How Can We Teach Bladder and Bowel Control

The start of teaching daytime bladder and bowel control, although it depends on each case, can happen at around 18 months, but it is logically important to point out that our child must be mature enough for it.

How to know if they are mature:

• Our child has to be able to tell the difference between what is dry and wet. When a child can realize that they are wet and that this is uncomfortable, they can anticipate the urge to urinate. To do this, we can ask them whether they are wet, touch their diaper, and let them check it themselves.- Tell the difference between being dry or clean. Therefore, when we notice that they make faces and gestures showing they are doing their business, we can take the opportunity to have them say what is happening at that moment- It is also important that they know what pee and poo mean, even if in their own way.- On the other hand, they should know how to go to the toilet, as well as, in their own way or with help, be able to pull down their trousers, skirt, and underwear.

If our child wets the bed after the age of 5, twice or more times a week, it would be the right time to start looking for strategies to be able to solve these small difficulties.

Parents should rule out:

• First, we advise parents to rule out whether their child wets the bed due to some physiological illness and for that reason we recommend visiting their pediatrician.- Rule out that the problem is not due to psychological problems. That is, it can happen that after the child has already had control, they start wetting the bed again, this may be due to multiple reasons:Birth of a sibling- Difficulties at school..- Or it may also happen that they wet the bed because they are afraid of the dark and afraid to go to the toilet.

Once all of this has been ruled out, some of the guidelines to begin treating enuresis would be:

• Do not put diapers on them, because the child must little by little learn to wake up when they feel the urge to urinate. On the contrary, if we put a diaper on them, the discomfort of its wetness will be hard for them to notice.- Do not punish them or make them feel guilty since the child does not do it voluntarily and we can even make this difficulty worse if we scold them- We can encourage responsibility and autonomy in their own hygiene and therefore it would be correct for them to take responsibility for washing themselves, changing their pajamas for another, or changing the sheets, for example.- And above all we must not scold or punish them but on the contrary congratulate them every time they want to go to the bathroom

We recommend some books for this new stage

• Fora bolquers!. Les tres bessones bebes. Autora. Roser Capdevila

• Adéu bolquer!. Autor Sergi Càmara. Colección Tris Tras

Bladder and bowel control is an event that all children sooner or later achieve, but on some occasions a good dose of patience is needed.