This is the concluding part of our Potty training series of our little ones. We hope you enjoyed the first piece and found it educative. Keep reading as we finish our thoughts on this topic that causes first time parents to sweat a bit more than normal, LOL. Feel free to share with fellow parents. If you missed the first post, you can read it here.
When your child starts taking initiative by going to the potty by themselves, let us recognize that milestone and praise them for it. Give a certificate if you want something elaborate, or a simple sticker. It is not easy! If you do not have a potty, or a child sized training toilet, please as a parent must exercise caution, if a toddler is using an adult sized toilet. A step up ladder or box would be necessary, or make sure that the child always goes with an adult to the toilet for supervision, to prevent falling into the toilet or any other danger the bathroom environment may present. Potty Training is also a great time to teach our kids good sanitary habits. Teach them to wash their hands after sitting on the potty, whether they go or not. Have a good hand wash dispensing bottle (please not bar soap) and then a towel for cleaning their hands. Half of the diseases in the world today, have its solutions related to washing of hands or using a sanitizer. So it is never too early to teach them how to start right.
Remember also that kids are different, some kids are born ready to be potty trained, while others are not remotely interested in the idea. For example, I have twin boys to potty train, and one of them is already good to go and can pee on demand when I tell him to. The other one just ignores my demands and continues playing in his baby language. So I know where my work lies majorly, and it would be wrong of me to compare him with his brother. Even if you are a parent of single births, the child you potty trained 4 years ago is different from the one you want to train now. Study your child and take a look at their cues for when they are pressed but do not want to say. Notice the fidgeting, holding of the crotch area, crossing of the legs and make a dash for it, or expect an avalanche.
As for achieving dry nights, you may want to start by using pull up diapers as it is easier to navigate with a sleepy child. Do remember to reduce liquid intake just before bed time, let the child pee before going to bed and do set a scheduled alarm for yourself to help you wake up and take the child to pee during the night. When you notice that the pull up diapers are making it dry through the night, you might want to take it a step further by removing it but to protect your mattress, a mackintosh will come in handy, or be prepared to have a mattress that looks like a world map, not to talk of the stench. This way you only do laundry for the pajamas and the bed sheets.
Boys potty train differently from girls so you might want to prepare yourself mentally for this. Girls aim a bit more directly while boys initially may be all over the place. It’s okay. Just have your cleaning products nearby and as they grow up, they learn to aim with more precision. Patience is the watchword yet again. Finally, if you are using a potty and just starting out, do not be too comfortable leaving them alone with the contents of their potty release for too long. Kids love to explore and if left unattended for long, they may decide to use their wonderful little fingers to explore the contents they just released. May God have mercy on you if it is a Number 2 they did, and your child is one of those creative ones, who may decide to leave you an art work on the carpet with the new painting material. LOL!
Let me end with a funny story. So when my 2nd born (a boy) was little and I potty trained him, for some weird reason he hated using public toilets. He only used toilets at home. Don’t ask me why. His nursery school closed at 1pm and I had to be at that door 1 pm on the dot and whisk him away to our home which was 5 minutes away. The first port of call was to run to the bathroom for him to pee and it was always a lot. If I came 5 minutes late, the boy would pee on himself rather than go to the school toilet. One year, we were travelling to Manchester in the UK, my son was pressed at the airport I took him to the cleanest airport toilet stall I could find, and he refused to pee. We got on board and I took him to the toilet on the plane, the boy refused to pee and I was not ready for any changing of clothes. I brought out my pull ups I had packed and wore the boy. After some time I saw that he had stopped dancing so I knew he had gone in the diapers. What to do?
Having said all that, be Brave dear Parent. You can do it! You will do it.
picture credits: the internet
