One of the greatest doubts on the part of parents is: until when should the baby stop using nappies? The defraying process must be tranquil and without anxiety. It is a normal stage in the life of the child and of the parents. At this stage, it means that your baby is growing and becoming more and more independent.
There is no need to rush through the process of defrailment, you must give your child time for everything to happen naturally. If your child is forced to stop using nappies and is not mature enough to control their sphincters, they may develop urinary incontinence or constipation problems.
When is your baby ready?
Until two years of age, a child cannot control their bladder or bowel sphincters, but defrailment can start from one and a half years of age, with daytime defrailment, which takes at least 6 months. A good way to start daytime diapering is to take the nappy off for a few hours during the day and, little by little, leave the child without a nappy throughout the day, watching for signs that the baby wants to go to the toilet and stimulating the use of the bathroom. The child needs to have developed some skills before you decide to put an end to nappies:
- Sit up on their own for 5 to 10 minutes
- Has learned to walk
- Has acquired the speech to say that they are going to urinate or evacuate
- Being able to take off their clothes, which should be easy to handle
Normally, at around 2 years of age, most children are ready to start defraaming. It is important not to forget that each child has its own rhythm of development and its own time to acquire new skills. Each child’s time should be respected.
Tips for your child to stop using nappies
Diapering must be done under the guidance of the paediatrician and, besides this, it is important that parents are always patient and understand that each child has his/her own time, rhythm and habits.
Make sure your child is really ready
Most people have the idea that around the age of 2 is the ideal time to start taking nappies off. However, every child is different. Just as everyone has their own time to learn to walk or talk, the timing of nappy removal can vary. To find out if your child is ready for nappy changing, check if all the above-mentioned requirements are met.
If you think that your child is not ready, do not let yourself be pressurised or influenced by relatives or the school. You can, however, give it a try. It will most likely cause your child and yourself great stress without producing any positive results.
Prepare the necessary equipment
All you will need is a potty and a toilet seat. Ideally, you should start with the potty. It is easier for your child to evacuate when his feet are flat on the floor.
Give him time to get used to it
In the beginning, encourage your child to sit on the potty at least once a day, even without taking off her clothes. Ideally, you should be able to do this at times when he usually poops.
If he doesn’t want to sit on the potty, don’t force or oblige him. In the future, this may have some consequences, such as constipation. If your child does not show interest in defrosting, stop for a few days and try again later.
Take off his nappy and sit on the potty
After your child gets used to sitting on the potty, the next goal is for him to sit without his nappy. From this point on you can start explaining what the potty is for. If your child understands the goal right away and starts doing something, great. If not, don’t force him. It is important that he develops an interest in the process little by little.
Explain the process
The idea is to try to explain to your child where faeces and urine go. When he soils a nappy, take the nappy and place it on the potty to show him that this is the right place. Then, put the faeces in the toilet and encourage your child to flush if he wants to. Explain that at the end of the process, you need to clean yourself, put on your clothes and wash your hands.
Encourage him
Whenever your child feels the need to evacuate or urinate, encourage him to use the potty. Make it clear that you can take him to the toilet if he asks for it. The best time for potty training is during hot periods. If this is the case, you can let your child walk around the house naked, and leave the potty within easy reach. From time to time, remind him that the potty is there. There is no point in taking him hourly to the bathroom. The aim is to teach him to ask for it when he needs it, otherwise, at the first opportunity you forget to take him, he will end up peeing in his clothes.
Buy appealing underwear
Pants with cartoon characters are very successful. Buy some with images that he likes and make “a party” showing him that he is already big for wearing underwear.
There are also training nappies. The advantage is that they work like nappies, but are dressed like pants. This way, your child can put them down and get up by themselves if they want to go potty.
Be patient when it comes to accidents
Accidents and “peeing in your pants” is common with almost all children. When this happens, keep calm. Don’t punish your child. His sphincters are still “learning” how to control the flow of faeces and urine. This process takes time. If accidents happen, clean up after yourself and tell your child that you can do better next time.
Nighttime napping
Nighttime napping can take years. It takes a long time for your child’s organism to learn to wake you up if you need to urinate or defecate during the night. What you can do to encourage your child to stop using nappies is to reduce the amount of liquid you give your child near bedtime. Tell them to call you if they need to urinate or defecate during the night. You should only try nighttime diapering when the nappy is completely dry in the morning for several days in a row.
Dressing the child in light clothing
To make it easier to defecate, dress the child in light clothes that are easy to remove, such as shorts or trousers with an elastic band, making it easier to remove them when the child signals that he wants to go to the toilet.
Use waterproof sheets
For both daytime and nighttime deflaming, it is important to have waterproof sheets to prevent the mattress, sofa or rugs, or other surfaces that the baby uses from getting dirty or wet if an “accident” occurs.
