diaper free

Some nights we hear Day's voice from somewhere upstairs: "It's a long brown one. And a black one. Still got small one." (He speaks Singlish!)

We find him with his chin on his chest, peering downwards into his potty. (privates airbrushed away, not offending anyone here!)


Crude, yes. But if reporting on his own shit works to keep him on his potty, I say go ahead.

The long road to diaper-free heaven started sometime in December last year, when I tried pulling aside his nappy one day, pointed his penis into a bottle and commanded him to "shh-shh". Miraculously, he did.

Soon after, instead of me having to pre-empt his pee (like every hour), he could tell me when he wanted to pee and all was good.

The poo was another matter.

For some strange reason, he didn't seem to want to sit on the potty. Or he would sit on it, but refuse to make a deposit. (I've been told this is very common)

Whenever we made him sit on the toilet bowl or the potty, he would scream in terror if something did come out, as if he were afraid his turd would grow teeth and come back out to bite him on the bottom.

So Day learnt to clamp his sphincters, waiting for the right time to unleash everything, after his bath, when we put a diaper on him for the night.

His papa was extrmely pissed off. So much so that he held off on the diaper, forcing Day, whether he liked it or not, to poo into the potty or toilet bowl.

But like I said, he would flee after the first tiny piece came out, and thereafter, the rest would come tumbling out into the diaper during the night.

I had thrown up my hands, thinking: "Maybe he's not ready. Let's not force him." KK (thankfully) was determined to fix it.

So he got him to have a good look at, and take an interest in, his own shit. And it worked. Day became fascinated by the different thickness, colours and lengths of the stuff that was coming out of him. He got even more interested when he realized his sister's shit was mustard yellow and clumpy.

Of course it wasn't just this. Rewards, applause, grunting along with him, we tried them all. Here's KK in March, grunting till he was red in the face.


At the end of the day, we said Goodbye to diapers (excepting one for the night) in May.


Now for her. Long way to go.