Toilet Training

After rave reviews of Lora Jensen's 3 Day Potty Training from a couple of workmates, we decided to conduct a Toilet Training "Boot Camp" based on the 3-day method.  Like most the country, we both took the Friday off following Australia Day which allowed us four days for our boot camp.

On the first day, Geekling enthusiastically threw away all his nappies and donned one of his many pairs of new undies.  We told him he must try very hard to keep his undies dry and to let us know if he needed to do a wee or poo.  He knows both of these bodily functions, and had been able to tell us for a while when he had done one so we were sure he was ready.  We allowed him to have as much liquid as he liked, and encouraged him to eat lots of high-liquid foods like juice icey-poles, home made fruit sorbet, fresh watermelon, fresh apple and yoghurt as well as some tinned fruit to keep his stools soft.

Disaster struck however, when we made it to the potty for his first wee - it is a musical potty and the loud music it played to indicate his new achievement scared the little guy, so much that he refused to go near the potty again even after we'd turned the musical feature off.  So we decided to use the toilet instead with one of those under-the-seat inserts we had.  Even so, he'd burst into tears every time as we rushed him to the toilet during each wee.  Just before his afternoon nap, his Grandma visited and bought a step and seat contraption she uses at her house for the other grandchildren, and emboldened by a visit from his Grandma, Geekling successfully used the new seat.

So the following three days involved near-constant reminders to tell us when he needed to go to the toilet (rather than asking if he needed to), asking if his underwear was dry, telling him how grown up he looked in his undies and how proud we were of him.  Because we had thrown out his nappies, we were keeping him in undies for naps and night sleeps too.

There were many accidents - most of them Geekling would tell us he needed to go, but without enough time to get him to the toilet.  On day one there were over 30.  On day two there were around 20.  Day three had about 15 and day four had 8.  The number of accidents was decreasing, he was going longer and longer between wees which were higher in volume each time.  Still, the rushing to the toilet and the clean ups were exhausting, and hubby and I grew short tempered with one another at times.  We were not sure how Geekling would go at day care on the Monday but did not want to send along any nappies after "throwing them away" and going without for 4 whole days.

We needn't have worried.  His daycare were very supportive and had no limit on the number of accidents he has.  I checked in at 10:30am on his first day back (day five) and he'd had one accident.  That accident was his only accident all day.  Today (day six) he hasn't had a single accident.  He can tell us he needs to go with enough notice to get to the toilet, remove his pants and climb up himself and will do his business then announce "finished!" he's done.  He loves to wash his hands and dry them.

And its really hit me now - our baby isn't a baby anymore.  He's a little boy.