Journey To The Toilet - (almost) 17 Months

 

Background:
We started our journey to the toilet fairly early, at just 7 months we started introducing the potty. I decided to introduce the potty early and get Jydan use to sitting on it as my motto was 'It's easier to make a habit then break a habit'. Getting him use to not just doing wee's in his nappy, I thought would make toilet training alot more easier later on.
But by 8 months Jydan was put on Iron Liquid. The iron gave him... well lets just say iron liquid and toilet training.. the worst combination!

Six months later...

We reintroduced the potty again at 14 months, you can read our Journey To The Toilet - 14 Months post HERE. And it worked really well!! We were back at square one with introducing the potty, but because it had always been around, it wasn't a strange object & he was happy, and really excited to sit on it

. At 16 & 1/2 months I decided to go from introducing the potty, to actually training! He spent his days without a nappy on (except for nap and bedtime) and we started training him to go to potty, just like  a 2.5 year old.

 

Pottytraining.com.au:

 

I follow www.pottytraining.com.au ... So worth taking a look at! Such an informative site to help with early toilet training. When I signed up she even personally called me! How good is the service?! I highly recommend taking a look at their site! 

 

I'm using a few tips from all different sites as well, I picked what I thought was best for Jydan and myself and went with them.. and it's working brilliantly!

 

Six Top Reasons Why I Decided To TT Early:

• 'Ready' signs actually happen long before two. Jydan's first ready sign happened when he was just 6 months old actually. I didn't want to ignore them, and in return making toilet training harder in the long run teaching HIM to ignore them too. I believe that we are born with a natural instinct to be toilet training. Leaving a child in nappies for too long can teach their body to ignore this instinct.
  
• I wanted to start before Jydan learnt to 'hold on' to his wee and teaching himself to 'go' in his nappy. While he was still doing wee's every 20-30 minutes (and has now learnt to hold it for the potty).
  
• It's easier to CREATE a habit then BREAK a habit.
  
• As I've wrote before, we are trying for #2. I know how hard 'early days' are.. I'm not completely sure how I could look after a brand new bub and toilet train a 2-3 year old aswell. Besides that, I don't want to be washing two lots of nappies.
  
• I don't think "Terrible Two's" & toilet training would be a great combination. The tantrum's are bad enough now as it is!
  
• And lastly, but most importantly, I knew that my son was capable and ready.

Our Progress:

After Jydan had a toilet training regression last month, I decided to step up our toilet training up. From introducing the potty, to going nappy free! It's going better then I thought, so I thought I would write his 17 month old post early!! (He isn't 17 months for another week).
There were days where I thought 'Why am I bothering???!' There were accidents, It's a new skill being learnt. Like walking. Babies aren't going to get up and walk without falling. Jydan still falls three months on. Like riding a bike, using a spoon.. skills take time to perfect. But each day there was progress. Even if it was only minor, I could sit back and go '5 less accidents today' 'dry after naps' or 'dry after going out' ...And that was enough to know that I was doing the right thing.

 We are currently on day 5 ... or 6???... And have mastered going out and about nappy free! Jydan had mastered it on probably the third day, but I only had just got the courage to put him in underwear out. Nap times he is also waking up dry. Although we have just changed his naps (from two naps to one) so I'm expecting this to confuse him a bit (although I'm sure he's alot smarter then I give him credit for!).

Jydan went from weeing every 20-30 minutes to being able to hold and control his bladder. He now wee's about every hour - hour & half instead.

We are still looking for his signs of needing to eliminate; crouching, holding himself, grabbing at himself, stop playing, sit on the potty for a while, he can start to get really agitated when he needs to go and sometimes, but rarely, he will ask for the potty. These signs happen about ten minutes before he uses the potty.

We are using a timer (the oven timer, it's long and loud and lets face it, that's where I spend alot of my time!!) after an hour or so of him going to the potty, and every 10 minutes after that until he goes again. Then again, set it for an hour, then if he doesn't go, every 10 minutes after that. Each time it goes off it's "POTTY TIME" and we all yell out 'potty time' run around, and make it super fun getting on the potty. That's the key I think, making the whole process fun! Which can be very exhausting for mum and dad.. let me tell you!

