a tip for kids that won't go (Potty Training Tips)

Member Name: cdcclub

Product:	Potty Training Tips
Date:	28/08/08 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: unusal but does work

Disadvantages: splash backs and can take a little thought and prep

Although both my boys are gladly way past this stage now I thought I would share with you some of the tips I learned when potty training my darling sons.

My eldest was late starter and was almost 3 before we even began trying to get him to use a potty, all previous attempts before that had failed and generally made him very distressed so we thought we best wait till he was ready and not force him.

Luckily enough when his brother was born he had come to the conclusion through carefully placed persuasion that only little babies wear nappies and he wanted to be a big boy before starting nursery. Believe me this was not an easy task, new born baby in one hand and trying to keep down little accidents in the other. My family thought I was off my head but when the timing is right you have to go with it.

We bought 2 potties one for the bathroom and one for down stairs to save on accidents. I also used huggies pull em up at night to save myself on washing as there was plenty to do at the time with a newborn and a under bladder controlled toddler.

Everything went relatively easy on the old pee scale and within a matter of days we were only getting the occasional accident. But as far as doing the toilet was concerned he would always end up doing that within minutes of getting on the pull em ups.

So we tried different tactics such as not wearing pull em ups for a while, this didn't work as he would go a few days without doing the toilet and I worried he would end up damaging his bowels.

Next we went for placing a nappy into the potty to see if that would work, again no joy. This ended up going on for months on end and the worry of it all was taking its toll on me. I decided to discuss his problem with my health visitor when I was up getting my youngest his check up and she gave me an idea, a bizarre one that I really thought would never work but was willing to give anything a go by then.

What she told me was that when children potty train they find that doing a pee is easy as the don't have the discomfort of feeling wet but regarding doing the toilet it can be a whole other ball game. When doing the toilet in a nappy it is always close to the body but in the toilet or potty it falls away from them and for some children this can be scary or discomforting for them. So what we should to is use cling film.

I can just see the puzzled looks on your faces now.

CLINGFILM ?

Ok here's what you do, when you get an inkling that your child needs the toilet place cling film over the top of the potty or toilet seat. This will imitate the closeness of the nappy and make it almost similar to the same feeling the get when doing it in a nappy. Gradually as your child becomes for confident in doing this you use more cling film so that the (ok I will need to use the word) poo falls a little bit away from your child. Till eventually you have no real need to use cling film anymore.

Out of everything I had tried previously this actually worked. Ok we got the occasional splash back when he decided to do a pee at the same time but it was worth it just to have him able to go to the toilet without tears and tantrums or needing to use laxatives as he would have made him self really constipated.

I am happy to say he is now a happy and regular 10 year old and should he ever come across this will no doubt disown me for life. But I hope that this tip will help anyone else out there that is having similar problems with their child as I know how you feel and hope that this tip might work for you.

Summary: praise be for health visitors they are worth thier weighit in gold