Toileting

I have included this as it seems as though toilet training is often a case of a war in a family . . mum being more laid back about it and dad – especially if this is a son in nappies at three or four years old – is totally affronted by the lack of independence shown.

Possibly as cloth nappies and washing was such a big part of being a parent so toileting was achieved with a minimum of fuss – as we as parents had a lot less work to do once we had it sorted.

My first baby was in cloth nappies as that is all there was. I suspect this meant all were motivated to get out of nappies as soon as possible. Children had a big handicap walking with it wedged between their legs and mums had a huge washing burden.

As I was going to be traveling around NZ for several months when my eldest was nearly two years old, I set about toilet training him – and managed it in three days this is all we did – I was motivated.

We were living in a house that did not have a loo upstairs, although we had a bathroom – so this floor was designated the toilet area.

A potty chair with a wide table was found. As my son loved reading – he got to only see a book when sitting naked bottom on the potty chair.

When he finally produced a stream – he was rewarded over the to praise – and the positive encouragement was easy.

This is ALL I did for three days – we were 100% on the case of getting it right . . . Peeing was a breeze.

Not so easy for the more solid contributions.

He was terrified of this – and would run off the potty and onto the floor to produce his pooh there . .

We were soon also out of night nappies . ..and when he accidentally had a wet bed, I did a ‘hiatus hernia’ adjustment on him – as I had been taught by my major acupuncture lecturer – he was a chiropractor first. He had decided to teach us all that was useful – and this was.

The theory being that when the diaphragm is not able to engage freely in sleep the concentration of CO2 rise making the blood more acidic and the person more like to not wake up.

Every time he had an accident – I did this and it stopped it.

Of course this is anecdotal, but I had a totally trained toddler by two years old.

To help the flow I had left a tap dribbling – as my mother did when she was teaching all of us to pee on command.

In this – she had actually decided that nappies were not her thing and always said to me that she had me potty trained by 6 weeks of age . . . sounded silly to me – but then when seeing what the elimination control people now do – it seems as though she was well ahead of her time.

Of course in ‘primitive’ cultures, nappies are not needed – mum just knows when baby is to void and holds baby away from her whilst it happens . .

Back to my first child – I also did what my parents had.

Of course we all went to the loo prior to bed – AND we also were woken up when parents went to bed and placed on the loo to pee again.

This kept us dry and happy parents all around.

Baby two – was not so simple as I thought all kids were a breeze to train – and when he was interested – I thought I was not – and left it till I was – then he wasn’t.

This is the major issue – baby-lead is best with all things.

It took more effort and as an indicator – he was a summer baby and prior to winter we had him out of all nappies and being independent toileting – again – as he was taken to the loo at night – no need for bed protection from two and a half years old.

Baby three was massively brain injured and profoundly autistic and at 24 years old still refuses to NOT wear a nappy.

Baby four – was uneventful as I had a system organized.

By then – plastic throw away nappies were the usual.

It was easier to not bother – and I see this a lot with parents nowadays .. .

But – the child needs to feel as though s/he is in charge and growing up and being proud of themselves being ‘big girls/boys’ is easy to organize.

Occasionally parents come in to have e me help their child stay dry overnight.

I do the same as for my sons – ensure the hiatus hernia adjustment is done if needed.

There are conditions in Chinese medicine that make sphincter control harder – and sometimes Chinese herbs – paediatric – with sugar blended in – can really help.