Training: Toilet

Gabe's pooping routine is rather predictable, and he's also able to communicate to us after he has soiled his pampers. So we started training him to poop on and into the toilet bowl a couple of months back. Thanks to jemmy's mummy, we got some tips on the kind of seat to purchase and some step by step procedures for the process.

We introduced the concept to him with a reward of a drink of ribena if he successfully poops into the bowl. The initial stage saw him protesting and sometimes crying when he was placed on the seat. Then he started protesting at the point where he realised we were going to drag him to the toilet. Today, he still makes his protests known, but we have less difficulty in getting him to the destination.

He does a hippity hop kind of dance on the spot and add that to the expressions on his face, and we know he's about to go. He is still not at the stage of volunteering the information of his urge but the signs are clear enough for us to whisk him to the toilet. There are times of false alarms, of course. We have also transited to the stage of rewarding ribena only when he does the full job in the bowl, and his pampers remain clean.

At the first sign of download, he will declare to us, "Good boy! Mummy give ribena!"

We've yet to succeed at getting him to pee into the bowl, which we really hope will take place soon, like before #2 comes along. It's funny because many mothers tell me that the pee-training usually comes before the poo-training. If anyone has any tips, please feel free to share with me.

Meanwhile, keep us in prayer as the boy transits from one stage to another into toddlerhood.

Note: image has been removed for modesty purposes