Toddler's 'dirty protest'??

Minxy_Bella

My friend has a two year old son who's very bright and active, although his speech is not wonderful yet. He's going through a phase whereby he's playing with the contents of his dirty nappy - despite his nappy being checked at least every twenty minutes or so.

Research on the net shows that other (mainly American??) parents have put a stop to this by giving the child a cold shower rather than a nice, warm bath. It seems a bit brutal but apparently it works....

Has anyone else experienced this and how did it stop?

MTIA

hayleyc_2

I am confused.. how is having a cold shower going to stop a child playing with the contents of his/her nappy??! What has having a bath got to do with it? sounds really odd unless I'm missing something!
I have a 2yr old and he hasn't done this, but if he did then I think I'd probably see it as a time to start potty training asap.

Even if a child isn't speaking well, it doesn't mean they don't understand, so I would still try to explain (in an age appropriate way) that the contents of the nappy is dirty and needs to be flushed down the toilet or something. 2 yr old's love to be helpful and do little jobs so maybe giving him the job of putting the nappy in the bin and then washing his hands may help start a little routine that he sees as fun? Another way maybe would be to use a doll. Tell the child that when the doll needs her nappy changing she keeps touching the poos, so we need to make sure dolly has her nappy changed straight away, and not to touch because she'll get her hands dirty and could get ill. Much better to use a story or game than a cold shower I think!!

Hayley

Minxy_Bella

hayleyc wrote: »

I am confused.. how is having a cold shower going to stop a child playing with the contents of his/her nappy??! What has having a bath got to do with it? sounds really odd unless I'm missing something!
I have a 2yr old and he hasn't done this, but if he did then I think I'd probably see it as a time to start potty training asap.

Even if a child isn't speaking well, it doesn't mean they don't understand, so I would still try to explain (in an age appropriate way) that the contents of the nappy is dirty and needs to be flushed down the toilet or something. 2 yr old's love to be helpful and do little jobs so maybe giving him the job of putting the nappy in the bin and then washing his hands may help start a little routine that he sees as fun? Another way maybe would be to use a doll. Tell the child that when the doll needs her nappy changing she keeps touching the poos, so we need to make sure dolly has her nappy changed straight away, and not to touch because she'll get her hands dirty and could get ill. Much better to use a story or game than a cold shower I think!!

Hayley

I think the theory was that if the cleaning up process was not as pleasant as a warm bath therefore the child wouldn't do it again? As I say, this was on a couple of American sites With the amount of poo being spread around, water of some temperature and soap are necessary to get him clean!

My friend has tried to explain to the child that poo should stay in the nappy and hands should be clean - apparently he just nods and carries on regardless. Maybe it's something that he'll grow out of - but I think the concern is that it might be a worrying sign of some underlying condition.

I've got three children (girls) and none of them did anything like this so I don't know how to advise her.

Alias_Omega

My son is 22 months, and has been putting the nappie in the bin for the past 4-5 months. Probably since not long after walking at 10 months. We started to potty train him not so long ago, so much now that he prefers to take his nappie off and have a wee on it, than in the nappie. Though most times its in the nappie.

We went through a phase of putting the hands down the back of the nappie, but that was soon stopped with shouting & smacking his hands when he did so. Dont seem to remember seeing him doing this anymore. Prefers to be digging holes in the garden, or running after the 2 rabbits.

hayleyc_2

Minxy_Bella wrote: »

I think the theory was that if the cleaning up process was not as pleasant as a warm bath therefore the child wouldn't do it again? As I say, this was on a couple of American sites With the amount of poo being spread around, water of some temperature and soap are necessary to get him clean!

Ahh I see.. maybe he just likes having a wash!

Lunar_Eclipse

This behaviour sounds a little strange, but I doubt it's a sign of anything of concern.

More worryingly I'm wondering why he has the opportunity to do this. At such a young age I would assume he is rarely left alone in a room without an adult present, in which case the dirty nappy can be changed and then removed out of his reach immediately. I doubt my kids had much (any) opportunity to touch the contents of their dirty nappy; perhaps I'm misreading something.

Also agree that it is probably time to start using the toilet instead.

liney

You could shout at him, smack him, him give him a cold shower........or you could just potty train the poor boy as per his natural development suggests.

Good grief!

mpet

Must admit - I find it hard to imagine how he gets to to the poo so easily. Now the weather is cooling down - can't he be put into dungaree type outfits, where it would be nigh on impossible to get to.

I wouldn't think it was anything to worry about or anything that needed drastic measures taken to correct.

ria.pulls

I've started to have this problem with my little boy when he was about 18 months old. to be honest i told him off and put him in the shower to hose him off (it was quite cold) with lots of soap and no playing. he gave up after about 2 weeks.

Unfortunately potty training wasn't an option as he didn't have much feeling of when it was going to happen and just though it was good fun to strip and play, normally in his bed before I got up in the morning.

Appartently its a sign of intellegence (according to my mum who also had this problem when my sister and I were little). Although maybe its just easier to deal with if you have that in mind.

Either way best of luck!x

Minxy_Bella

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

This behaviour sounds a little strange, but I doubt it's a sign of anything of concern.

More worryingly I'm wondering why he has the opportunity to do this. At such a young age I would assume he is rarely left alone in a room without an adult present, in which case the dirty nappy can be changed and then removed out of his reach immediately. I doubt my kids had much (any) opportunity to touch the contents of their dirty nappy; perhaps I'm misreading something.

Also agree that it is probably time to start using the toilet instead.

He's not left alone at all AFAIK - I gather he's rather quick to try to touch the poo before he gets 'caught'.

Yes, I'll suggest that to his mum, thanks.

Minxy_Bella

liney wrote: »

You could shout at him, smack him, him give him a cold shower........or you could just potty train the poor boy as per his natural development suggests.

Good grief!

Thanks for that - I'm not quite sure why you feel it necessary to show such disapproval of other parents' methods though.

I don't always agree with how other people raise their kids but I don't think there's any 'good grief' about it.

I started this thread as my friend is concerned about a) her son's development and b) the awful mess and risk of contamination. I've not had this problem myself so couldn't help her. I'll suggest that potty training is the way forward and she can see how that goes.