Ep 5 Toilet Training is Fun! Said Nobody Ever. My Playbook on How I Toilet Trained My 3 Year Old

Chloe Sacco  0:01  
Welcome to Good as gold. You're listening to this podcast because you're new to the wonderful world of parenting. You've got kids and you want to know you're not alone. Or you could be like us juggling business life and parent life. We talk about all things relationship business and mixing it all together. Join us on a journey in business, raising your kids and growing as a community. whatever it is you're doing, we hope you enjoy listening as much as we do sharing.

Welcome to good as gold.

Hi, guys, welcome to Episode Five as good as gold we are talking all things toilet training. This is a hard topic/task. It was something that I struggled with for a little bit with Cassia. I'm very, very lucky that toilet training for way was totally easy for us. Thank God. toilet training for poo was another story. So I feel like when we talk about toilet training, we really need to separate the two, which is not something that a lot of people spoke about. When I was talking about toilet training Cassia a lot of people spoke about separating nighttime way training and daytime training. But nobody actually spoke about the difference between who and we, I didn't have an issue with toilet training Cassia at night, which I was very happy about. But yet the poor and we titled another story. So let's start with the what I did to toilet train Cassia because I get asked this often. And it's not an easy task. So first of all, give yourself a break. Every kid is different. So when she turned two, I thought to myself, let's give this a go. Let's try and toilet train her. My mom said to me, we're all toilet trained at two. I don't know how she managed to do that. But she did it. I thought I'd do the same and forget it. Cassia was not ready. And I think if they're not ready, it just makes it a lot harder and a lot more of an onerous task than what it should be. 

So if you just if you say you're starting to toilet training, you say they are just absolutely not ready. Just give it another few months. And maybe there'll be they'll start to become ready when they're ready. It's a lot easier. So when she was two weeks, she actually did weigh in the toilet once and I was like alright, well maybe we've got maybe we can do this. But a lot like the week that I sort of tried I just went knock would say she was absolutely not ready for that. So we left it till she was three I didn't really want to do it during winter I would probably suggest doing it in summer the only reason being if they wet themselves, they're not going to freeze. If it's warm, it's a bit easier so I would recommend doing it during summer so we did it last December or but just before her third birthday. It Again the three days to make a task three days to break a task and three days to create a new one that actually played out in this as well. So the first three days The only thing that was hard for me is that I was between home and the factory I would recommend if you can stay home for a couple of days and just try and do it in one spot. That makes a big difference. jumping between two places was a bit difficult I managed it but if you can stay home do so. So the first three days were difficult in regards to

she didn't really she didn't really I don't know she was she was she was scared of the toilet to start with which is fair enough. So the couple of things that I did that made it easier number one I got a toilet seat from baby Bunting first the first time I got one was actually just a case it was it came out on target I don't know it was a hard one of those hard seat insert things it didn't have a steps I have got the step that separate so you can get ones that are actually like one Hobi contraption that has a toilet seat that has two steps attached to it

all or you can we have the steps separately so I thought I'm not going to get another step because we've already got there. I'm just going to get the seat so the first one I got was just a hard one from came out. It was just plain white. That didn't go down. Well she was not impressed with that at all. The thing that ended up being a godsend was it was at she's got a little Minnie Mouse toilet seat that's actually padded so it's more comfortable and it's cute. So I would suggest getting a toilet seat let them choose it. If they can choose something that they like I know they come in different characters and I know it sounds silly but if they can choose something that they like, it makes your life a lot easier. I also recommend that the first time we bought Cassia undies I said to her you can choose whatever you like. 

She at that time was obsessed with cherries. And for some reason, I don't know how this happened. But the first pair of undies she saw with a pack of cherry undies. And because it was Christmas time, and she loved cherry, she's like, I want the cherry ones. So she was excited to wear the cherry undies. 

So get them to choose their favorite undies, choose their toilet seat, wherever they can be in the decision making will be a lot easier for you when you go to toilet train. So from the start, I didn't do this, and in hindsight, I should have I should have because I did this with poo, and it worked out really well.

You need we do in either chart on the wall. So depends how you're going to do it, we use two things, we have a chart on the wall in the toilet, it's just being a three paper. And I've just drawn a grid on it. And she sticks stickers every time she does appear. So I didn't do this way. With way. We have a the one of our acrylic charts, we've actually got them under the life planning range, which is under the personalized goodies tab on the website, we've got a toilet training chart Cassia loves being able to write or draw on anything. 

