When should they wipe themselves?

[Vijac]

Prompted by another thread. My son is 3.5 and I wipe him after a poo, so his bottom is clean and he doesn't get poo on his fingers. But when should I teach him to do it himself?

Does he go to preschool? I would start now OP. I began to teach my DC to do it at three. that was because I wanted them to be independent at preschool.

He does, I think they do it there too unless they don't realise. I guess I'll start him doing it, it just hadn't occurred to me that he might be ready.

No it's one of those things...a habit we get into. With mine it was their socks and shoes, I was still doing my Dds when she was 5 and realised she had to learn herself! She could do it...but it took ages and was faster for me to do it. I made her do it and she soon learned.

With girls it's harder to teach them to wipe as you've got to let them know about not getting any mess at the front...boys are a bit easier. Use babywipes at first though as he'll find that easier.

Great tip with the baby wipes thanks. I think he'll find that much easier.

Don't use baby wipes - he'll block your loo from here to kingdom come! Use the special wipes Kandoo or the like make for these occasions (ie the ones that say flushable).

Mine were incapable of wiping til 4 - their arms just didn't seem long enough and they couldn't co-ordinate what they couldn't see and they were scared of falling down the loo. They learnt just before they started school using a combination of bribery and duress.

Hi, definitely don't use baby wipes. They don't disolve the way loo roll does.
DH flushed many down the loo and we had to get the drains unblocked as it was causing next door problems. Very embarrassing and expensive.

Use flushable wipes or just loo roll.