Goodbye, Nappies!

Our little girl is now fully toilet trained!

Yipee!

I'm a happy mum because we get to save now on buying nappies and wipes.

I'm a proud mum because she's just 27 months! :) Still early as compared to other kids her age, right?

I took it upon myself to toilet train her because first, Alvin was the one who toilet trained our son, Liam (well, 3/4 of the credit goes to him). Liam was toilet trained at around 28-30 months. It's still early as compared to kids of the same age.

Second, it's very understandable that I do the toilet training with Sammie, because she is a girl.

Third, I knew it wasn't impossible to toilet train her even at a young age.

When she started talking, I took it as a sign.

At 18 months, I started training her when it came to pooing. It's the easiest part for me. The second phase was when she needed to pee. There were accidents -- added work for me, since it was mostly on the carpet, and she got used to saying "pupu" even if she only wanted to pee. Patience was tested hehehe.

By the time she was almost two and we had to fly to SG and Manila, I was very thankful she was already toilet trained at daytime. You see during our flights, I didn't have the dilemma of cleaning her up and changing her soiled nappy on the plane, because she did all her poo-ing in the toilet :) Sometimes, I'd get so dizzy inside the toilet while we experienced some turbulence hahaha. There were times I'd hurry to bring her to the toilet because she kept on saying she needed to poo when what she needed to do was just pee. I admit, there were times in the flight when I wished she'd just pee on her nappy! hahaha We just put on her nappy as a back up :)

The hardest part for me was the night nappies. I was ready to wait. You really can't force the kids. It might be harder for me (and more work) in the long run especially if she just ends up wetting our bed every night. We started bringing her to the toilet before bed time and as soon as she woke up in the morning. Earlier this month, we have observed that there were days when her night nappies wasn't wet at all. We took it as a sign that she might be ready to end nappy wearing. But still, we didn't force her. We might be lucky, because earlier this week, after we put on her nappy, she started to get irritated and told us straight away, "Mama, I don't like to wear nappy." Alvin and I looked at one another, checking if we are ready for it. We asked her again and she stood her ground, no nappy that night.

And the rest, as they say is history.

I am not taking all the credit. It was a team effort for both me and Alvin. So thank you too, Papa A!

Now, because I am a hoarder, I have two big bags of nappy pants in stock at home and two opened bags of nappy we were trying to finish before that big day. At this point, we don't know what to do with all of it! hehehe :)

the two bags of nappy pants

Now that she's fully toilet trained, I am now moving on to another task...how to wean her from breastfeeding! O-o that is another story :)

Congratulations, anak! Job well done!

As a reward and because we get to save now on nappy and wipes, we bought her Peppa Pig DVD and Peppa Pig shirt, which is now her current favourite ;)

happy with rewards

Pu-pu and Wiwi

My son is almost toilet trained. Why almost? Almost because he already knows how to tell us when he needs to poo but not yet when he needs to wee.

When he was 15 months old, my brother -in-law saw the signs that my son is ready to tell us when he needs to poo. Following his suggestions, we became successful in toilet-training him when it's poo time. Some friends were amazed because as what they have said, it is quite early for a boy. We were happy of course, because we were able to save a number of nappies and wipes because of that.

Now that he is 26 months old, we feel that we should already start teaching him to tell us when he needs to wee. So we can say that he is fully toilet-trained. This is in preparation for his pre-school next year and for his current swimming lessons. But it is much harder than we have imagined!

Let me share now our misadventures as we try to fully toilet-train him. Oh yes, we are still not successful! So what have we been doing?


For two weeks now, we have tried to remove his nappy every morning or every afternoon.
1) In the mornings (or afternoons, depending if he has pooed already), for about 30 mintues to an hour, we don't put his nappy.
2) When he does not have his nappy, we remind him constantly, every fifteen minutes at that, to tell Papa or Mama if he needs to wee.
3) We ask him as well, "Where do you wee?"
4) We need to hear him say that he needs to wee in the toilet.
5) We tell him not to wee on the lunge or the carpet (but so far, has has wet the carpet twice, once on the lounge, and once on the kitchen)
6) If he does wee accidentally on the carpet, we let him feel his short pants and see for himself the effect of not telling mum or dad.After all he knows the difference between wet and dry.
7) We try to tell him that when does not wee on nappy anymore, we will just buy him a new Wiggles DVD.
8) If he accientally wees on the floor or wherever, we bring him to the toilet to let him try to wee again. We tell him it's alright but next time, he needs to tell Papa or Mama that he needs to wee, BEFORE he wees and not AFTER, which he now does.

We're not yet frustrated or anxious that after two weeks of trying we are still not successful. We are enjoying the misadventures of toilet training. We know that after this toilet training on daytime, we still need to toilet train him when he goes to sleep at night-- no bed-wetting on night time. Another challenging task ahead of us! It takes time, yes, we know that. That is why we believe that in due time, he will be mature enough and ready to wee on his own, like when he does when he poo.

So now, on with our misadventures.