When and how to wean a baby from diapers?
Diapers are very comfortable to use. The child is always dry, and mom has a little time left for household chores, and not just for washing wet diapers and panties. As the child grows up, this accessory has to be abandoned, but not always this process runs quickly and smoothly.
At what age should you teach the pot?
Every child is very individual. Some babies are able to do without round-the-clock wearing of diapers already a year. The main mass begins to consciously go to the pot in 1.5 and even 2 years. Doctors consider the normal process of finding a child in diapers up to 36 months. However, it is better not to delay this matter, as it will be even more difficult to unlearn in the future.
There are no specific recommendations on how old a child should be weaned from diapers. The only criterion is the individuality of the baby. If for some time carefully observe the crumbs, his willingness to do without absorbing panties necessarily manifest. It is time to break the diaper out if:
- the product remains dry for several hours;
- the process of urination and emptying occurs at the same time (after a certain time interval or after a meal, for example, after breakfast or an afternoon snack);
- the kid (whether it is a boy or a girl) knows how to take off tights, pants and partially wear them on himself;
- the child knows the names of parts of his body and understands well what he is told.
If at least 3 of these criteria can be answered in the affirmative, then the child is ready to move from diapers to the pot.
However, there are several situations in life when it is not recommended to transfer a baby from diapers. These include:
- moving to a new place of residence;
- the appearance of another baby;
- teething;
- various diseases;
- parental divorce;
- start visiting kindergarten.
Weaning techniques
There are three main ways to help your baby learn to live without diapers.
Wet tights
During the day, the child must walk in pants, pantyhose, sliders. Suffice it to regularly bring the baby to the pot and offer him to go there. This should be done without forcing, but accompanying your actions with a fascinating story that all grown-up children and adults do this.
As soon as the baby is described, do not immediately rush and take off his wet clothes. It is necessary to wait some time (no more than 10 minutes, considering that the house is warm and the street is summer) so that the child realizes that being wet is wet and unpleasant.
There is a category of parents who seek to wean children from diapers, without removing this accessory from the baby throughout the day. This approach is fundamentally wrong, since as a result of so long wearing a child may experience inflammatory diseases of the genital organs or the bladder.
That's right, if you spend weaning on clothes, but without diapers. If the baby runs naked and describes, he will not experience almost any discomfort, which means that the desired result will be achieved many times slower.
Matured bunny
To wean the baby to walk without diapers, following this method, you need to prepare the ground for several months before the beginning of the process of weaning.As an example to follow, you need to take one of the toys of the child, preferably the one with which he often interacts. To put a diaper on this toy (for example, a bunny).
The child will know and see that his pet also wears diapers. Gradually, the baby needs to explain the need for this attribute in an accessible form. At the age of about 2 years, the baby needs to be told that he is a bunny, and he is already adults in order to wear a diaper, so the future life of both of them must go without these everyday accessories. Now they have to do all their business sitting on the pot.
At the age of two, children repeat with interest the behavior of adults and toys, which means that the refusal of the bunny from the diaper can encourage the baby to abandon this detail of the wardrobe.
Older brother
If there are several children in the family and there is someone older, then you can focus the attention of the younger child on the fact that his brother (or sister) is already adults and do not wear diapers. If age differences are not significant, then you can put two pots side by side, let the younger one look at the elders and repeat all their affairs on the pot.
If the child himself chooses to abandon diapers (tears them away, does not allow them to be worn), this moment should be effectively used to go to the pot. At first, walking without a diaper will be difficult and possible accidents cannot be avoided, but it is better to suffer a little than to hold your head and think how to teach your child to do without diapers.
How to teach to sleep without a diaper?
To accustom the child to sleep, having refused from a night diaper, it is possible only after a couple of months of his “dry” behavior during the day and daytime sleep. It is important in this case not to hurry and not to panic. The kid must learn to use the pot well.
When the soil for weaning from the night diaper is prepared, you need to perform the following algorithm.
- Before you put the baby to sleep, you need to put him on the pot. We need to wait until the child does the "necessary" thing for themselves. While he is sitting, you can tell him a fairy tale or talk to him about something. But in no case does not need to impose the perception of the pot as a game element.
- Water, milk, herbal tea - everything that a baby can drink before bedtime should be limited in doses. And, of course, do not give sweet drinks like compote or juice from a box. The last two drinks contain a fairly large amount of sugar. Accordingly, the child will drink them more than the norm, and then he will also want to drink.
- In the room during the whole night the night light should be on, so that the baby can stand up and go to the pot on her own. Gradually, the diaper will increasingly remain dry in the morning, and later you can completely abandon it.
- Every morning you must follow the ritual - put your child on the pot, regardless of whether the diaper is full or dry. This rule should be followed daily.
