weaning off the diapers

Yeah i had great ambitions when Val was a mere babe to go diaper-free before he was one. For a while, EC (elimination communication) worked well. I knew when he would pee and poop, and so I was a proud mommy for a few months until I began working part-time and then full-time and then had no more time to do EC. It all went downhill there until recently.

Thanks to his childcare centre which began (about a month ago) letting him go diaper-free for the entire day in school. The teachers bring them to the loo regularly and ask them to say when they need to pee and poo. Val's pretty mixed up - he says he needs to pee when he actually needs to poo. So there've been times when bits of his poo has dropped out on the floor in school! the teachers thought it was amusing. It's a lucky thing we've got teachers who are so keen on potty training.

And so, back home, we're trying our best to complement their efforts. Last Saturday afternoon marked the very first time that i actually ventured out of the house without any diapers on him. So we let him pee before leaving, and then once we got off the car, I brought him to pee again. Peeing needs precision and speed, cos if i'm not fast enough, Val pees before i've had the chance to take off his pants. We had a 50-50 success rate cos half of his pee dripped onto my shoes but we did it! We went diaper free that afternoon outside. Not bad huh! Val has also developed an aversion to wearing diapers at home cos I think someone's been drilling it into him that diapers are for little babies and he obviously wants to be a big boy. SO these days he even goes to bed without any diaper. I just change him in the stealth of the night (about 11pm) when i'm about to sleep. So far, only had one night when he wet the bed. But it's no biggie for me. I'm not a clean freak so i can deal with a bit of pee on the bed.

I'm really liking this diaper free thingie. Although we are using 90% cloth diapers and 10% disposables (for night and going out), I still would like to stop choking up the earth with the disposies and wasting water washing the cloth diapers. Most of all, i like the idea of his tush being aired instead of being wrapped like bazhang the whole day long. Thanks teachers once again for helping Val go diaper-free!