Toilet training progress

This post is a little overdue. He has done very well in the aspect of toilet training.

He can tell you when he wants to shee shee, though he sometimes holds it in a bit too long when focused on an activity, until it becomes too urgent. He moved on from shee-shee-ing in the shower cubicle to the WC about 1-2 mths ago. I was confident enough of his new skill that he went without his diaper to school on Wed-Fri, two weeks ago (before the hols).

He can now also tell you when he wants to poo. Last week, he started to poo-poo while seated on his potty. That is a very big achievement! When we started toilet training him, he insisted on poo-poo-ing in his diapers for a very long time (a year or more!). Early this year, he began to occasionally poo without his diapers (onto the floor of the shower area). Then he progressed to being seated on his potty.

The concept of reward stickers only worked recently when he knew he could shee shee and poo poo in the toilet, and not before that stage. My shower screen is becoming rather colourful with big toilet stickers (the size of your palm or larger) of 2 fire engines, a police beach patrol jeep, 2 policemen, an ambulance, a rescue helicopter, a steamroller, a digger, a cement mixer and a dump truck! I love it cos it shows he's progressing...and it makes it easier to lure him into the toilet to have his teeth brushed! LOL

We still need to work on him going to toilet independently because he isn't able to pull down and pull up his pants. He's only just learnt to use both hands to grip (previously when I help him to grip with one of his hands, then by the time I move on to help him grip with his other hand, his first hand would have let go of his pants). He has learnt the balance that he needs, to pull up and down. But I think his fingers are not strong enough to grip the elasticated waist of his pants and underwear, and pull them up or down. He's also not yet learnt to find where the elasticated parts are, when he needs to pull them down or up. That's just a few of the many more steps that he's got to master before being able to go independently.

However, to me what's important is that he has achieved that crucial step of recognising his bodily signals, and responding in time, and overcame whatever fear he had about it. To me, that's huge progress. The rest involves motor skills that I can work on through daily practical life activities (I think).