Cleanliness education
Through targeted cleanliness education, parents try to wean their offspring from diapers. Today, cleanliness education can take a little longer than it used to. Thanks to modern disposable diapers, the baby is not immediately in the wet. And parents are also relieved.
Potty training or wait and see?
Some parents decide to wait until their child refuses the diaper all by itself. This can work in individual cases, but it doesn’t always work. Theoretically, the child may be able to wear diapers past the age of three. But then he or she may be laughed at by other children of the same age who are already dry. In turn, potty training too early can overtax the child and sometimes has the opposite effect, causing some children to hold back the stool.
Potty training: From when on the potty?
For most children, therefore, cleanliness education and potty training only make sense from the end of the 2nd year of life. A Swiss study showed that children who are potty-trained one year earlier do not become dry sooner (Remo Largo 2007).
Potty training: When do children become dry?
From the first potty training to becoming dry takes time and patience. Some offers on the Internet promise that children will become dry in three days. This may work for some children, but it is not a universal recipe. In addition to the child’s readiness, everything must be anatomically ready for bladder and bowel control.
By the way, bowel control is easier for a child than bladder control, because he or she feels the pressure in the rectum more clearly than the urge to urinate.
Potty training: How do I get my child dry?
When your child is about one and a half to two years old and shows interest in going to the toilet, the time is right to start potty training. If your child still finds going to the toilet completely unexciting, you can help a little to arouse his or her interest.
But how can you wean your child off the diaper? Most children find “pee” and “poop” naturally interesting and are fascinated to push the flush button to see how everything disappears into the toilet.
Getting child dry: Tips for potty training
Getting your child used to the potty works best if you take a playful approach: Let the teddy bear or doll make “pee-pee,” try sitting before bathing, or read something aloud during the session. In principle, potty training should not take place at a specific time. After all, your child should develop a sense of when he “has to” himself and not when it’s time or even when the alarm clock rings. The following tips will make potty training easier:
- Praise, praise, praise: Evaluate each success positively.
- Keep a calendar of successful dry days or nights.
- Support your child’s independence.
- Don’t let your child squat on the potty for more than five minutes if nothing is happening.
- Refrain from negative comments about bowel movements (“yuck,” “ugh”) or when something went wrong.
- Practice procedure: Take off pants, sit down, wipe, rinse if necessary, get dressed and wash hands.
- Provide clothing that your child can take off quickly.
- Buy inexpensive underpants that you can dispose of if necessary if there is a mishap with the big deal.
- Workout panties are easy to take off but remain uncomfortably damp. This motivates the child.
- Stay consistent, even on outings: Changing between diapers and underpants delays learning.
Potty training: Getting dry at night
Before children can become dry at night, potty training must work during the day. Only when children are able to control the urge to urinate during the day is there a chance that they will also be able to do so while sleeping. But even if many children successfully master potty training during the day, the bed often gets wet or the diaper gets full at night.
Reasons for this are:
- The child sleeps deeply and does not feel the full bladder or bowel.
- Increased urine production during sleep
- Amount of urine exceeds bladder capacity
To make potty training work overnight, the following can help:
- Remind the child to go to the bathroom again before going to sleep.
- Short trips increase success in getting dry at night: Put the potty next to the bed before going to sleep.
- Plastic pad as mattress protection
Getting dry at night can take a little longer. So be patient!
No success with potty training?
For some children, potty training does not go so smoothly and they still frequently wet their pants at the age of four (primary enuresis). In most cases, there are genetic reasons behind the slower development of bladder control. Only very rarely is a disorder of kidney function the cause. Sometimes frequent urinary tract infections (due to anatomical/neurological problems) also make it difficult to become dry.
Child does not become dry – what to do?
Is your child older than four years, potty training doesn’t work and your child still wets his pants unusually often? Then you should ask a pediatrician for advice. He can clarify whether there are physical or psychological causes that delay getting clean.
Tips for daytime urinary incontinence
- If urinary tract infection is suspected: pathogen detection by pediatrician
- Check toilet habits: go to the potty about 7 times a day
- Training needs motivation: mark successful days positively in the calendar or reward each visit to the toilet with a sticker
- If children are absorbed in play, they forget to go to the toilet: send them to the toilet regularly or set an alarm clock.
- Keep micturition diary with amount drunk, trips to the toilet, etc.
Tips for nocturnal enuresis
- Ringing pants with moisture sensor sounds alarm (for children 5 years and older)
- If necessary, set an alarm to have your child go to the bathroom during the night
Therapy for urge, stress and laughing incontinence
- Behavioral therapy for urge incontinence
- Pelvic floor training for stress incontinence
- Conditioning/medication for laughing incontinence
- Bio-feedback training for bladder voiding dysfunction
- Temporary medication (desmopressin) if necessary.
Potty training: tips for parents
You as a parent are also challenged when it comes to potty training. Stay positive and acknowledge your child’s performance, even if something goes wrong now and then: the will counts! Be aware of what your child needs to be able to do during potty training: from feeling the urge to washing hands at the end.
Show understanding when the bed gets wet again. It’s not your child’s fault, there’s nothing he or she can do about it while sleeping. If fears trigger the wetting, it needs a lot of attention and love instead of pressure and blame. So deal with setbacks calmly. The most important things in potty training are patience, recognition and encouragement from parents.
