another wiping question

School starts in a few weeks (whoohoo!), and while the kids are all set with PTing, I'm having a really hard time getting them to wipe their butts. I give them the toilet paper, I try to show them how to do it, I guide their hands sometimes, but they want nothing to do with it! It's hard to even get them to try, even when I bribe them. And if I do get them to do anything, they just do a quick swipe, sometimes nowhere near the mess, and I have to follow up anyway.

I am so not creative with this stuff. Does anyone have ideas on how to teach them (and motivate them)? When did your kids learn to wipe their poop, and get good enough to really do it themselves?

 

I don't have an answer, mine aren't going to PK so it doesn't matter but I still wipe for poop. I want to hear answers as i would love to stop doing it.

 

Someone did give a tip that I've memorized to put some vaseline on before they leave so they won't get irritated if they don't wipe properly. My nephew is 5 and still has to have help wiping.

 

I started having mine wipe themselves after a bowel movement a few weeks before they started preschool last fall (so about this time). They were not that great at it, but they had to do it by themselves at school, the teachers will not help them. So I told them they had to wipe 3 times. I figured that was easy for them to remember and it would be sufficient enough until they got home (they were only in school 2.5 hours). I'll never forget the first time Emilie told me she went poop at school she was so proud to say "I went poop at school and I wiped 3 times". :laughing:

 

I have my two wipe themselves & I tell them to wipe more than once. Then they have to call me & I come wipe them again to see if they have done a good job. Once they seem to be consistently getting themselves acceptably clean, they no longer have to call me to double check. If they don't want to learn, how about back to the rewards just like when potty training. An M&M or a jelly bean or a sticker or something?

 

I'm sure mine almost never wipe for pee at school. We just clean their butts every morning & night with Cetaphil cleanser to try to keep them from getting sore and stinky. They do wipe for poop, I think, but sometimes not very well -- we get a lot of "tire tracks" on underwear. Fortunately (?) they both tend to be a little constipated, so their poops are hard and don't make much of a mess!

 

I was freaking with this issue when the boys were getting ready to start pre K. Oddly, they never went #2 while at school. They do have teachers and assistants who help with wiping at our old pre K.

 

I just tell mine to wipe three times, if there is still yuk on the paper, keep wiping. However, I don't think my girls have had a bowel movement yet at school (knock on wood), they wait until they get home.

 

Mine are 5 and really don't. Thanks for the suggestions on how to get them to. I don't think they went poop during preschool, since it was only 2.5 hours long.

 

Thanks for all the ideas! We're working on it...

 

Hi:

When we potty trained, we started using flushable (wet) wipes for everybody in the household. That made a real difference in my kids ability to get themselves clean after a bowel movement. We did have to set a "limit" on the number of wet wipes that could be used per potty visit (2 per visit). There are no flushable wipes at preschool (just regular TP), but somehow it seems to work out okay. Every once in a great while, when I'm doing laundry (or getting ready for bath time), I notice a poor wiping job, but that's rare now.

Good luck!

Meg -- boy/girl twins age 4.5

 

Ya but how can they sit on the HUGE potty w/o falling in and wipe at the same time? This seems nuts to me! They are soo small?? I can't see them being able to wipe their own butts yet! I think my mom wiped us til we were like 5!? I don't know but WhOAH! I'm scared. Thankfully mine will NEVER poop in public so I should be okay, I think, but I am sending them to pre K so I'm wondering?? Yikes! The wiping poop thing is freaking me a bit!