Now these are It's same sort of situation. It's a grid. He's a whiteboard marker, and you take off everything that your child does, for instance, they pull their own pants down, they sit on the toilet, etc, etc. So if they do all those things, you go through the list and we do that with Cassia, and she ticks each box. And each time she does it so then by the end of the week, you can rub it off and start again. So that worked out well. I found with poos, the stickers work more. So with ways the ticking was great peruse, we were on to the stickers and a treat, because she hated doing poos. So I'll get to poos later.

So ways you can either get the acrylic board, stick it on the fridge, give him a whiteboard marker and let them tick off each thing that they do. The good thing about our toilet training chart is it literally goes through step by step what they need to do. So it's not just an overall tick. Yep, you did it. It's actually did you pull your own pants down? Did you wipe yourself Did you sit on the toilet, so go through step by step which is good, it's a good way for them to learn and a good way for them to know that that know the process I guess of going to the toilet.

So either one of those things are great. I would also recommend

having to remind them every say half an hour it does get a bit onerous, but it gets easier as the days go on. Because eventually they learn to tell you and they feel the sensation themselves. But the first day in Casio for instance, I don't know how now we were in April now we toilet trained just before December so let's say shows started around November sheet still to this day has not wet the bed. I don't know how I managed to do that it was I didn't do it. She did it. So she hasn't went to bed. Apparently, I was told by a lot of mums, that it is actually a hormonal thing for them for them to be able to get up during the night and feel that sensation of needing to go to the toilet. So it tells me that Cassia was mature enough that she had that hormone, whatever that may be, and I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on it. I'm literally just repeating what a lot of people told me when I spoke about toilet training on the CMC Instagram.

So apparently during the night This is why a lot of people separate daytime training and nighttime training. The reason why I didn't is because I saw one once on toilet training. I'm not putting a nappy back on it so again for poo this was a different story but for way I wanted to try and get it all done at once. And like I said she hadn't wet the bed so I had a

I put a garbage bag in between the sheet and the mattress. And that was she also has a mattress protector as well but that was just another form of protective protection. Then I also had a waterproof I was like a big towel. It's from a company called spiffy so if she had have wet the bed, he literally just wipe it up because it's waterproof and there's no miss one really good thing that I did the first couple of days because I wasn't sure if she was going to wet the bed or not at that stage was I put undies on here and I told her that if she needed to go to the toilet she needed to let me know because she will she just talks on the on the monitor and I can hear her anyway. But what I did is I put her to sleep in our knees obviously I had the spew towel and I had the garbage bag in between the mattress and the sheet anyway so I had the protections. I also had a couple of towels on the floor just in case you went and get up and she needed to pay. So I had things everywhere. But putting her to sleep in

Her undies, and then I popped a pull up over the top while she was asleep. So she didn't actually know that I did it. So if she had a wet the bed, she would have me she would feel the sensation that she'd wet herself. And nobody's going to like that. So she would feel it, but it would be contained. So that was actually something that somebody had told me and given me that advice. And I thought that is brilliant, because I do not want to be cleaning paid during the night. So if you haven't started toilet training yet, I would suggest possibly doing that, because that was a really great piece of advice that I got. And I found that worked quite well. After the third night, she hadn't wet the bed, I thought, let's just give it a go. And I actually took I didn't put the pull up on her at all. I just kept her in her undies. And yeah, she hasn't wet the bed at all. Although the second day of toilet training, I think was the second or the third day, she wet herself three times. That was the first and last day that she wet herself so many times. And she said to me, I don't like I don't like it changed me to every time she actually wet herself. She hated it. The reason why she'd wet itself and I feel like if I was at home she wouldn't have because she was at the factory with me. 

And if there's playing to do she's not going to the toilet. So when we're at the factory, she just thinks is playtime the staff are here, she's got cars here, she's got a kitchen here, she's got toys for days, he or she absolutely does not want to be going into the toilet at that stage. So that day, she wet herself three times. And we finally we had I spoke to her after each time and I said you need to tell me when you need to go to the toilet. She hated the sensation of being wet. She just kept saying mama change me. So I think that by them waiting themselves they're learning anyway. So it's not a bad thing. Like I said that was pretty much the first and only day she actually did what herself I think she's possibly what has happened once more some other time. But she there was one time she tried she went to shoot she actually went to itself and she stopped so it was a tiny little bit there. And then she stopped herself and said I need to go to the toilet. So after that day, I think that was a bit of a milestone for her so that she must have just yet not liked the feeling. And she hasn't done it again since. So I would suggest the rewards chart of some kind, whether it be stickers on the wall, whether it be taking off the acrylic chart, whether it be giving them some sort of treat. So every time she weighed in the toilet, as stupid as it sounds, we did a dance. We sang that she did waves in the toilet. I had a box of little presence now whether you get $2 presence from Kmart, I wanted to do that. And I hadn't I didn't have time to do that. So I had like heaps of Lucas, the the company we get our silicon off always sends me these little silicon toys. I got a heap of them. So I actually just at that stage, that's all I had with me. So I checked them all in a box. And they don't care what it is, as long as it's brand new, as long as it's new or something that they haven't seen or they've forgotten about. I checked them all in a box. And I said once you've done where you can pick out a prize. That worked really, really well I found that the first few days of her being able to pick out a prize every time she did away worked wonders.

