Much Progress

I am so proud of Kevin. He is nearly fully potty trained, after just 1 week! This may not seem like much of a feat to people without kids, but those with kids will be able to appreciate the milestone.

As a true engineer, I did quite a bit of reading on the subject before embarking on the whole training. I was amazed to find out that untill the 1900s most kids were potty trained by 2 or 3 months of age. I didn't even know that was possible, but is appears this is very easy to do, and is still the way the vast majority of children in many parts of the world (asia, afrika, latin america) is trained..

Then in the 20th century came the advent of disposable diapers, more women staying home with kids longer and a couple of pediatricians endorsing the diaper industry claims that it's healthy for kids to be in diapers till they are 'ready' at 3, 4 or even 5 years of age...and so the western world became full of toddlers who had the competence to use the facilities without problems, but who stayed in diapers, in contact with their own waste, for months and years out of sheer ignorance...sad.

Determined not to let this happen and armed with the book 'toilet training in less than 1 day', I set out to train Kevin last Saturday. Kevin is now 1 year and 9 months, and does really well at responding to requests and commands without too many tantrums so he was at a good stage for toilet training. It took a bit of persistance to keep at it: practicing walking to the potty, taking down pant, peeing, pulling up pants, emptying the potty...for hours while constantly praising and encouraging Kevin is no-one's idea of a relaxing day, but wouldn't you know it: It actually worked!!! We went out later that afternoon for new year's eve celebrations without diapers and did not have a problem. My husband had been really sceptical about the possibility of training our son in just one day, having heard that it usually takes weeks if not months, but he was pleasantly surprised too and even apologized about the skepticism.

The only little snag came on Tuesday and Wednesday at the day-care school. For some reason, Kevin refused to go on the potty there for those 2 days, but then on Thursday 'got it' and did not have any accidents at all. Today, Friday, he only had one accident there...the teachers are both very excited about so much progress in so little time and also a little amazed. Most mothers in the US these days wait till their kids are older than 2, often 3 or older, but then it's a lot harder as the kids are more stubborn and have been unused to controlling their bladder for much longer, so it harder physically too.

I know we're not fully there yet with Kevin. We still need to work on the nap and nightime routine. So far, we haven't switched to underpants for tose yet, but most experts say that if the kids develop a good daytime routine, then the sleep routine will develop spontaneously not long thereafter.

For those with young kids in doubt, I highly recommend starting early rather than later, and recommend the book. It was writting in the 70s, so some language and references are a bit dated, but the training is still fully valid and works...and as they say in that l'oreal commercial: It's worth it!