2 lovely questions:does your ds wipe after weeing?what is the best way to teach him to wipe after no. 2s?

[zebramummy]

ds (now 4) seems disinterested in wiping and is generally not messy when it comes to wees. dh says it is the norm & that it is actually healthier for boys not to bother with wiping at all - i admit to knowing very little about male toileting habits but this does not sound right to me??

wipe his PENIS?
how odd.

Men only ever shake don't they - no need to wipe his penis at all.

You teach them to wipe after defaecating by handing them some loo paper and telling them to wipe don't you ? At least, thats what we did

Don't wipe, shake.

And re bum - start him with wet wipes (flushable obv), but get him used to dry paper before school.

And if he wiped after a wee he would get looks, so don't try to encourage it.

well, shaking appears to be the consensus here- it is something of a revelation to me though i have already volunteered that i know v little about this subject

beginning to doubt myself now.our boys wipe, well we tought them to,ds whos 7 wipes his willie, not sure about ds 8 but doctor said ds8 should as its cleaner and doesnt have dribble on end to make him sore.he may have to be circumcised though so maybe that related with dribbles is why the doc said to get him to wipe.

will keep an eye on the general consensus lol...

ds (2.10 years) dabs after weeing but we havent taught him yet the wiping after pooing.

ho odd that you didnt know

noahamin: why is it so odd that it deserves repeated comments along those lines? don't know about yourself but the last time i checked down there..

My DS is 2.5 and I've taught him to dab the end of his penis with a little bit of paper. There's always a drip and it seems much cleaner to wipe it off than have it in his pants. If nothing else it gets him to sit for a few seconds longer to give it a chance to drip off else he'd be up immediately and it'd go everywhere!

We're not on to bottom wiping yet.

DH sits to pee anyway, just like his father taught him and so that's what we're teaching DS - so much tidier!

He can learn standing to pee when he's (much) older.

ds (6) always dabs after weeing. He used to wrap his willy in loo paper like a egyptian-mummy to get it totally dry, which was probably going a bit too far. Wiping his bottom seems less important to him (out of sight out of mind?) but we taught him both by constant reminding.

You can always tell if DH has took DS (2 and a half) to the loo because he'll have the damp patch from not shaking properly.
When I take him he uses loo paper and shakes to the shake your booty song (dont ask, not fun especially in public toilets)
As for wiping his bottom Ive taught him right from the beginning to do it himself then I check it.

ds (8) squeezes and shakes here - a la dh. Has also stood up since he was about 3. No noticable damp patches on either of them . Re wiping bottoms - when he was younger he had a go then we finished off. Eventually got the hang of it at around 5 yo.

DS always 'dabs' with paper after he's been to the loo. We haven't got to wiping bottoms yet, so looking forward to it .

Damp patches on pants / boxers / trousers are not a good look.

DH taught DS to dab/wipe after a wee. DS doesn't always remember, though! Most folk I know taught their DS to wipe post-wee - not odd at all IMO. As for bottom wiping, he would do it on his own and I'd tell him to keep going until the paper was clean (how delightful!). Made sure he could do it before school age.

No dabbing in this household - DH and 3 DSs. Firm shake and put it away. No damp patches at all.

Can I ask the dabbers - what about outdoor and tree-wees? Surely the best part about being a boy (or at least the bit I most envy )

I always encourage ds to dab after a wee because otherwise he pulls his pants up while it's still dripping. When he's weeing outside a shake suffices though.

We didn't teach him to wipe his own bum, but he was encouraged to do it at nursery and started doing it at home. Often makes a bit of a mess though, so I always ask him to call me to check. He's three.

Shaking more than twice is playing .
HTH

I think the ability to shake well to dry is determined by how much foreskin hangs over the end

Ds1 is 6 so pulls his foreskin back (as recommended by doctor) to keep it all cleaner and is therefore less likely to get sore.

Ds2 is 3 and just wees so he dabs his willy dry. He did try shaking like his brother but hated the little wet circle in his boxers afterwards so now is happy to dab.

Obviously I wouldn't encourage him to pull his foreskin back.

Re bottom wiping, ds1 always had a rather clean poo so not much wiping needed, ds2 has wet poos so God alone knows how I am meant to teach him not to smear it all over his buttocks

He starts preschool next week