And after doing that, that was Yeah, that worked really well. So then after we after we established the sort of routine I made sure I asked her sort of every half an hour Do you need to go to the toilet? Sometimes she'd say yes, sometimes she'd say no. So that was fine. But it just reminding them that they are not going in a nappy anymore. I think it's a good thing for the first probably four or five days even the first week after that they'll pretty much tell you so she was telling me after that that she needs to go to the toilet.

That's what I did with waves. Nighttime waves as I said I did the pull up over the undies and that worked really well I was very fortunate that she has not wet the bed but putting the things in place like this buey

bed cloth and and doing the pull up method and popping some towels down I think that works really well. I would also recommend making sure that they aren't drinking a bottle of milk before bed. I would probably say stop drinking maybe two hours before obviously they can sip on water but I would suggest nothing else. If they're obviously having a big bottle of milk before bed, they kind of wet themselves. So

no nothing two hours before if anything, just little sips even now he's kaseya she has a water bottle by her bed and if she needs a little sip I'm said that's fine. You have a little drink and and that's it but there's no more milk before bed which is what she used to do when she did have undies or pull ups on peruse. This is another ballgame. This was hard. It still is hard.

It stressed me out like you will not believe. So you probably would have heard me talk about this on Instagram, whether it be CMC,

the same single page or the Chloe Sacco dot CMC page. I've spoken about this on both kaseya has literally made me go bald and gray and age about 50 years from trying to toilet train her with poo. I hated this, I found we really easy and I'm very thankful that that was an easy process for me. But poo Oh my god, we're in April. And I'm still going through this. She is actually doing really, really well. Thankfully at the moment, but like last week, for instance, she just stopped going to do pulling the toilet so I'm not holding my breath. But anyway, this is what I did to try and get her to pull in the toilet. People have given me advice and said try putting a pull up on them and cutting a hole out and getting them to sit on the toilet. I didn't do any of that. I just sort of got her straight onto the toilet. I didn't use a potty because number one I didn't want to clean potty as selfish as that sound, I cannot clean poop out of a potty I will die. And number two, I didn't want to then have to train her off a potty to a toilet. I just figured I'm going to train her doing something I may as well just train going straight to the toilet and each to their own. If you want to use a potty in that to work for you or you think that that would be a better option for you please do so. My experience I just went straight to the toilet. They've the thing that Casio used to hold her poos for eight days, she has never ever been one to poo. Even with a nappy. She was horrible.

She would never pay everyday she never has back she was at a point where I didn't know what to do with her anymore. And I had spoken to a GP who said look, you need to give her a softener because again, let's go back to Cassia's eating habits. Not great. She she's not bad like she she's just very picky. She doesn't have a lot of fruit and vegetables, I try and increase the fiber with communia things like porridge more fruit. So I try where possible. However, it's probably not enough and to try and feed that kid vegetables is like a fate worse than death. So we I give her a softener I use lakhta loose, and I have been told by a couple of doctors that it's absolutely fine using it long term. It just brings water to the store. Obviously talked to your MP attrition and your doctor about it if you can get away with not using it. Obviously, that's probably better. But in my in my instance, I couldn't. The reason why I think she got so scared was because I let her go without a softener. And while she was still in a nappy, and obviously she was bit constipated, because she would hold it for so many days. Usually it was around five or six days towards the end got to eight days and was just getting out of control. So I did take her to the doctor because I didn't know what to do anymore. And they definitely said look, it's better to put them on a softener than to traumatize them. Which is what ended up happening with Casio because it hurts so much that she was just too scared to actually go to the toilet. After giving her a softener daily or every second day, that made a big difference. So if you need to do that, speak to your pediatrician or speak to your doctor and possibly give that a go. A lot of people said move calls really good too. I tried giving her that I tried giving her the one without flavor. kaseya is a nightmare with anything that has flavor. This one was the non flavored one and she could still taste the flavor in it. And she just doesn't drink anything that's not water. So anything that has a flavor, I don't even know how I can give her like diluted very sweet. She doesn't like it, but I can get it down her throat. So I'm just I just stick with that.

