Monday, April 06, 2009

Come on t'internets, I need your help! (WARNING: Toilet talk follows)

So here's the thing.... those of you with some idea of the past couple of years will know that the boys have had a bit of a poop problem, or more accurately, a lack of poop problem, accompanied by much screaming and tearfulness. Well about 6 weeks ago we decided to try potty training (read: the childminder decided and we followed instructions ;-)) but the problem was that both boys starting holding everything in which made the pooping issue worse so we decided to give it a break for a while.

With spring more or less here, we're hoping to start it up again but we really need some advice/anecdotal evidence of what worked or didn't work for you. How on earth do you go from nappies all the time to nappies some of the time? Our childminder is amazing and we know that she has successfully potty trained several of the older children and steered their parents through the murky waters but I really want to get some opinions so that we can compare notes.

My biggest worry is that they will start holding it in again. Tommy went an entire day without weeing and Nate started holding his poop in so it would 'back-up'. We seem to have that all under control now (Movicol daily sachets rock!) and they're regular as clockwork and I don't want to return to the pain of previous weeks.

This leads me to another problem I have, how on earth do you get from nappy stage to toilet stage and still retain your sanity (and your sweet smelling home, clean(ish) carpets and poop free floors)? And OMG will I have to hand wash pants or can they be done in the washing machine? Oooh the head hurts....

As you can see I really need your help, your superior knowledge, your unfailing advice so please drop me a mail, leave me a comment or link to a post because I know that YOU know the right thing to do ;-)

Love
VP

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For us, it didn't work to go from nappies all the time to nappies part time. We went cold turkey. It was a gross few days (forget fresh carpets) but then it was done. I think he was uncommonly good, though.

We started with just plain nakedness at home. Thankfully he always pooped in the potty and not on my floor. He also never had withholding problems, so I don't know what to tell you about that.

I sewed myself a bag and carried around a potty insert everywhere we went. As soon as we walked into a store or whatever, I took him and sat him on the potty.

It was not easy, but we made it. I think the withholding issue is going to cause you a lot of grief. I wish I had some ideas about that, but I don't.

He did poop his pants a couple of times and it was naaaaasty. I would hold his underwear in the toilet and shake it around, then flush the toilet a couple of times to get most of it out, then I just washed like normal in the laudnry. Not sure if that is how you are supposed to do it or not.

♥.Trish.♥ Drumboys said...

I have one who likes to poop in his undies ...and them he shakes it into the toilet/over the toilet / over the seat/ on his hands .... then he gets a dozen washers out to wipe or half a toilet roll
...you get the picture (lucky the internet doesn't carry the smell)
... it all happens in a matter of 30 secs too then I hear the tap running
... and I run.


I was used to squirting the cloth nappies with my little squirt hose attached to the toilet.So I still squirt the undies. It is fine to wash them as normal after you shake the cr@p out of them - mostly is biodegradable (?).I always washed poopy cloth nappies the same way in the whole wash.

I started with outside wearing while playing and encouraging frequent pit stops. We just finished summer here remember.

Inside I it did for very short periods and took them very 15mins.

The bribe of chocolate worked well for a wee result ... small chocloate beanies (Smarties or M& m s's were ahit to start with)