Toilet training has begun...

What is Potty elmo? I'm new to all this children stuff!

I wouldn't worry about it too much Mummy.....all kids are different. Maybe just not worry about it and not even discuss it for another couple of months. We have kids are playcentre that are 3+ and still not toilet trained. In fact, 2 of the kids I am thinking of are very smart onto it kids, they are just not ready.

I appreciate the wanting to get rid of nappies. Maybe just pop her on the toilet before her bath as part of the routine and encourage her to try before getting in. Just make it part of the routine.

Hi,
Just wanted to let the two lovely ladies know who helped me out with advice yesterday that we have had the best day ever today as far as potty training goes and I am positive it can only get better. She went on the toilet three times this afternoon and produced something on each occasion with no accidents bar one first thing this morning. Your advice helped no end. It's probably because i've stopped pressurising her.

Cheers,

LO

Paris has done poos once in the toilet, was so excited to flush the toilet and waved, bye bye, lolol. haven't had anything else, although she is still wearing a nappy, just being put on there regularly.. have noticed she tends to be dry constantly, then after her nap her nappy is saturated. right now she just sits there and says, "paper, parper" till she gets some toilet paper. she schrunches it up, wipes puts it in the toilet and asks for more. so at least i spose once she starts actually GOING she'll have the clean up down-packed.

lol, felt so bad this afternoon - paris tried to reach the toilet paper holder, leant a bit too far and ended up falling off the loo head first into our bathroom cabinet - managed to stop herself hitting head thank goodness - on one hand i was trying to console her, but on the other hand i sorta laughed a little. i'm so mean. definately a 21st story - (nah, THAT would be meaner!)

They are all so alike our toddlers! Mine put the toilet duck down the toilet one Sunday and flushed it down, and it cost me nearly $200 to get the plumber to make an after hours callout to unblock it. Definitely one of those "Lucky she's so cute" moments!

Kiya's been day tted for about 10 months now, I started properly training her just after she turned 3. I didn't use a potty or toilet seat, the potty I really didn't want to be cleaning all the time, and I knew I'd forget to take the seat out with me somewhere, so I figured I'd just get her used to sitting on the toilet... also, then a bit of "what a big girl! Look at you, using the grownup's toilet!" came into play.

Here's something my mother-in-law suggested that worked really well initially:
we got some sticker charts (or you could make them on the computer) and some small stickers. The charts had a grid of 5x4 squares, so each one would hold 20 stickers. We wrote her name big across the top and every time she went to the toilet (and did something) she got a sticker on her chart. We had the chart up on the fridge, and made a big deal out of putting the stickers on. When she'd filled the chart up, she got a small treat... for Kiya, it was going to the dairy and choosing a "special" iceblock type of thing.

Once she'd got the hang of that, we changed it slightly. Now, when she'd stayed dry for a set period of time she got a sticker. It worked out as Breakfast to morning tea, Morning tea to Lunch, Lunch to Afternoon tea, Afternoon tea to Dinner. Again, she got a small treat for filling up her chart.

Then we extended the time periods: Breakfast to lunch, Lunch to Afternoon tea, Afternoon tea to Dinner, and a bonus sticker if she'd stayed dry all day. With this one, about halfway through her chart we bought her the DVD of Piglet's Big Movie and put it on top of the fridge, leaning on the wall so she could see it. We put up another chart and told her that once she'd filled up both charts she'd get the DVD to keep. It worked!

As Kiya is a bit older, this part might not work for all of you, but once she'd got the hang of staying dry all day (and had received the DVD) we retired the sticker charts in favour of "pocket money". When Kiya stayed dry all day, she got 5 cents. She also got 5 cents for tidying her bedroom (throwing her toys into the toybox) and for making her bed (pulling up the covers and putting her nighty under her pillow). At various times, I would help her get some money out of her money box and we would walk to the dairy where she would buy 20 cents or so worth of lollies with her own money (with the added bonus of teaching her about purchasing things... that sometimes you just don't have enough money to buy everything you want to get!)

As far as night tt goes, we'd just got that under control (we started it about October) with her having no drinks after dinner, going to the toilet before bed and mananging to stay dry most nights. Kiya doesn't wake up if she wets her bed in the night, so after any nights she did wet the bed, she'd wake up in the morning shivering. We decided to put her back into nappies at night a couple of weeks before christmas, however, as she broke her arm ! and there was no other way to guarentee the cast would stay dry during the night! The cast came off just over a week ago, so we're back into reteaching her how to control her bladder all night.

I think the worst part for Kiya was that she got a Slip 'n' Slide for christmas, and had to wait until her cast came off before she could play on it! She also got Daddy a water pistol, and received one herself but had to wait for the water fight as well... we found not being able to take her to the beach or for a swim at the pools hard, especially as we were in Tauranga over Christmas and again just after New Years!

Bump!