Westwood Farm Pre-School

6.4 Intimate care and nappy changing

 

Policy statement

 

No child will be excluded from participating in our setting who may, for any reason, not yet be toilet trained and who may still be wearing nappies or equivalent. We work with parents towards toilet training, unless there are medical or other developmental reasons why this may not be appropriate at the time.

 

We provide nappy changing facilities and exercise good hygiene practices in order to accommodate children who are not, yet toilet trained.

 

We see toilet training as a self-care skill that children have the opportunity to learn with the full support and non-judgemental concern of adults.

 

Procedures

 

• Our staff change nappies as and when required.  All children wearing nappies are checked at the end of both the morning and afternoon sessions.

• Children who are showing signs of readiness to begin toilet training, and with parental agreement, will be encouraged to wear pull ups, or other types of trainer pants, as soon as they are comfortable with this . 

• Young children are changed within sight of other staff whilst maintaining their dignity and privacy at all times with the use of screens.

• We have a supply of spare baby wipes and nappy sacks.

• All staff put on gloves, and disposable aprons are available to wear if desired, before changing starts, and the areas are prepared.

• All our staff are familiar with our hygiene procedures and carry these out when changing nappies

• Our staff never turn their back on a child or leave them unattended whilst they are on the changing mat.

• We are gentle when changing and we avoid pulling faces and making negative comments about ‘nappy contents’.

• We do not make inappropriate comments about children’s genitals when changing their nappies.

• In addition, we ensure that nappy changing is relaxed and a time to promote independence in young children.

• We encourage children to take an interest in using the toilet; they may initially just want to sit on it. 

• Children are never made to feel that they have done wrong if they wet or soil themselves.

• Children are instructed that there should be no more than one child at any one time in a toilet.

• We encourage children to wash their hands independently, using soap and blue roll to dry their hands. They should be allowed time for some play as they explore the water and the soap.  (Adult supervision available as required).

• Older children access the toilet when they have the need to and are encouraged to be independent.

• We dispose of nappies and pull ups hygienically.   A yellow bin is situated in the garden for this purpose.  This is regularly emptied by an external company. 

• Cloth nappies, trainer pants and ordinary pants that have been wet or soiled are bagged for parents to take home.

• We have a ‘duty of care’ towards children’s personal needs. If children are left in wet or soiled nappies/pull ups in the setting this may constitute neglect and will be a disciplinary matter.