Toper Turor

Potty Training Checked!

Potty Training Checked!

Just a little update on my little girls potty training efforts - I am happy to announced that she has passed the potty training (course) with flying colours and is now toilet trained! Naomi is pretty much a diaper-free toddler during the day and I make her wear her diaper only at around bed time, which is at 10-11pm.


After about 2 weeks of continuous potty training regime at her school/day care and home, Naomi finally got the hang of it. One evening last week, she came home from day care and asked me to bring her to the toilet for peeing (xuxu) and when she was in the toilet, I let her sit in the toilet seat and she just did her business there. From then on, everything was easy.

Contrary to some popular potty training tips that are often published in the internet, our potty training efforts with Naomi skipped the following things:

1. Cute Potty Seat

My husband and I already have one potty seat with very basic/standard design for Naomi. It was one of the compulsory baby items that we bought for our Chinese customary wedding ceremony years ago - part of the customs that hoped a baby would come into the newly weds arms soon. However, Naomi didnt want to use this potty seat at all.

Nevertheless, we decided not to buy another potty seat for Naomi (re: the cute one and of her preference) because we want to train her to do her business, straight in the toilet. For my husband and me, we didnt want Naomi to be attached to her cute potty seat and make her used to do her business conveniently like in the living room, bed room etc, because one day, wed still have to train her to get used to the toilet (again) if we were to use this method. We prefer one-time work. To date, this go-straight-to-the-toilet method works fine. Naomi sometimes can climb the toilet seat by herself, without my or my husbands assistance. We wait her does her business until she finishes though.

2. Bribing

My husband and I practically dont bribe Naomi to make her do or not do certain things in our daily life. We dont want to turn Naomi into a creature of bribing habit. For potty training efforts - we do, however, reward Naomi with heaps of praises every time she passes urine or motion in the toilet.

3. Fixed Frequency

In the beginning, I followed other peoples advice in forcing Naomi to go to toilet every 30 min or 1 hour. This trick didnt work and only created more in-house drama because Naomi just didnt want to go to the toilet if she didnt feel like to nor had no urge to pee/poop. When I forced her to go to the toilet at certain time intervals, she got angry and I, too, got frustrated when she refused to do this. And when shes angry, she tends to pee on her pants and then I would have to mop the floor.

Learning from this experience, these days, I would just ask her if she wants to xuxu or not. If she shakes her head, I take it as a no and Id just wait until she says xuxu and goes to the toilet herself. Id then follow her to the toilet. I guess things are now much easier when I take her lead on when to go or not to go to the loo.

Last night, when we were on the way home, Naomi told us "xuxu". She happened not to wear any diaper last night and I didnt bring any in her bag either. Then, I told Naomi to hold on until we reach home as we were reaching home pretty soon. I think she understood what I said. Once we reached home, she went straight to the toilet and did her thing -- another progress!

The only thing lacking now is that Naomi is still not able to differentiate pooping and peeing - she refers both as "xuxu". I need to ask her teachers how they say pooping in the school - just to make the learning effort consistent.

In conclusion, potty training a toddler does take energy, patience and time - these aint myths. Just persevere and be patient. Also, try to be consistent with your parenting or in this case, potty training, style that you think is best/comfortable for you and dont force your kiddo too much when it comes to toilet training. In addition, I think potty training doesnt have to be stressful, especially since each child is different.

I have now learned my lesson. Haha.

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