He expanded is repertoire today, courtesy of a four year boy (who's company we had the pleasure of today at a meeting of my local ABA group): "You're a nose-head!" he (not so politely) informs the woman standing ahead of us at the library loans desk. Actually, I think he learned poo poo bum bum from the same boy about 6 months ago.
Little did I know when I was all pregnant and excited about having a cute, little, cuddly baby, all those (three and a bit) years ago, that three and a bit years later, all this talk about poos, bums and nose-heads was not just talk. Just when you think the worst is over, that the days of baby milk spews and explosive poos are behind you, along comes the three year old spit-snot-fart-poo machine.
These days, I am forever reeling an index finger out of a three and a bit year old's nose. (What a nose-head!) Then quickly trying to wipe said finger before it is smeared on my couch, my clothes or the person sitting next to us on the train. But as of this week, snot is the least of my worries. This is because now we are toilet training. Officially.
I mean, we've played around with the idea since BallFiend was less than 18 months old. I read somewhere that some toddlers will toilet train at 18 months, so when he was about 16 months old I rushed out and bought a potty, hopeful that my spawn would be one of these elite few early toilet trainees. We caught a couple of wees in it, and even a poo once, simply by strategically positioning the potty in the right place at the right time (just before a bath). I also borrowed potty-training books from the library, let BallFiend watch us on the loo, talked about wees and poos and bottoms. Watch and applauded when friends from playgroup demonstrated their toileting skills. Coveted fancy undies with the best TV friends money can buy emblazoned on them. On warm days, I'd strip him off to play naked in the garden. More recently we had done a few hours at a time here and there 'practicing' wearing undies (potty use on these occasions was fairly hit-and-miss). When asked if BallFiend was toilet training yet, I'd happily proclaim that yes we are laying the groundwork.
For a long time, I was quite happy to wait... I have spoken with several mums of at least two kids and consensus was that a child will not learn toileting skills until some physiological development happens... some switch in the brain just flicks over and connects it to the bladder. The theory is that if you 'train' a child before this, they will get it right some of the time, and will 'miss' some of the time. Essentially you will just be using undies as nappies (impractical, unabsorbent, pointless!) and with a bit of good luck, sometimes the potty will be used instead.
I was told that one day BallFiend will decide he dislikes nappies and will want to wear undies instead. Even better, if I wait for this moment, he will just know what to do and there will be few if any 'accidents'. According to Gran, DeepSpice did this. One day he said he didn't like nappies any more. So he was offered undies provided he used the potty. Being the amenable chap that he is, DeepSpice agreed and that was that.
In the past few weeks/months, it has become very apparent that the 'brain switch' has happened: BallFiend has been swimming at Gran and GrandPaul's house, and at VolubleK's house, and played in the paddling pool at MasterW's house and on each occasion, BallFiend knew to get out of the pool to wee. But he still just seemed to like wearing nappies. He had no problem wearing soiled nappies. Potty-training books were just another story to read, nothing special. Peer pressure didn't work - he didn't care that most of the kids in our playgroup and those in his room at creche were in undies now. He didn't care about undies with pictures of Thomas or Bob or whatever on them. Apart from saying poo poo bum bum a lot, he had no interest in discussing the matter or watching anyone else in the act.
Despite my intention to wait until he decided he wanted out of nappies, truth is, I am getting fed up with changing nappies on a three and a bit year old. Fed up with spending money on disposables, fed up with trying to get a wriggly boy to stay still long enough to change him, fed up with seeing him get nappy rash because he doesn't tell us when there's a poo and he wears it for ages. Added to this is some pressure to be toilet trained in time for starting 3-year-old kinder (which begins in February)... children are supposed to be toilet trained, but I wasn't really worried if he didn't meet the deadline. The sessions are only 2.5 hours, and he usually doesn't need a nappy change that often. (Although it has been useful as an extra incentive: "kinder kids wear undies and you are going to be a kinder kid", etc.)
So two days ago we went 'cold turkey' on day time nappies. I didn't plan it or anything. I just took off his overnight nappy in the morning and told him he was going to wear undies today. Of course he protested and asked for a nappy so I stalled and said we could put one on 'in a minute' and that he just had to 'wear undies for a little while, while I get a fresh nappy'. Minutes became hours and now hours has become 2 days.
Day 1 was easy - we stayed home all day and he got right into it. Just went and sat on the potty when he needed to wee. We had 4 or 5 hits (including a poo on the potty!) and only one miss late in the afternoon when he was getting tired and had reduced concentration.
Day 2 was fine, all going well until... I had to leave the house! Thumper had her 4 month old appointment with the Maternal and Child Health Nurse at 2.00 pm. About an hour before we needed to leave, BallFiend said he felt like a poo was 'coming soon, but not yet'. I had him sit on the potty anyway - he did a wee, but the poo was a no-show. So I put him in brand new terry toweling training pants and we went to the MCH appointment. I left BallFiend to play in the waiting room while I went into the Nurse's office with Thumper. But I had barely sat down before I heard BallFiend cry out "Mum I've got a poo!". Too late. It was in his pants. That wasn't such a problem. The problem was getting the pants off, without spilling the poo.
Never in all my pre-baby life when I speculated about what might be the greatest trial of parenting did I imagine that I would have to pick poo up off the floor WITH MY BARE HANDS!!!
As I attempted to carefully slide the training pants down BallFiend's legs, he 'helpfully' tried to lift his feet out through the holes, knocking poo everywhere. Then he started to run off, to continue playing, nearly stepping in the poo before he nearly sat down on the floor to keep playing with the toys he had out. I grabbed him just in time and pleaded with him to wait and stand still until I had wiped him up. Then I dealt with the poo on the floor, depositing it in the nearest toilet and scrubbing the floor as best I could with cheap paper towel.
With that trauma over, I went back in to continue Thumper's check up. She did really well. Didn't even poo on the scales while she was being weighed.
So that brings us to today, Day 3. Another successful day overall. The highlight of the day being BallFiend's debut on 'the big toilet' while we were at the library for the ABA meeting. I was so impressed: he told me that he needed to do a wee and was able to hold on while I thrust Thumper upon one of the ABA counsellors (who was more than happy to have a baby to cuddle) and then raced him off to the loo. He sat up on the big toilet without any concern (I had to hold him up there though), did his wee and that was that. It was like he'd being doing this all his life.
So it seems we are now officially in undies all day and only wearing nappies at night time. Still not sure what to do for day time naps. Today I used a disposable pull-up, because he was brewin' another poo, and lucky I did because when I woke him up from his nap, I discovered he had done a poo. Though I suspect if I had left him in undies he would have used the potty. I get the feeling that once he is in a disposable nappy (even if it's the pull up style) he just reverts to his old ways.
Now, just another 2 years or so to go until I am done with changing nappies... unless Thumper turns out to be one of those elite 18 month old toilet trainees. Fingers crossed she will be. I have been using cloth nappies with her, because I read somewhere that babies in cloth nappies toilet train at a younger age. Will have to wait and see if you can believe everything you read about babies... Ha!
--
No comments:
Post a Comment