Once he's on the potty, I give him the choice of however long he wants to stay on for. 5 seconds or 5 minutes, no matter then length, if he hasn't gone, I put him back on in ten minutes anyway. We read books, books and more books, paint, play drums, build blocks, stick stickers, play with water and all sorts while on the potty.. again, making it a fun experience.

So yes, he is still relying on us to tell him when to go and he hasn't made that link of 'when I need to do a wee, I should go to the potty' but he has made the link that 'I wee in the potty'. Which I think is the most important link anyway.

Yesterday we only had one accident, the day before we didn't have any accidents until after two pm (we were both tired and very 'I can't be bothered' by then) and today we haven't had ANY so far & it's four thirty pm!

I think that's pretty much all for now. But I think he is doing an AMAZING job!! I would say that Jydan is 90% day toilet trained. In just five days of solid toilet training!! And it won't take us long to complete it!



 I'm going to write a post about all my tips and what you will need for 'early' toilet training.

Journey To The Toilet - 16 Months

We started our journey to the toilet fairly early, Jydan was only 7 months, but that was more an introduction. We wanted to start introducing the potty early. My motto was 'It's easier to make a habit then break a habit'. 
But by 8 months Jydan was put on Iron. The iron gave him bad, bad diarrhea, so we put it aside, and then life got busy!
We reintroduced the potty again at 14 months, you can read our Journey To The Toilet - 14 Months post HERE. And it worked really well!! I follow www.pottytraining.com.au ... So worth taking a look at! Such an informative site to help with early toilet training. When I signed up she even personally called me! How good is the service?! I highly recommend taking a look at their site! 
I'm not putting a time limit on Jydan's toilet training, even though I've introduced the potty early, it doesn't mean I'm expecting him to pick it up early. 

Our Progress:

Jydan has gone backwards in his toilet training, after last month he was doing so incredible well, but he is having a toilet training regression. I completely expected him to at some stage though, so I'm not surprised, it seems to be really really common with toilet training. Except I'm glad it's happening now, and not at two or three years old. Another reason to start early perhaps? 

Anyway, he is hardly doing wee's in the potty at the moment. Before, he was doing about two a day. So I've upped how often we put him on the potty. Instead of between nappy changes, Im putting him on about every hour. Hoping that makes a difference soon. I'm thinking of also doing a day with out a nappy on and putting him on the potty very often and seeing how he goes too.
We have noticed that he is starting to grab at his doodle  BEFORE he needs to go to the potty. So that's a really really good sign! And if he is about to do a poo, and we say 'do you need to go to the potty?' he goes 'yyyyyyeeeeeep' (if he doesn't, he generally does answer no).

So we might be dealing with a regression, but there is some positive steps being made too! Go my little man!!

Journey To The Toilet - 15 Months.

We started our journey to the toilet fairly early, Jydan was only 7 months, but that was more an introduction. We wanted to start introducing the potty early. My motto was 'It's easier to make a habit then break a habit'.
But by 8 months Jydan was put on Iron. The iron gave him bad, bad diarrhea, so we put it aside, and then life got busy!
We reintroduced the potty again at 14 months, you can read our Journey To The Toilet - 14 Months post HERE. And it worked really well!!I follow www.pottytraining.com.au ... So worth taking a look at! Such an informative site to help with early toilet training. When I signed up she even personally called me! How good is the service?! I highly recommend taking a look at their site! 
I'm not putting a time limit on Jydan's toilet training, even though I've introduced the potty early, it doesn't mean I'm expecting him to pick it up early. 

Our Progress:

Jydan is doing SO well on the potty! I am so shocked, surprised and amazed and our little man. He is doing something on it at least once a day, sometimes three! We are still putting him on between nappy changes every 2 hours. And when we do put him on and sing 'wee wee in the potty, wee wee in the potty' it takes about 5 minutes for us to get a wee, if that! It doesn't take him long at all to recognize that it's time to do a wee.

There's been times where he has grabbed the potty himself and taken it to me for me to take his pants off and put him on! He has tried to take his nappy off and get on too. I think it's amazing how much he has picked up so far, remember, we've only been toilet training for about three weeks, and were not even 'training, training' him to the full extent.

We did have a few days off as he had bad excruciating eczema that was bright red and bleeding so I wanted cuddles and baths and sleep and making my little man feel comfortable to be our focus rather then the potty. But even when we got back into it, he hadn't forgotten a thing!
I think within the next month we will up his potty time even more and try him more often through the day. He is happy to sit on the potty and is understanding really well.