So yes, give number one give him a softener if you need to number two, the eyelet hook obviously pick her own stickers, she sticks them on the wall on her on her paper. Each time she does a period. And number three, she gets a little m&m package, she gets a little meat inside them. And in packets. They work quite well together.

The other thing that I used is the perryland app, you may have heard of it, you may not have heard of it. It's a free app that you download onto your phone.

The storyline is prettyboring. So I sort of make it up as I go along. The app is not interactive at all. It's literally just a story that you swipe across. She actually likes the story. We'll let the one that's I sort of make up. It's similar to what is written but I just make it up as I go. And she likes to she loves storytime so really anything that's a story. She's down. So the poor land I've actually helped quite a lot. And then as ridiculous as this sound. She named her period so she comes out because she named the poo on the app. So then as each poop comes out, she will

Name them somebody so she'll say how Look, there's Auntie Janie. And there's uncle Pat. And I told actually told them that last night and peace themselves laughing. So that will like whatever works, if that works, let her name her poo. So just little little things, whatever gets whatever makes them happy. Do it. So that was working for her. So I'm like, mate, you name as many pieces you like, kid, as you're gonna keep going to the toilet, you keep naming them, I don't care. So we sit and we read the Puroland app each time. And I also and you know what, this is a piece of advice as well that a pharmacist said to me, and I thought, Chloe, why don't you think of these things yourself? It seems so obvious. But when you're in the moment of trying to toilet training, so in your head of trying to toilet train, you just lose your mind a little bit. a pharmacist said to me, You need to just make sure she's actually sitting on the toilet each day, the same time each day went, well, no shit. Like, why don't why don't I think of trying to get her on the toilet at the same time each day. The mornings didn't really work for us, because we're always running out the door. But the afternoons we always had all the evenings, we always had time. So and I figured she was more come in the evenings, because she's had a play, she's been running around all day. And she will actually sit for longer in the afternoon. So choose a time that works well with your child and just get them to sit at the same time every day. Now I know this is easier said than done. Because we also went through a period where Cassie just would not sit. Like I could give her an iPad, I could give her whatever, I tried not to do that. Because I didn't want to make that another habit. But at that stage, I'm like, whatever you want just sit on the toilet. If you sit there for 10 minutes, then that's good. Like there was times we shouldn't even see five seconds. So that's also hard.

We got I used the learning boards, the clear ones that we do, and she was tracing shapes, she was tracing letters.

I got her to write her name, coloring books set on the pool and up I think I read 50 times in one hit. Like whatever you can do to get them to actually sit on the toilet. That also makes a big difference. Because if you're like my chart if or if your child's like my child, and she just needs to just, she can't sit still then keeping them occupied help. So getting him to sit on the toilet with whatever they're how you've got to keep them sitting there is good.

Number two, if you need to give them a softener, do so. Number three, like I said, there were people there were there were other things that people said like cutting the hole in the pool up helps. There were lots there are lots of different

suggestions when I posted about this on the same see gold page, you would have to scroll a little bit if you want to see other people's suggestions, but there were quite a lot of suggestions. But I'm also using some sort of reward system made a big difference for Peru and we especially Peru, and making sure that you make such a song and dance about her when she does it like one she did Peru, we called my mom we called my dad we called Maurice and we called my sister and she told everybody that she did poo and she was so excited about it. So make a big song and dance about it and then they'll get excited to actually do it.

I hope that helps. If you are

starting to toilet train or in the midst of toilet training, I feel you need a hard hard time. But after the first week of pushing through it gets so much easier if you need to separate day and night time do so if you obviously if you need to separate wait and poo do so do whatever works within your family. If you want to use a potty then do it if you don't then don't. There are lots of different ways and suggestions. Nothing's right or wrong. You just do what works for your family. We are finally at a point where she actually weighs in poop in the toilet. Like I said last week, she had like a breakdown and she's like I'm not pulling in the toilet anymore. So I'm hoping that that doesn't happen again. But apparently a bit of a relapse is normal. But we are at the tail end of it now Thank God. Also note that it's taken me four months to get her to put in a toilet so while she you know she had she had done a little a couple of times prior to but constantly to get a going every day every second day. And it took me four months from the time that we started toilet training for weight so if it takes a bit longer for poo, it's totally normal.

And good luck with it all. I wish you all of the very best at his hard yards but get through the first week or two of way and you should be good. Who you just need to be patient. But you can do it. I have

Faith. I hope this podcast has helped and will help you in your future ventures of toilet training. And I will see you next week.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Good as gold. We hope this episode has brought some value into your life and if it has, remember to subscribe and follow for weekly episodes. We want to grow this community so if someone you know will benefit from this podcast, please share it. In the meantime, we love what we do and we hope you do to stay amazing. Until next time, bye