Wiping your own bottom

• Wiping your bottom and washing your hands after using the bathroom: good hygiene is important. But how do you teach your toddler or preschooler to wipe their bottom?
• You can start teaching your child to wipe their bottom once they can go to the bathroom on their own. This can start as early as age 2.
• Did you know that elementary school children are expected to be able to wipe their own bottoms? Children who can’t use the toilet on their own aren’t allowed to go to school. So start practicing wiping when your child is 3 or 3.5 years old.
• First, show them how to do it. Take a few sheets of toilet paper and fold them or scrunch them up into a ball. Always let your child try on their own first—after both peeing and pooping. Then, always check to make sure they’re clean.
• Throw the tissues in the toilet. Have your child flush them away. Bye-bye, gross tissues!

A fun exercise: sweeping mandarins

• Does your child often finish wiping too quickly, leaving the area still dirty? 
• Then we have a fun exercise for you. What do you need? 
• Take two tangerines and a little peanut butter. Place the tangerines side by side. Those are the "fake buttocks." Spread a little peanut butter between them. That's the "fake butt."
• Let your child try using toilet paper to wipe everything down. This way, your child will see that sometimes you have to wipe more than once before it’s really clean.
• This makes practicing clear and even fun!