Potty training 2

Right at almost 4 Baby is really no longer a baby and I think of him more and more as a little boy rather than a toddler these days.  We started potty training about 2 years ago and the potty now lies unused in the bathroom as he tends to prefer using the toilet- in fact he has always preferred the toilet and had only deigned to use the potty when the toilet is occupied by someone else.  He also refused to use the training seat as we don't use it.  We realised quite early on that the impulse to copy us was quite strong so we used that as an incentive to encourage him during potty training.  The side effect of that, I suppose, was that he preferred 1) the toilet to the potty and 2) that he wanted to stand up for weeing like daddy.  Both good things and I am glad that it all happened without too much trauma.  As was reported all over the web and in help books, he was much quicker at learning to go to the loo to poo than to wee.  We did always ask him regularly (at least initially) whether he needed to wee but we don't do that as much these days; I do still remind him if he is particularly engaged in an activity as he may choose to dispense with going to the toilet for play.

He is also nappy free at night and has been for a little over 6 months; we noticed that his nappy was dry on consecutive nights, decided to give it a try and have not looked back.  We had the odd accident but it was nothing major as we had mattress protectors and disposable potty training mats at the ready.  If there is one thing I will say from this experience it is that there is no need to rush your child.  We didn't believe it at the start- which is why I searched online and read extensively about how to go about it and bought lots of paraphernalia to help us- but we actually did know when he was ready to try things and, you know what, a lot of the stuff I bought turned out to be unnecessary.  There were two things that were useful.  First was a step to allow Baby easier access to the toilet when he was not quite tall enough to sit on it unaided.  He also uses the step these days to help him reach the toilet light and the taps so he can go for a wee and clean up afterwards unaided.     Two was a mattress protector so that we can sort out the bedding quickly and go back to bed when an accident happens in the middle of the night; we just bung the wet stuff in the wash and leave the washing machine to deal with it while we sleep.

Every child is different but I think potty training really needn't be as stressful as it is sometimes made out to be.