Journey To The Toilet - 14 Months.

We started our journey to the toilet fairly early, Jydan was only 7 months, you can read about it here: 7 Month Journey To The Toilet post.  But here's a bit of background:
We wanted to do Elimination Communication and started introducing the potty when Jydan was 7 months. We would try and catch his poops as he had a poop routine, so we could predict when it was coming. But by 8 months Jydan was put on Iron (you can read our 8 Month Toilet post here ). The iron gave him bad, bad diarrhea, so we put ECing aside, and then life got busy! Jydan is now almost 15 months now and we've started introducing the potty again. A little bit of a mix of Toilet Training and ECing. While we aren't 'nappy free' and looking out for weeing and pooping sign like you do while you're ECing, I'm not 'training' him as such, I'm making it a fun 'activity' for us to do! And Jydan is loving it! I follow www.pottytraining.com.au ... So worth taking a look at! Such an informative site to help with early toilet training. When I signed up she even personally called me! How good is the service?! I highly recommend taking a look at their site! 
I'm not putting a time limit on Jydan's toilet training, even though I've introduced the potty early, it doesn't mean I'm expecting him to pick it up early. 

Our Progress:

We've just started re introducing the potty and it didn't take Jydan long to learn how to sit himself on it himself. Jydan also did his first wee in the potty!! 

Woohoo *clap clap* 

Although, he had no idea he had done it, and neither had I 

(He was sitting on the potty watching music while I was doing the dishes). 

But I showed him what wee in the potty looks like which was a bit of a step :). 

Jydan is loving sitting on it. I put him on it between nappy changes to help to introduce using it. Sometimes he wants to go on it for a minute, sometimes 10. If he's not in the mood, we leave it be. I can try next nappy change (around every 2 hours).

Will update more next month!

Journey To The Toilet - 8 Months

Check out our 7 Month Journey To The Toilet post to see where and how it all started :).

Why we chose to do Elimination Communication?
Jydan poops at the SAME time everyday, or just about. 5.15pm. everyday. So what started out as 'we might as well just put him on the potty or toilet for it' ... well, why not? We know exactly when he is going to do a #2. We decided that once Jydan could sit on the potty independently, we will pop him on at 5.15 for a couple of minutes. Saves washing poo of a cloth nappy! So that's how we will start, just poops in the evening. Researching about it all I fell in love with the idea of Elimination Communication. Teaching a habit is easier then breaking a habit. Teaching babies a new habit (by using the toilet) instead of breaking a habit (that they poo and wee in a nappy).

What is Elimination Communication?
Elimination Communication is a toilet training technique using cues, signals, and being 'in-tune' to your babies needs to figure out what they do when they wee or poo and use those cues and signals to put them on the potty or toilet before they actually wee or poo. The theory and technique comes from countries like Africa where babies and children are nappy-less, accident-free and toilet trained by the age of one! Here, studies show that by using the elimination communication technique babies are toilet trained BY the age of two. Where the average age of the usual toilet training begins around three! However, EC is more about communication between mother and baby, or the carer and baby, then the final outcome (toilet trained).
Elimination Communication isn't seen as 'training' as such, more that we are meeting the babies needs, but for the sake of this blog, and to better understand what I'm talking about for those who don't know much about EC, lets just say toilet training.

Benefits of EC:
Bonding- Elimination Communication creates an extra bond between the career and baby by being more in tune with their needs and wants. Learning more about their communication and routine.
Saves Money & Environmentally Friendly- Many ECing parents or guardians don't go nappy-free 100% of the time, especially at night, but when they do they save money and waste on nappies. And being that children that have used the Elimination Communication are usually 'toilet trained' earlier, they are out of nappies completely sooner.
Less Bacterial Rashes & Infections.- 'Nappy Free Time' has always been used to help keep nappy rashes under control. EC allows the child to have less nappy time = less bacteria on their back and fronts, preventing UTI's.
Reduces Constipation - EC reduces the risk of constipation dramatically in children. It's much harder for a baby to poop laying down then sitting on a potty. Just imagine it.. can you poop laying down? Sitting up reduces strain and pushing which can sub consciously stop a baby from pooping.

