Toilet Training Comments
Here Are Some Comments On Toilet Training From Parents Just Like You
From the Mother of 4 Girls:
"As far as toilet training is concerned, I hate it! It is the worst job yet and the only way I found to get an easy child to toilet train was to have four!!
First child I put too much pressure on ... the whole "Is she still in nappies?" from my parents.
The second child went quite well. The third child did it herself. And the fourth child was trained by the first! I was off the hook.
Best advice is to relax and let them do it when they are ready, not when we, our parents, or any other so called expert thinks so."
By Ali, Mother of Jack 12, Simon, 9 and Damien 5:
“Child Number 1:
The best advice I heard from mothers of older children was that it will happen when the child is ready, no need to push the issue.
So with my oldest child I waited until he was showing interest in using a toilet and then introduced him to the potty and the toilet. I didn’t even think about starting in winter, I waited until summer. I can’t remember how long it took him, but he was trained in a very short time, possibly days. Except for poos. He was terrified of doing poos in the potty or toilet. He would wait until his night nappy was on in the evening before he would do a poo each day. Or he would panic, saying, “I need a nappy, I need a nappy, I need a nappy” until I put one on him and then he would fill it instantly and then I would have to change him. I got fed up with that pretty quickly!
We tried bribes, we’d sit on the toilet for ages, and nothing worked. We ended up going to a doctor who dealt with toileting issues for children and she said, “RELAX”. She also said to put his nappy on him in the toilet room, let him fill it there so he gets used to the idea that this is the room for the poos. Change him in there and he will eventually get sick of it and use the toilet instead. Well, it worked.
I didn’t even begin night training him until he was 4. A friend of mine had said that she just took off the night nappy, had waterproof protection on the bed and within 3 nights her child was dry. I tried that with my child and that’s what happened. Other people had told me that you start night training when they have dry night nappies, but my child didn’t have dry night nappies. This particular child has only had one other wet bed and he’s now 12. The older children are when they train the easier it is. I kept telling myself, “Well, he won’t be in nappies when he gets to school”. He was day trained in the January/February and turned 4 in the April. He wasn’t night trained until after 4, but I can’t remember when.
Child Number 2:
My second child was very different, I tried the same approach to my first child, and it seemed to work well at first. He seemed easier to train, didn’t have the issue with the poos. Until it came to nights. He is now 9 and has only just stopped wetting the bed. He went through a routine where he would be dry for a couple of months and then he’d go for a week straight with wet beds every night, and wet pants sometimes in the day. It’s been like this for years. We even took him to the paediatrician and found out there was nothing to find out – he was normal. I did find out that 10% of children in Australia under the age of 10 have trouble with bed wetting, so I relaxed about it (when I wasn’t frustrated!). The hardest thing about it has been convincing him that it isn’t a problem. I have offered him pull ups to wear at night, when he has gone on a camp or sleepover, but he has flatly refused, saying, “I’ll be all right” and thankfully he has been all right.
Child Number 3:
My third child I have been TOTALLY relaxed about, even to the point of forgetting to try night training! He is now 5 and I have only recently night trained him, using the same approach of “3 nights and he’ll be dry”. And he was. He has occasional wet beds, but nothing like his brother. Poos weren’t an issue for him either. They are all so different from each other, all boys, but the outcome is still (eventually!) the same: toileting independence. Hooray!! Yes, they do grow out of it, they do get there and there aren’t many children who enter high school needing night nappies! It’s important to try to keep a long term perspective when you’re in the middle of it, in the middle of all the never ending washing of bed linen. It will come to an end, and the more relaxed we can be about it, the easier it is for the child and for us too. Don’t treat toilet training as a big deal and it won’t become one.”
From Natalie, Mother of Sarah 5:
"It took her three separate tries over about 12 months. The first time she was two years old and I thought it would be easy and just jumped straight in. She just seemed so ready.
It didn't occur to me that she might not want to. It was a disaster!! By the third time she really knew what it was all about. We’d had months of story books, we had older friends over to visit to show off going to the toilet, we had gorgeous new undies waiting to be used, we had busy mornings lining all the toys up to use the potty. EVERYTHING!!
It was still a struggle but once the last bag of nappies ran out that was it! I showed her how few nappies were left and she seemed to make a real effort after that. She even night trained with those last couple of nappies. She was so proud of herself.”
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