The Big Boy Potty Training Story

Remember this baby? He is now a boy. A rebellious boy. Very much unlike his elder sibling in many ways. He is one strong-willed child who only takes his way or his highway.

Do not be fooled with the adorable and innocent smile.

Potty training is one such example. He has got his ability to hold his bladder for pee and poo until I put a diaper on him. He will wait and wait till I give in.

However, way before he was potty trained, he started wearing undies on the outside, only for the paparazzi!

He was even featured on a diaper review on my for Merries diaper.

And so it stuck. After much efforts, potty training never worked out. I had tried my own method I found when potty training Sanju, but you know as they say, every kid is an individual, every kid is different.

Jeev never likes to see or even sit on the potty. Oh yes, during several occasions I was able to coax him into sitting on the potty with the Ipad on his hand. But it only lasted as long as the Ipad battery. And the potty? Well nothing, no pee no poo.

There was once in the past that I had taken the cold turkey method. Waited for his bladder to be full and  let him pee it out. I waited, and he waited, and we waited more. Finally I gave in after a few hours. Unfortunately, by then he had developed mild UTI, and was crying every time he passed pee. How hard it was, brought him to his paed and took 2 days to recover. After that I was mentally scarred and did no dare to take on any forceful step.

Then fast forward to 6 months and I was slowly taking soft steps to make him follow big brother and release it out. Nothing, never. He always needed diapers to be on to let it go. 

One fine day when I was away at work and my mom was with the kids, she asked him to sit on the bathroom floor to pee. Apparently he was resilient at first (why am I not surprised?). But somehow he did let go. The next day I was home, and my mom tried it again, and this time the kid ran to me for solace. 

My mom went back on New Year's day. By the 2nd January it just strike me to have him sit on the bathroom floor and do it again. To my uttermost surprise, he did! That was the biggest sign that he is indeed ready, like finally!

I knew I had to continue this effort from then on. That night, I managed to convince him to go diaperless. He emptied his bladder before bed, and went to sleep in his jammies with smaller bum (oh how nice it was to feel his real bum). Throughout the night I kept asking if he needed to pee. He must have been so irritated in his sleep thinking 'she is such a nag' but I had to remind him so that he does not go on making the bed wet. It was success at first try! Of course he did have wet spots on his pants on some nights, but that is okay considering he gets up and tells me to change the pants. Small matter!

But the real challenge was yet to come, the big business, no.2, that is the POO. As he was still confused with his control mechanisms, he was having trouble doing his poo. For the first 3 days, he controlled and did not poo at all. We had to insert enema for him to clear it out by the 4th day. It was not easy. We almost gave up and wanted to put on his diapers but I told myself, we cannot turn back! I kept assuring him that it is okay to let go, our body worked that way.

From then onwards, for at least 2 weeks, doing poo was my torture hour. He would tell me he wants to poo, go to the toilet, and cry running back. Repeat this 5x until real poo comes out. Sometimes he would get all moody and scold, cry, even hit me. I told myself to be patient and just endure, for I knew he would realise this is the norm.

It has been 1 month now and I can proudly say that, everything is normal, Jeev has gotten used to his routine. And no diapers ever since! In fact, from the beginning of his training, he said all his diapers has been given to Baby Daksh!

A happy kid is a happy mommy. No more cloth diaper shopping (sniff sniff!) but yeay to no more spending on disposable diapers (those things are expensive!). Happy endings are not just for fairy tales, every potty training has one too!