Sunday 23 October 2011

Toilet Training Your Kids – A Real Challenge

Will Early Toilet Training Help Your Child?

Toilet training is the method of teaching your young kids on the proper use of the toilet and usually starts with the use of a potty chair or a smaller toilet bowl-shaped instrument.

A lot of old time parents believe that a child will be fully trained early on the right use of the toilet if their parents give them early toilet training. However, child experts are not in agreement with this belief. Study shows that even with early toilet training, a child will begin to recognize his “need to go” only when he is at least a year old. But he will still be too young at this age to understand of having to sit still on a toilet bowl. Only if a child is at least 18 months old that he will only be responsive to the toilet training you are subjecting him to. And will be relatively dry and clean when he’s about two-and-a-half or three years old.

Early Toilet Training is Ineffective

Do not think that you satisfyingly started your baby on early toilet training if he bears your sitting him on a potty chair every time he passes bowel movement.

Over time you will notice that he will be putting up a struggle if you insist to sit him on the pot, and eventually will refuse to sit on it at all. It is because he really detest your forcing him to sit on a pot longer that he wants to as he is only learning to crawl at this point.

Although you may catch a larger portion of your kid’s movement on the pot, his diapers will still get dirty. And you will find that changing soiled diapers is a lot easier than sitting your baby on a pot. For potting would mean that you will undress your kid, struggle to keep him sit still on the pot, clean him up before dressing him again. Then, you will dispose the soiled diapers after you have cleaned the potty chair.

You may ask yourself. What do you gain after all these? Nothing. Your child will not only learn nothing from the training you gave him, he may also develop an intense dislike for it. This will just delay his real toilet training later on.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Toilet Unblocking Tips To Follow Before Getting An Emergency Plumber

Unblocking a toilet is hardly the most glamorous part of looking after your home – but leave it to fester and you could soon have a hefty bill from an emergency plumber.

For this reason, it’s important to act quickly and decisively as soon as you notice there’s a blockage. In some cases you can attempt to sort out the problem yourself, using a few cheap tools and products found at your local DIY store.

Firstly, it’s important to know what you absolutely should not do when you’ve got a blocked toilet, which is to flush it to try and clear the obstruction. Doing this could cause the toilet to overflow and flood the bathroom, causing damage which could push your repair bill even higher.

Instead, your first action should be to use a plunger to try to draw out the blockage and encourage it to progress through the pipes. You should push the plunger firmly down into the toilet then pull slowly upwards, creating vacuum in the head. You’ll often need to repeat this around ten times - you’ll know the blockage has been removed as you’ll hear water going down the pipes.

However, the blockage is proving stubborn, you may need to look into another course of action. Chemical drain cleaners or caustic sodas can be used to dislodge blockages – but you’ll need to be very careful with these as they can be a health hazard.

You could also check your drains – the cover is usually found somewhere outside your property. The blockage can often be in the chamber, which means you may have to invest in a specialist rod or wire to get to it. Alternatively, you could try using a long piece of wood. If the blockage isn’t in the chamber, this means it must be located elsewhere in the pipes or pan. Once you’ve eventually found the problem and moved it along, it’s important to remove it to avoid it causing further blockages further along.

If you’ve tried these methods and it’s still not shifting, it may be time to bring in an expert. Paying for one can be expensive, however, which is why many households get plumbing and drainage cover in place to ensure they can get a fully qualified tradesman in to sort out the problem without needing to worry about a big bill at the end. With this cover in place, you can call out a plumber as soon as you notice a blockage – let them get their hands dirty so you don’t have to.