At what age do kids start to wipe their own bottoms ??

[sparkle1977]

I toilet trained DS1 back in Sept 09 at the age of 3.

At the moment we are still running to the loo with him when he has a poo and wiping his bottom for him afterwards.

He can pull up and down his own pants/trousers etc.

Just wondering when the time/age comes that they will wipe their own bottoms ??

[displayuntilbestbefore]

About 5 or 6 IME
My boys started having a go at aged 5 but I found they were closer to 6 before they could be relied upon to do it themselves without asking for help...more to the point, it was only at that age that they could do a decent enough job of it IYKWIM!
I prefer to help them out for a bit longer than have to rectify a slapdash attempt

[apple99]

Watching with interest as dd who is 3.3years still shouts for her bum to be wiped after both wees and poos!

[displayuntilbestbefore]

Meant to say, we started showing DCs how to do it once they were going to start school so that if they needed to when they were at school they at least knew what they were supposed to do even if they weren't so efficient at it.

[sparkle1977]

DS1 does not start school until Sept 2011 so I guess we have 1.5 years to teach him how to perfect the technique well before then.

lol displayuntilbestbefore! I don't relish rectifying the mistakes either, had been thinking about that!

[FreakoidOrganisoid]

dd is 3.10 and wipes her own bum but fairly often gets a bit on her hand or leaves skidmarks in her knickers...practice make perfect I suppose.

[displayuntilbestbefore]

Freak - am impressed by that. DS 1 and 2 both seemed to make a total pigs' ear of wiping themselves before they were 5 and ended up making more of a mess than clearing up any mess
Maybe I should start DS3 earlier....I will certainly relish the day when no more bottoms need to be wiped!

[nancydrewrocks]

When DC started in the school nursery it was a requirement that they could wipe themselves. DD was 3.9 and DS 3.5. Both managed fine.

DS has never looked back and at just turned 4 I cannot remember the last time he asked for help. DD 5 and a bit still asks for help sometimes - she seems to be a lot more concerned about being absolutely clean than DS.

[Hulababy]

By school they need to be able to manage sufficently well enough.

[FreakoidOrganisoid]

At preschool she has to do it herself. And she usually does a poo very first thing in the morning and I do NOT want to be dragged out of bed to wipe a pooey bum so make her do it herself then too