I’m not an expert in this topic but I learned a lot while potty training Rio. I started training him when he was around 9 months old but training during that time took a lot of effort. He was peeing and pooping everywhere.
All I did the whole day was to clean and clean and clean his mess. Then, I decided to hold it off a little longer and waited for him to be ready.
Signs that a child is ready for potty training:
- Can stand on his own
- Can distinguish pee and poop
- Can stay dry the whole night
- Shows interest when someone uses the potty
- Telling me what’s inside his diaper when asked
We started training him again when he was 23 months old. I removed his diaper then showed him how to use his potty. He also often watched Aji pee.
The first day was a disaster, even though he could tell if he wanted to pee or poop he still peed everywhere. He couldn’t control himself yet. On the second day, Aji was the one looking after Rio. Same story. Aji got a bit frustrated and asked me if we could put Rio back on diapers. Then on the third day, I tried a different approach.
He usually stays dry throughout the night, so right after he woke up, I brought him to his potty and anticipated the pee. After just a few seconds, he did. We cheered and clapped for him. He even flashed us a big smile while doing it. Maybe he felt he did something wonderful. He became more aware every time he felt peeing or pooping to do it in his potty.
It was amazing! It took him 3 days to learn how to pee and poop in his potty.
Then the next few days had a bunch of funny incidents. There were times that he was telling us he’s gonna pee but Aji and I were so busy talking until we noticed him walking back and forth. He was trying to hold his pee.
There was a time he was too busy playing that he pooped in his briefs and when he stood up his poop fell on the floor. He was so scared to see his own poop so close to him and he cried because we were joking him to pick it up. He was trying to move away from it but ended up stepping on it.
Whenever he wanted to poop, he poops really fast! Five seconds and he’s done.
Now, Rio’s still mastering how to aim and get the pee inside the potty 100% because it gets really messy whenever he’s doing it alone. No more diapers for him at home. It really saves a lot of money for us.
