Toilet Training!

I wasn't planning on toilet training Mountain Boy so early. It just sort of happened. Sometimes during his bath he would pee into his bathwater and we'd have to empty the tub and refill the water. But not too long ago Mountain Man was able to make him pee at will into a bucket instead of the bathwater. And i thought, if he can do that maybe he can be toilet trained.

So i took off his diaper. The nanny and I would run after him every hr with a small sand bucket and sometimes he could pee into it.

Slowly we progressed to making him tell us when he wanted to "niao" (slang for pee in chinese). For the sake of simplicity, we stuck with the "niao" so the ayi didn't have to say "pee" and he didn't have to process in both languages. There was a short period when he didn't want to take off his diapers so i had to reassess if i was pushing him too hard. But i explained that it was too hot to wear diapers and he can stand and pee like Daddy! That somehow worked.

I always made sure that the Nanny didn't force him to pee like some of the local chinese would. They are very fond of going "shh shh" to induce pee out of the child, and worst still they would suspend the kids in mid-air and make them do the spread eagle which i think is very unsightly! The whole point of toilet training is to train the child to verbalize when he wants to pee, at his will not ours.

After some time of peeing into the bucket, i decided that he should try the toilet bowl. He resisted the first few times but i made him watch his friends do it. Soon after he didn't mind trying. In fact, he enjoys the ritual of us running to bathroom together, stepping on the stool, aiming into the toilet bowl, flushing (his favourite part), and then washing hands.

A few days went by with minimal accidents at home. So we started taking him downstairs diaperless and when he wanted to pee we always just let him do it in the grass or drains. I know it's very unsightly, but it's common in China! At least i don't let him pee on the pavement or on the floors of shopping malls, some do ok. Of course in time, I will train him to only pee in the toilet.

Today i went even further. I brought him out of the compound. We had lunch, we went to a shopping mall, and in the evening we went for a concert totally diaperless! Even during the excitement of seeing Elmo he didn't pee in his pants! I'm super proud of him.

Attaboy! So handsome in briefs.

The next step for me would be to train the number 2. I have heard that it's harder. So far he has refused to poo without his diaper.