Toilet training progress

I think it’s been about 6 months since he was able to tell that he needs to shee shee. There’s been numerous accidents, tears and frustration, but since then, he’s come a long way.

He’s able to stay dry even when he has a daytime nap. That was in truth an unplanned development. There were several times, about 3 months ago, where I forgot to put him in diapers before he had his daytime naps. Fortunately, as a result of those wettings, after a few weeks, he learnt to wake up from his nap when his bladder was filled.

He has stronger muscle control although I noticed a recent tendency for him to visit the toilet shortly after arriving at whichever destination. That’s not something I look forward to given the common state of Malaysia toilets. On the bright side though, he is able to shee shee in dirty toilets (e.g. the typical yucky toilet of a coffee shop type of restaurant)

Recently, he’s occasionally able to stay dry at night! If he didn’t have too much to drink at dinner time and before bedtime, his diaper is very likely to be dry when he wakes in the morning. He has also on several occasions woken in the middle of the night, asking to be taken to the toilet to shee shee.

All of these occurrences have happened much faster than I expected, and I’m happy, happy, happy!

When it comes to poo though, the progress is slower. Lately, he finds it hard to poo and will need to go to toilet several times before it finally is excreted. I think it’s because he’s not getting as much fruit (seldom drinks a fruit smoothie nowadays) and water.

He also has difficulty balancing himself without a smaller kiddy seat on top of a normal adult seat (e.g. in a public toilet). But I believe that will come from practice and more physiotherapy sessions that strengthen his leg muscles.

He also has made some progress in pulling down and up his underwear and pants. It’ll still require loads of practice cos there are too many ways that the elasticised bands can get twisted or tangled together. He’ll need to strengthen his finger and hand muscles too cos some elasticised bands are tighter than others.

Overall, I think he’s doing well. The aim of course is for him to be able to be fully independent for all toileting needs, within 12 months. That’s because I’m working on him not needing a shadow aide by the time he starts school in Sept 2011 (that date is not in the least bit confirmed, but I’ve to work towards it).