Toilet training a toddler

If you are a regular reader, you’d have picked up that Caitlin is in my mum-in-law’s care during our working / office hours. This was the arrangement pretty much right from her birth.

Mum’s key to toilet training Caitlin was regularity. At almost-specific times of the day (maybe 4-5 times a day) she would bring Caitlin over to the toilet & coax her to pee. Special attention was paid when Caitlin has consumed more than usual amounts of liquid, but basically her toilet-training was to catch it before it rains, figuratively.

While I generally practise positive reinforcements, we also did show some friendly-disapproval (if you can call it that) to Caitlin if she did wet her diapers. OOooooh look- it’s wet. But generally we practised the former: Cheering when Caitlin’s diapers were dry after waking from both her afternoon naps & overnight sleeps. We also bought a toddler’s toilet seat & made it a big deal to her about her very own special seat to encourage her to use it.

It was as simple as that. She started telling us when she needed to go. She still does now mainly because she is not tall enough yet to get on the toilet on her own, or wash up after she’s done.

The breakthrough, not surprisingly, was when we explicitly explained to her that we wished (keyword) that she’d stop wearing them when she slept at night, & made it an adventure for her. I guess it also helped that, in our day-to-day interaction with her to develop her self-confidence in life, that we really do cheer her on when she accomplishes something, whatever the size of the accomplishment. The cheering does spur her on to want to do it.

Of course there were still accidents the first few nights, but I gotta say I don’t recall it being more than 3 times. I think it was because it was suddenly cold (airy??) without diapers!

This skill is something I will forever be indebted to mother in law- thanks Mum!

2am, almost every night: Daddee….. DADDEE…. I need to go shee shee!

While I am one of those who really treasures sleep (’cos I get headachey and/or isn’t fully functional from lack of sleep), it’s nothing compared to this; especially that adorable sleepy face & the occasional out-of-the-blue questions, like last night’s “Why did the neighbour-boy come asking for sweets all dressed scarily?”