The lower urinary tract includes the bladder and the tube that urine passes through as it leaves the body (urethra). Having regular, short periods without wearing a nappy or pull-up can help prepare your child for how it will feel when they stop using them completely

The most common thing at our school is teachers saying, ‘you should have gone at lunch’…They always leave the classroom to go to the bathroom when they like, but we can’t because it will ‘disrupt our learning’? Our lunch is quite long but a club or long queues can stop you getting any food or a chance to go to the bathroom.” As your child grows, you can help them to learn words or signs for the potty, how to push their pants down and pull them up again, using toilet paper, handwashing and hand drying Izzy’s version of Macbeth originally appeared on the BBC Radio series ‘Shakespeare Retold’, read by actress Shirley Henderson (who played Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films!).

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Hamlet could NEVER make his mind up about ANYTHING. And one time he actually went to school in just his pants and got sent home because he couldn’t decide what to wear. Children with additional needs such autism are prone to dealing with constipation and may have difficulty in recognising the signals from their bladder or bowel in time. Getting cross - but you can be cross with the wee and poo coming out in the wrong place! Talk about how annoying it is that the wee/poo is misbehaving again, and how you and the child will have to teach it how to behave. Overflow incontinence, also called chronic urinary retention, is when the bladder cannot completely empty when you pass urine. This causes the bladder to swell above its usual size.

If you think your child could be constipated, it’s really important to book an appointment with your GP who can prescribe laxatives to help soften their poo if needed. It’s really important to make sure any underlying constipation is treated before you stop using nappies or pull-ups. Make sure your child is drinking enough in the day and try to avoid large amounts of fluids at bedtime. You could try avoiding drinks an hour before bedtime You can introduce the potty as soon as children can safely sit up on their own. Good times to try sitting on the potty include shortly after they wake up, after mealtimes, and any time it looks like your child needs to wee or poo. You can use nappies most of the time but then take them off to use a potty when the child is likely to goproblems after you've passed urine, such as feeling that you've not completely emptied your bladder or passing a few drops of urine after you think you've finished

Helping your child learn as they go along, according to what they are capable of at each stage of development, gives them a gentle learning process towards stopping using nappies. It can help to think of it being a skill like learning to walk or talk – the more practice and help your child gets the easier it will be. It’s important that your child feels relaxed, comfortable and secure about using the toilet or potty. Make sure the space is accessible to your child Toilet anxiety, toilet phobia or paruresis may be triggered by an unpleasant experience, such as a noisy or smelly toilet. Children might remember this each time they go - leading to an association of anxiety with going to the toilet. They may also start to hold in wee or poo to avoid using the toilet. There may be times when it is more difficult for you to help your child use a potty, for example if they are unwell or if they refuse to cooperate. At these times, it’s important not to put pressure on yourself or your child and only do what feels manageable for you both Fear of toilets is often about the unknown, and may be linked to imagined monsters and scary things, snakes in the toilet, and dangerous germs (Toilet cleaners ‘kill all known germs’ after all!).

What is toilet anxiety?

Continence conditions are among the most common health issues affecting children, with 1 in 12 young people aged between 5 and 19 living with a bowel or bladder condition. A third of all children struggle with constipation. After learning about Macbeth (a STRONG solider who ate four bowls of porridge and twenty pieces of toast every morning) her friends want more. So Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet all get the Izzy treatment. There’s blood and guts, ghosty stuff, and plenty of people wandering around in their nighties. The perfect introduction to the Bard! Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-06-22 04:01:35 Associated-names Flintham, Thomas, illustrator; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Boxid IA1818609 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier If your child gets very upset without a nappy or pull-up on, or starts to avoid doing a wee or poo, it could also be a sign that your child is constipated. Often, children who are constipated hold off from doing a poo to avoid pain caused by passing a hard or large poo. Medical conditions such as chronic constipation, wetting and urinary tract infections (UTIs) can be caused or aggravated by the avoidance of, or limited access to, school toilets.