Okay ladies, this may sound crazy but I'm looking for advice about teaching my daughter to "wipe" when I'm potty training her. Now, before you roll your eyes and shake your head, just humor me. I've potty trained both my sons so I'm familiar with the process...I'm comfortable with that. But with boys, serioiusly - you pee, shake and go. The wiping lessons came later when they were older. But, with a girl, how do you teach her to do it right? Obviously it isn't something that can wait until later on since she goes to daycare and will have to do it herself (of course they will help out). She's 2 1/2 and shows signs of readiness so I'm going to go ahead and pull out the potty chair next weekend. Can anyone give me some advice...I told you it was strange!
Thanks to anyone who can help!
Thanks to everyone for the advice...and for not making me feel like a moron for asking the question to begin with. I feel better knowing that I'm not the only one who's had concerns about teaching this part of the potty training. I'm feeling better now...let the potty training games begin!
I tell mine to start where her skin (belly) stops, and then push the toilet paper towards the water and then drop!
For her, using 'wipe front to back' seems confusing since she's used to wiping her bottom from bottom to top.
OH...DVM Mom!!
Sorry to disagree...but young ladies (and OLD ladies) need to wipe FRONT to BACK!
"We" do not want any fecal matter getting in our vaginal area!!
Michele/cat
My DD was potty trained early on like your DD. I was worried about how to explain it to her also. I told her to push the paper back so the bum germs don't get into her pee pee and make her have stingy pee. For some reason (maybe the genius of young girls) she just got it.
Well, you are going to probably wipe her yourself at first, so just have her pay attention and point out how we do it (start at the bottom and wipe UP). She can also come in the bathroom with you and watch you wipe yourself. That's all I did with my daughter and she picked it up right away.
ETA: By saying to wipe UP, I do mean front to back. But when you think about it, it is starting "down" and going "up." And that holds true whether it is #1 or #2. Of course I know how to wipe properly and why it is important!
Well with your help I know she will be ready in a while, she is just sooo young to get it right now. You can teach her by doing it to her doll. Good luck!
For the beginning, you can wipe her properly yourself. I did, as I did I chanted, "Down the front, Up the back." She can now do it herself but uses two pieces instead of Mommy's very efficient one. Sometimes she's not always effective and gets "Lady Ouchies", a little A+D Ointment after bath and she's good as new. Also wet wipes can be good to keep around for the really messy jobs.
Good luck.
I taught my daughter to pat the pee dry and to wipe front to back for the poop. It is hard for a 2.5 yo to completely understand this so when she is home just help her clean her bottom until you see that she is doing a good job.
For the front I taught my DD to pat herself dry. For bowel movements I used to wipe her for a long time (until she was about 4) and I know that her teachers at daycare helped as well - no way she could have reached and she just didn't have the coordination when she was trained at 2.5.
Good luck!
Flushable wipes are a good idea.
I don't clearly remember teaching my daughter this, other than by demonstration. She still uses more of a patting motion than wiping, for the front. Just be sure she knows it's front to back to avoid UTIs.
By the time she is ready to go by herself, she'll have it down.
Here's how I trained my daughter:
I've always had one of those kiddie toilet seats atop the toilet. That way the kid doesn't feel like she will fall into the toilet.
We used the flushable kid wipes. Kids are use to baby wipes, so it makes it easy and cleaner. To wipe the vag area, take a wipe, start at the top and slide it down to the middle. Throw the wipe in the toilet. To do your bottom, take a new wipe, go from the bottom, slide it all the way inside and up, throw the wipe in the toilet. Repeat to make sure it's clean. Flush. Wash your hands (get the liquid kid soap), and dry...all done! I always have a kids step stool in the bathroom just to make sure they can reach the sink.
I think that this way it's easier than the way described in that little red potty book where you bunch up the toilet paper and run it up and down inside the crack of the bottom. It seems that doing it they described in the red book gets little bits of dirty toilet paper all over--gross!
I hope this helps.
It is very hard at this age to teach a girl how to wipe. They just don't have the coordination while sitting on the potty to reach that far behind like adults do. I have my daughter start at the front and then just reach between her legs (she is recently potty-trained and will be 3 in May). When she gets to the back as far as she can reach she just drops the toilet paper into the toilet. Potty-training was easy for me with her but the wiping is definitely difficult to teach. She is doing well so far but she does goof sometimes and wipes the wrong way.
I let my toddler girls (now 3 and 4) wipe their own pee-pees, but they call for mommy/daddy to wipe them when it's a #2--I don't think their arms are long enough to reach the back well enough. They use TP for pee and I use the flushable wipes for poops (much more gentle on the bum when I'm trying to wipe really well).
I was always prone to UTI infections and I swore I'd teach my daughter to wipe differently. I taught her that even when she pee'd, she should go around from behind her to wipe. By doing it this way, she could ONLY wipe from front to back. She only needed to learn how to wipe one way, in one direction, for either pee or poop. Easy. My daughter is 12 and she still wipes the same way. Problem solved.
I think making sure she's doing it front to back is most important - maybe make up a little silly song to motivate her?
Talk to her when you help her and encourage her to do it front to back when she tries on her own. We like the flushable wipes and while DD does an okay job, sometimes I have to follow up (if you know what I mean).