Our Progress:

 Jydan is currently on iron liquid due to his very low iron levels. Because of that he hasn't been doing his usual 'poop' routine (which was 6.15pm) it's been really hard to catch his poopies! I'm so glad that we didn't get the constipation issues that come with it though.. we got the opposite!! ekk. To be honest I think I've only put him on the potty a handful of times this month and we haven't even caught a wee! With his iron liquid and Jydan being fairly sick it just hasn't been on our mind. I figure we still have another year or so until we have to seriously think about toilet training anyway. Let's hope for a better month this month :).

Journery To The Toilet... - 7 months.

So! Controversial subject, I know. I've especially found that when I've spoken to people about 'Elimination Communication' or, if you haven't heard of it... early toilet training. We had decided to begin when Jydan could sit independently. So here goes! Today was Jydan's first time on the potty! If you're interested in reading about our journey to the toilet, follow along!
 I have NOTHING against the average two year old toilet training, that definitely has it's benefits too, this is just the journey we've chosen... Elimination Communication isn't for everyone, but hopefully it's for us!

Why we chose to do Elimination Communication?
Jydan poops at the SAME time everyday, or just about. 5.15pm. everyday. So what started out as 'we might as well just put him on the potty or toilet for it' ... well, why not? We know exactly when he is going to do a #2. We decided that once Jydan could sit on the potty independently, we will pop him on at 5.15 for a couple of minutes. Saves washing poo of a cloth nappy! So that's how we will start, just poops in the evening. Researching about it all I fell in love with the idea of Elimination Communication. Teaching a habit is easier then breaking a habit. Teaching babies a new habit (by using the toilet) instead of breaking a habit (that they poo and wee in a nappy).

What is Elimination Communication?
Elimination Communication is a toilet training technique using cues, signals, and being 'in-tune' to your babies needs to figure out what they do when they wee or poo and use those cues and signals to put them on the potty or toilet before they actually wee or poo. The theory and technique comes from countries like Africa where babies and children are nappy-less, accident-free and toilet trained by the age of one! Here, studies show that by using the elimination communication technique babies are toilet trained BY the age of two. Where the average age of the usual toilet training begins around three! However, EC is more about communication between mother and baby, or the carer and baby, then the final outcome (toilet trained).
Elimination Communication isn't seen as 'training' as such, more that we are meeting the babies needs, but for the sake of this blog, and to better understand what I'm talking about for those who don't know much about EC, lets just say toilet training.

Benefits of EC:
Bonding- Elimination Communication creates an extra bond between the career and baby by being more in tune with their needs and wants. Learning more about their communication and routine.
Saves Money & Environmentally Friendly- Many ECing parents or guardians don't go nappy-free 100% of the time, especially at night, but when they do they save money and waste on nappies. And being that children that have used the Elimination Communication are usually 'toilet trained' earlier, they are out of nappies completely sooner.
Less Bacterial Rashes & Infections.- 'Nappy Free Time' has always been used to help keep nappy rashes under control. EC allows the child to have less nappy time = less bacteria on their back and fronts, preventing UTI's.
Reduces Constipation - EC reduces the risk of constipation dramatically in children. It's much harder for a baby to poop laying down then sitting on a potty. Just imagine it.. can you poop laying down? Sitting up reduces strain and pushing which can sub consciously stop a baby from pooping.

Our Progress:

The last few weeks we have been doing lots of nappy free time. I've picked up on a few signs that Jydan is doing a widdle. Sometimes he has a little grunt, sigh or he will stop playing for a split second and concentrate. Also, if he wee's while he is on his tummy, I can near guarantee that he will roll over to get away from the wetness. When he was younger he even had a 'wee face'!! (PS we put towels and change mats down where he is, and if he moves away, we disinfect where he is weed, we don't just let him piddle anywhere :) ). I'm trying to figure out more about his wee routine. I know he wee's about every 30 minutes, if not more, and he poo's at around 5.15pm everyday. He sometimes poops more then once a day depending especially on if I've eaten any dairy. At the moment he is going a few times a day because of the extra reflux medicine he isn't needing (we think!). We are slowly cutting that down now he can sit, and be more upright! lets see how we go.
So Jydan had his first go on the potty yesterday, so tiny on it! You can definitely tell they are made for older babies so I'm looking into ordering one for a tiny bum :). He didn't do a wee in it or anything, but it was more about introducing it to him.