Do’s and Don’ts in child care
Posted on March 12, 2009
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Do
• Praise your child and encourage her to regard bowel and bladder control as an accomplishment.
• Let your child set the pace. You can help your child along, but you can’t speed up the process.
• Suggest that your child sit on the potty, but allow her to make the decision.
• Let your child be as independent as she likes, using the toilet or the potty, and praise her increased independence.
• Use training pants to give your child a sense of independence.
Don’t
• Insist that your child sit on the potty.
• Show any disgust for your child’s feces. She will regard using the potty as an achievement and will be proud of them.
• Ask your child to wait once she has asked for the potty, even for a moment; she can “hold on” only for a very short time.
• Scold at mistakes and accidents.
HOW TO HELP AN OLDER TODDLER
Do
• Remind your child to go to the bathroom at regular intervals.
• Take an extra set of clothes with you when you go out.
• Accompany your child to the bathroom in unfamiliar places to reassure her.
• Be sympathetic and make light of any accidents.
• Offer praise when your child has a dry night.
• Look for the cause within the family first if wetting or soiling occurs after a long period of” reliable control. If it persists, seek advice from your doctor.
DON’T
• Scold at or draw attention to any form of accident your child has.
• Withhold fluids from your child in the evening.
• Compare your child with others of the same age who may have better control.
• Make an issue our of any accident in front of friends.
• Be unsympathetic if your child needs to use the bathroom at an inconvenient moment.
TRAINING PANTS
Before your child’s bladder control is fully developed you might like to use training pants. She will probably prefer them to diapers because they seem more grown up.
• Disposable training pants have easily tearable side seams so that they can be quickly removed in case of accidents.
• Nondisposable training pants are more absorbent than the disposable kind and can be left on at night. They are also bulkier, however, so some children find them uncomfortable.
REGRESSION
In a child who has been reliably dry for some time, regression to night- or daytime wetting is usually a sign of anxiety.
The arrival of a new baby is a typical reason for your child regressing to an earlier stage as a way of winning back your attention, but any sort of change like a move to a new home or school can cause it.
Occasionally, regression can be caused by an infection of the urinary tract, so when you visit the doctor for any urinary problem, take a sample of your child’s urine for testing.
Bowel control, once developed, is usually much more reliable than bladder control. Bowel accidents are uncommon and, if they occur frequently, particularly after control has apparently been reliable for some time, may indicate an underlying problem such as retention of stool or some form of emotional tension. Seek advice from your doctor.
HELPING A GIRL
Teach your little girl good habits of hygiene, for instance, washing her hands and straightening up the bathroom after she uses it. You’ll probably find that she responds well to this.
Most girls are generally neater than boys, and will enjoy turning a cleanliness routine into a game.
HELPING A BOY
Most boys are messier than girls in using the potty or the toilet, but there are some things that you can do to help your little boy.
Show him how to stand in font of the toilet and teach him to aim at the bowl before be urinates. You could put a piece of toilet paper in the bowl for him to aim at. Let him see his father urinating so that he can imitate him.
Boys are more likely than girls to play with their feces. If this happens, don’t show disgust; just wash your child’s hands calmly, as you would if they were dirty with mud or paint.
Tags:bladder control dry diaper, bowel movements, control, full bladder portable potty bowel
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