is the next step- to pee and clean up all by herself without adult assistance or supervision.

However, coming from Daddee (ie a guy) I know this sounds strange: I still insist that she needs to be washed after a pee, despite Mummee having already taught her to "pull off 2-3 squares, fold, and fold again, and wipe 1, 2, 3 times, front to back.."

Maybe it's cos I really still don't understand the female anatomy! Actually I just don't understand women! Haha!

A gift from God said...

I love those pictures...they are sooo cute...

mmm..I also wonders about night time potty training... :)

Looking forward to the new potty and try to give potty training a try! Thank Kathie..hope to meet you soon.

Mumsgather said...

I totally agree with Hissychick. Whoever said that boys are harder to train is wrong.

My girl took ages to train and continued to wet her bed for many months whereas my boy took 10 days to train and stopped wetting his bed at night automatically without "training". I just removed his night time diaper when I saw that he was continually dry every night after he got the hang of going to the toilet during the day.

I guess when they are ready, they are ready so just listen to their body signals and your instinct.

And oh, I never "potty" trained my kids because I am lazy. They both went straight to the big toilet (with a fitted smaller one over it of course) straight away so I never had to clean any potties. Hehe.

You asked for some tips. Well, you can read all about my boring toilet training stories here
if you like. :)

neomesuff said...

oh wow! now i cannot keep up with your entries!!!

for me..theres no specific potty training..just go with the flow on daily basis ;-)

Moomykin said...

u.lee,

Glad my boys made you smile. :)

Well, Max is just starting to be more cooperative in front of the camera. Before this he would want to grab hold of the camera, so most of the shots were candid ones. But he is learning from his brother.

We would love a girl, but things like this we have no control over. we do hope for one more soon. :)

Will keep you posted via the blog.

Have a good day.


-----------

hissychick,

Thanks for sharing your experiences. The built in toilet seat for a child sounds ingenious.

I suppose every child is different, not sure how gender bias is this toilet training thing though...

Regarding the travel potty, we actually try not to get them off the carseats during the ride or they will not want to get back in. Hence, we will put Micah on diapers too, if we drive out of town, i.e. a 4 or 6 hour journey.

Moomykin said...

infant,

Yeah, Max is just so Malaysian it's ticklish. It's also really fun to watch he an Micah talk.

ann,

Yeah, I think Micah is just too lazy to jump up to go to the bathroom. Rather just snooze in. Hahaha...

Yes, both the sleeping pictures were taken a few hours apart. There are days they will sleep on the same side of the bed till morning, but there are times they will switch, or will end up with the feet at where the heads were. There had also been occasions where by morning, the boys are on the bed with Mommy and Gadget-daddy is on the floor. Hahaha...

Moomykin said...

jlow,

What? You don't understand women? Hahaha... I am surprised. Well, maybe I expected more of you because you relate so well to your girl, But then again, She is a little lady and not a woman.

Regarding the toilet paper and washing, I think it's basically upbringing. My family has always used the toilet paper and so I was shocked when I first found out that Gadget-daddy's place has no toilet paper. They all just use the hose, including their mom.

So now our visitors can thank me for the toilet roll in the house. ;D

p/s- Thanks for the tips. I remember these from your blog.

-----------


a gift from god,

you are most welcome.
Hope we can meet another time.

Moomykin said...

mumsgather,

Hmmm.. so you let them wet the bed while they are going through the training period? Isn't it so troublesome to deal with a wet and stinky bed?

I will take a peek at your site as soon as I can have some quiet time to read. :)


-------------


neome,

You are the real cool mom.
Releks aje. :)