LIFE IS LOVELY: Elijah has finally cracked the potty training

Just writing this piece itself is a massive achievement because I was beginning to think Elijah was destined for a life in nappies.

Those close to me know for almost two years it’s been a struggle trying to potty train Elijah and I’ve stopped and started so many times.

Since being 10 months old Elijah was prescribed Lactulose and Movicol due to conditions with his bowels causing him to suffer from chronic constipation. At the time I thought it would only be a temporary measure but at almost four-year-old Elijah still requires the medication.

For almost two years Kieran and I have tried potty training but with very little success.

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At first I figured maybe he was just too young and didn’t quite understand but as the older he got with still no signs of being interested in using the potty the more it made me worry.

Seeing children his age and younger using the potty whilst he was still in nappies really made me question my parenting and Elijah’s ability. Was I doing something wrong or was there something wrong with him? Questions I couldn’t stop asking myself.

After doing some research and reading a parenting forum I discovered that children who take Movicol may take longer to toilet train. This helped me somewhat understand why he wasn’t able to grasp potty training because of his medical needs but still daunting knowing all the other children in the nursery were out of nappies but he wasn’t.

A few weeks ago we tried a different tactic and just took the nappies away completely, only allowing him to wear underpants, something he’d never been keen on.

The first few days were nothing but accidents but he needed to learn from his mistakes. As the days went on the accidents decreased until finally he went a week with only one accident.

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He’d become so confident with potty training that he completely ditched the potty and only wanted to use the big boy toilet. 

He was telling us every time he needed the toilet and was feeling comfortable wearing underpants.

He did have an accident on his first day back at nursery but just seeing him in underpants and using the toilet himself is a massive step from where we were a month ago.

Well done Elijah!