So, my elder one aged 4.25 has finally got rid of the diaper
and is completely potty trained. While it was a humongous task for me to get
him to sit in the loo, it was a herculean one to get him to stay dry the entire
night... What could have started (or rather, was attempted) a year ago, got
delayed owing to the birth of my second son, Ashwin. And after the initial
excitement of the homecoming of a new member, getting used to his presence, and
after me gaining confidence of managing both him and the little one at night, I
finally coaxed him into letting go of the diaper. To take full credit of this
event is rather unfair because I did my job and it just happened; it could have
not happened as well... I would leave all credits to the one above in making
this happen. I suppose the experts know it well when they say that potty
training can happen in just a few weeks or it may take many months or a year as
well. It depends on so many factors; one of the prime factor being the child's
mind or the child's mental makeup towards diapering.
The entire process started like this: me declaring that we
are not going to use the diaper at night time because he has become a big boy
(of course he agreed to it as well, but failed to have control over his
bladder) and after so many nights of crying when woken up to change after he
gets wet, we decided to go back to the diaper. So, one fine day I casually
mentioned that for the money that we buy diaper I can as well get you a toy; why
don't you stop crying and wake up when I call you to go to the loo... After
reading up, there were two things that went into my head: the kid probably is
goes into a very deep sleep state and so is unaware and sleepy to acknowledge
what is happening within him and outside him, and two: luring the kid with
something fancy like an alarm clock etc. A workaround for the first item would
be to have a night light that is a bit brighter so that he does not settle
himself too well in his sleep. And for the second trick, what worked for
Ashwath was one day he was asking if there a 13 in the clock, for which I said
that there is a 13 in digital clocks and that corresponds to the one o clock in
the wall clock. And he was impressed with the digital clock stuff and an alarm
in it. And I even dug up a digital clock that I had, which thankfully had the
alarm working in it.
All these discrete events summed up to get him potty
trained. One fine day when we went to my friend's son's birthday party—the kid
was a month younger than Ashwath and in a casual talk I happened to ask my
friend if his son was completely potty trained (stayed dry at nights). He had
mentioned it was more than 6 months ago that he was potty trained. This rang a
bell in my head and I decided to give it a try now that I was comfortable with
the little one sleeping as a family (rather than in his cradle). I explained to
Ashwath when he was in a calm state that it is high time we gave up the diaper
and that he gets a digital clock which will beep in the night when it is time
for him visit the loo. He was excited about it. One more thing that was a
hindrance was the time when we last gave him a glass of water. By the time he
finishes his dinner it was 9:30 or 9:45 and after which I give him the mandatory
200 ml of water. So, after advice from my doctor-husband about it really not
making a difference if he drinks and eats or eats and drinks, we decided to
give him is 200 ml of water before dinner (ideally, 15 min before dinner) so
that he does not miss his water intake and with just a 50 ml of water after
dinner, we are done with the water for the day.
So with his excitement about the digital clock and the alarm,
I decided to give it a try one more time... Starting from March 25th to April
25th, I woke him up every night between 1:30 to 2:30 (I learnt from the initial
failed attempts that he wets anytime between the aforementioned time). In fact,
the first few days, I kept the diaper on him and tried to wake him up at night
for his loo visit; the digital alarm was just not strong enough to wake me up;
so, I decided to give the phone alarm a try. And with that I woke him up; of
course, I had to coax him saying that the alarm clock has beeped and that it
takes just one minute to wake up and pee (again I had this working logic from
past experiences that it take lesser time to do things than it takes to cry and
not get it done at all). The coaxing worked every night with much struggle. After
about a month, it so happened that I had to work in the US timings for a week
and I was too tired the last two days to wake him up for his loo visit and
voila, he stayed dry from then to now, and it has been a successful two months
now!
So, that is the story of the boy who would not know to speak
to tell us when he wanted to potty to the boy who trained himself to stay dry at
night.