And, of course, the most important thing is to have patience. No need to compare your child with others and blame him that he still can not do without a diaper. If the child is still not mentally and physically ready to abandon him, it is necessary to pause for several weeks, then the process of weaning should be resumed.
Before you decide that the baby is ready to go without diapers all night, you need to carry out preparatory activities. Namely, to prepare what may be needed if the child is described at night without a “diaper”.
- Clean and dry bedding. The baby who slept in the diaper has a great risk of wetting all the bedding in his crib. Therefore, all accessories must be purchased for several pieces.
- Dry pajamas. This wardrobe detail will suffer primarily from the night "accident", so it is better to have a few pieces in reserve.
- Hypoallergenic napkins without alcohol and flavors. If the child is described in the course of the day, it will not be difficult to shower him with the help of the shower. Another thing - at night, when he himself half asleep and his parents too.The best option in this situation would be the use of wet wipes, which need to wipe the body of the baby.
- The general light in the room is too bright., to carry out with it any action in the nursery at night. Therefore, it is worth buying a children's night light and then after peeling the wet bed the baby will quickly and sweetly fall asleep in the muffled light.
- The first time laying the child without a diaper under the sheet you need to lay a waterproof oilcloth. Now there are improved analogs, the surface of which has one soft side, and the second has oilcloth. This option is much more preferable than Soviet-type oilcloths, from which the body is cold, even if there is some kind of coating on top of them.
In order for a child to have an instinct to ask for a pot at night, you should not change his pajamas and bedding immediately after he has described himself. It takes 5-10 minutes for the baby to realize how uncomfortable and cold it is to be all wet.
If in a dream a baby nervously tosses, groans - this may indicate his desire to go to the pot. In this situation, you should independently put the child in there, not waiting until he wakes up by himself.
What should not be forgotten is the praise of the child, if the next morning his bed remained dry, and at night he was able to inform you of his desire to pee.
Weaning your baby to sleep without a diaper throughout the night is much more difficult than to form his habit of being without this accessory all day. Therefore, moms and dads need to be ready to constantly wake up during a month and change a wet bed.
The recognized expert in the field of pediatric medicine, Dr. Komarovsky, believes that uncontrolled night urination will pass on its own as the child grows older.
Tips for parents
In addition to the above methods of weaning from diapers, you need to pay attention to other signals from the child. He can inform about his desire to go to the pot by approaching him with any gestures, sounds or monosyllables.
After the baby peeed in the diaper, this accessory can be removed for an hour. Gradually, the residence time increases, to the extent that the baby is all morning without him. In this case, you must not forget to periodically ask the child if he wants to go to the pot. It is important to observe the behavior of the child during the game. Often the kids are so addicted that they try to postpone the pot time as much as possible. As a result, they do not have time to reach the necessary object, and the pants become wet again. By the way, the clothes in which the baby walks - shorts, tights, pants, should simply be removed so that in case of an “accident” it can be easily changed.
For kids who went third year, you can hold explanatory and revealing conversations. To say that if he does not inform his mother about his desire to go to the pot, the pants will become wet and have to be washed, and it may happen that there is nothing to play and walk about. For clarity, you can decompose 7 pants, so that the child can see how their number decreases, if he described himself. As a rule, children try to keep at least a few pants dry, so they still begin to inform adults of their desire to visit the pot.
Schooling to the pot should go in conjunction with the regime of the day. There are three periods when almost all children want to pee: after sleeping, eating and walking. Therefore, in these moments you should not wait for the crumb to be asked for on their own; you should immediately invite him to go to the potty and immediately plant it there.
If a child often tries to copy you and repeat actions from everyday life, allow him, after going to the pot, to pour everything down the toilet and press the cherished button - the fountain (drain). From this, children experience indescribable delight. But here you need to clearly set the frame - All this you allow the child to turn only in the case of a successful campaign on the pot, and only. Then the child will try again and again to do everything as it should.
When teaching a child to independence, you need to pay attention and the object of attention - the pot. If the child has sat on a cold pot or has jammed the edge of the skin, then the relationship will be spoiled for a long time, and you will have to make incredible efforts so that the baby can again sit on this object.
Even before the child turns one year old, you must purchase a pot and put it in the most visible place. Of course, the baby will not be able to use it functionally, but by the time of schooling he will already know well why this accessory is needed. Periodically, you can put the child on the pot for addiction. It is better to do this in the morning and after eating. However, if the baby strongly resists, attempts should be postponed, so as not to give birth to a complete aversion to the pot.
You should not buy pots with musical accompaniment, numerous interactive characters, buttons and other game attributes. Their presence will greatly distract the child from the important process and he will sit on the pot, only to play.
It happens that the baby does not want to sit on the pot at all, be it a simple model or a fancy one. Then you can buy a special children's seat on the standard toilet and tell the child that he is already an adult and will go to the toilet just like all adults.
How to wean a baby from diapers, see the next video.