Last week, on the 25th of January, I took Noah to the zoo. There we met a little boy and his mom and we ended up spending the better part of the day with them. The little boy, Alex, is a few months older than Noah and no longer has nighttime diapers. On the way home from the zoo, I told Noah that when he was ready, we could say goodbye diapers just like his friend Alex. Noah thought it through and then turned to me and very seriously stated "je suis pret" (I am ready). When we got home, he repeated his statement and wanted to get right to it. I had to plead with him to wait till Daddy came home. When Daddy came home, he barely said hello and straight away explained that he was ready for goodbye diapers. What do you do in the face of such determination? You let him say goodbye diapers.
So we gave Noah a plastic bag and he put all the loose diapers in it.
And then carried he the diapers to the trash area (I then hid them in my closet just in case this experiment did not work too well).
The good news is that after months of having trouble pooping in the toilet (it happened but was often a bit of a struggle), he no longer asks for a diaper to poop and goes to the toilet without a fuss. Sometimes it works on the first try, sometimes it requires a few tries but we are there.
The bad news is that he and his protective bed sheet are wet every morning. The first few mornings he did not even wake up before his rabbit and did not even seem to have noticed he was wet. This morning he woke up 20mn before and called out that he was wet. I asked him if he thought we should bring back the night diaper and he exclaimed very adamantly "no, no diapers". The experiment lives on - for now. Tonight we will spot check to see if he gets wet early in the night or in the morning. To be continued...
Chaque chose arrive en son temps. Bravo pour ta détermination Noah, et courage à Maman pour le nettoyage quotidien ...!
ReplyDeleteTrop chou le je suis prêt ... Tellement attendrissant. Et courage Val avec le changement de draps :(
ReplyDeleteIf the experiment succeeds, perhaps you have friends with younger kids who could use the diapers? Or there is a charitable organization that would want them? (Its bad enough the dirty diapers go in the landfill.....)
ReplyDeleteRE Abby - No worries - that was the plan though it is looking like we may need to reintroduce night diapers.
ReplyDeleteNo, there really are no other babies in Singapore. Noah is the youngest kid around. It's unfortunate, sometimes. So what we do, then, is take all of his diapers, and send them via container ship to a special processing plant in Alaska where they melt the diapers at super-high temperatures, recycling the resulting materials as shoe inserts. It's a somewhat energy intensive process, what with the shipping and the high temperatures needed, and kind of expensive. But you have to think of the environment, you know? Thanks for the advice!
ReplyDeleteSeth - perhaps instead you can just order some babies from the Alaska baby company? I hear sometimes they come with baby horses so they can grow up playing together, and when they are both a bit older the baby can ride the horse.
ReplyDeleteAre you making sure Noah is getting plenty of fluids early in the day (like at school and right after) and very little after, say 3 or 4 PM? Also I assume you are watching for constipation? (Can make bladder size much smaller and thus harder to make it through the night.)
Sorry. Pediatrician in me cant keep quiet, just like my green side cant either.