NAPPIES STOP TIME FOR THE URINAL PAN

 -When to start and how often to put the baby on the urinal pan?

 -Which way?

 -What to say and how to say it?

 -What to do if the baby does not want to sit on it?

  All these questions worry the parents and especially the mothers of the babies that have reached this stage.

  The most important thing at this stage is firstly your own good mood and then the baby’s mood. You must be ready psychologically to enter in such a procedure, not to get on your nerves.

  The baby, after the first year, must start slowly-slowly to get familiar with the urinal pan. What I mean is, the baby must see it every day in the same place and you explain to the baby in simple words what it is used for. Put it in a safe place in the bathroom and explain to the baby that the big pan is for you to “empty your matter” and the small pan is for babies. If the urinal pan does not fit in the bathroom, then place it right outside the door.

  The first month of this procedure, do not put the baby to sit alone on the urinal pan.

Before this, you first teach the baby how to play with a toy doll, to pull down the doll’s brief (make sure it is a doll with underwear), to sit the doll on the urinal pan to do its “matter”. This way the baby will learn the whole procedure and slowly-slowly it may ask by itself to sit on the urinal pan. If not, then you start yourself to sit the baby on the pan, just once a day. If you reach this point, preferably start to use for your baby the diaper briefs.

    If you see that the baby is still anxious and not willing to sit on the pan, do not push much. Sit the baby on and count to ten, before you stand it up. The next day you count to twenty and so on. Thus, a bit more and more every day and the baby will get used to it. Make the baby to feel it (the time of sitting on the pan) as fun and enjoyment, not as oppression. Attention though! The baby must not end up considering the urinal pan as a toy, but as a useful and necessary tool. Place next to the baby some booklets to look at, and play some songs to listen to. Tell the baby how beautiful it looks sitting on the pan and take a photo of it.

   A friend of mine did something very clever. She hanged on the wall next to the baby’s urinal pan, a poster/puzzle that she made it herself, she glued on it pictures of various babies seated on a urinal pan and among them she put the similar photo of her own baby.  She gave names to all these babies of the photos and now her baby was glad to spend time sitting on the pan, looking at these baby photos and talking to them.

   Initially, you also sit next to the seated baby, saying some jokes, even pretend with a pantomime of how to push the bowel to excrete. Explain to the baby that it won’t get dirty, because you will help it to get up, as soon as it finishes. You go together to empty the urinal pan to the toilet, flush the water and definitely wash hands.

   Start to sit the baby on the urinal pan every noon after lunch and before the nap. Most probably the baby will excrete. But either it does or not, you reward the baby. This training does not require any shouting or punishment. In order the baby not to request you to be there continuously (for as long it sits on the pan), pretend that you are busy with something at the same time (e.g. go to check the cooking not to burn the food),

and go away from the baby, leave it alone to relax. No need for much talk and fondling, only straight and plain talk from you. Do not leave the baby on the pan more than 20-30 minutes.

   The time period needed for stopping the use of nappies is different for each baby. For one baby may take a week, for another one it may take one or two months etc. The best season is the summer, to use the urinal pan for the baby regularly. It is the season that the baby wears less clothes, the weather is warm, even the home is tidy more lightly (e.g. without carpets).The best thing is, if you start this procedure of using the urinal pan, to do it properly and thoroughly, day and night. As for the bed mattress, protect it with a waterproof spread, because surely there will be some “accident”. During the day, put the baby on the urinal pan every 2 hours.

   During the night you should set the alarm every 3 hours. Choose an alarm with a soft and cheerful sound (there are in the market baby alarms: teddy-bears, dogs, pussy-cats etc.)Set a same alarm for the baby too, as soon as it rings the baby will get preparing for it. At night, keep the urinal pan next to the baby’s bed, in order not to have to move it much and not to awake the baby thoroughly. Fast and methodical moves are required. When it is time for an outing to the playground, definitely you put the baby to use the pan before you leave, explaining that there is no urinal pan in the park. However if it does excrete anyway in the nappy, of course it is out of the question any scolding, you simply explain to the baby to be faster, to go to the urinal pan on time.

   I am not saying it is easy but not impossible neither, the main thing that is needed is patience. If one day you are not in a good mood, better skip the urinal procedure that day, because otherwise one thing is for sure, it will affect the baby negatively.

The latest up to 3 years old, the baby must cut off the nappies. Do not neglect it, because by stopping the pan, you do not only save money but you avoid many diseases too, e.g. urinal or skin infections etc.

First and foremost, have patience and psychologically be in a good mood!