Bottom-wiping is a very important skill because it is essential for your child to be independent in toileting.
If your child has a problem wiping their bottom, you must figure out why they struggle.
You can do this by observing how they do it and identifying what skills they are lacking.
Are they lacking the ability to tear off enough toilet paper? Did they have difficulty reaching their bottom? Are they not able to wipe themself cleanly?
Once you figure out what skills your child is lacking, you can train them to be better at those skills and eventually be able to wipe themself properly.
You can use fun activities to help your child build their bottom-wiping skills.
Here are some of the fun activities you can do with your child to improve their bottom-wiping skills:
1. Paper-tearing activity
This activity aimed to improve your child’s finger strength and ability to tear off paper.
Example of activity:
(i) Colorful Paper Collage
What you will need:
Colorful paper (thin), glue, container, color pencils, white paper (A4 size)
Colorful paper collage is a very fun activity to do with your children.
In this activity, you will work with your child to create a collage.
It can be a simple shape like a triangle or a fun shape like a star or tree.
How to do it:
- Outline the desired shape on the white A4 paper by using pencil color.
- Demonstrate to your child how to tear off the paper first. Then, let them do it. Put the paper pieces into a container.
- Put glue on the white A4 paper.
- Paste the colorful paper pieces to create a collage according to the shape outlined.
2. Reaching around body activities
This activity aimed to improve your child’s ability to reach around, and behind the body (including the bottom).
Examples of activities:
(i) Play sticky tapes or stickers
What you will need:
Sticky tapes or stickers
Play with sticky tapes or stickers can help with learning to reach and balance in a way needed for bottom-wiping.
How to do it:
- Stick pieces to your child’s body (with their clothes on)
- Get them to reach and pull them off.
- Place the stickers on more challenging areas like back pockets, back of thigh and bottom of their feet.
- Get them to reach and pull all the stickers off from their body.
(ii) Play scarf hide-and-seek
What you will need:
Scarf or tea-towel
Play scarf hide-and-seek is another fun game that can help your child learn to reach and balance in a way needed for bottom-wiping.
How to do it:
- Hide a scarf or tea-towel in your child’s pocket, shirt or inside their pants.
- Get them to pull it out.
- Make it funny and repeat.
3. Wiping activities
This activities helps to build skills and confidence for real-life bottom wiping.
There are 3 levels of difficulties for wiping activities, starting from easy to difficult.
Remember, only advance to the next level of difficulties after your child manages to do the current level.
Examples of activities:
Level 1: Plate wiping (easy)
What you will need:
Plastic plate, peanut butter or chocolate spread, tissue paper
How to do it:
- Put some splodges or spread on the plate.
- Get your child to wipe the spread off the plate using tissue paper until it becomes clean.
- Repeat to practice wiping.
Level 2: Balloon wiping (moderate)
What you will need:
Half inflated balloon, peanut butter or chocolate spread, tissue paper
How to do it:
- Put the spread onto a half inflated, slightly squidgy balloon.
- Get your child to wipe the spread off the balloon using tissue paper until it becomes clean.
- Repeat to practice wiping.
Level 3: Body wiping (difficult)
What you will need:
Peanut butter or chocolate spread, tissue paper
How to do it:
- Put some spread onto your child’s leg / arm
- Get your child to wipe the spread off using tissue paper until it becomes clean.
- Then try to spread some spread onto parts of the body your child can’t see; such as the back of their leg.
I hope this article is helpful to you, and if you like it, you may check out my other articles from this blog. Thanks for visiting my blog!
