Let potty training kids wash their hands with the bathtub faucet

Leah has saved thousands of parents from back strain with her simple hack:

My 2 year old recently potty trained and is doing great. But she goes so many times during the day and I was getting really tired of lifting her up to wash her hands in the sink (she's still too small for the stepstool to make much of a difference). Then yesterday I realized that she can reach the bathtub faucet pretty easily. So I've started turning that on for her instead so I don't have to break my back quite as many times per day. I still have to lift her up in public bathrooms of course, but it helps a lot for when we're just in our house.

Related: Teach kids their ABCs while they wash their hands

Comments

[Amberlynn]

Please just make sure your water heat is not turned up too high. My little sister burned herself badly playing with the tub faucet as a toddler.

[Uly]

Oh, don't ever lift the kid to help them reach. Bad for the back, and uncomfortable for the kid.

What you do is you kneel down and act as a boost that way (this assumes you wear work pants, not nice pants). They get a better boost than a stepstool and they're at a more natural position. Plus, they're comfortable and you are too.

[Suzanne Riffel]

What a great tip. I'll also share this on my potty training blog. http://thepottybootcamp.blogspot.com

[Susanne]

This is a great suggestion. When my kids were little I had them spit into the tub after they brushed their teeth.

[Jaime]

Good idea here!

[Lindsay]

I'm so excited about this hack - we've been using it all day and, though I suspect I'm using a bit more water, it's made things so much easier. Between our 1950's bathroom that's not toddler-friendly at all and the newborn that's usually in my arms - this one's a lifesaver!

[monkeysmom]

We also use the tub faucet for brushing teeth when we are at a home or hotel with no stool available. My 3 year old thinks it's so cool that he's allowed to spit in the tub!

[Cindy]

We got a set of steps (2 steps) from Target for our daughter (2years) -- they provide more boost than a step stool, so she can reach the sink, but it doesn't raise her too high. I tried using it earlier (at ~ 18 months) but she wasn't quite stable enough.

[smp]

Or you could just get a higher stepstool!
Cheers,
Sang-Min

[cheri]

Thats such a great idea my son is still young but iam dreading the day he starts his big day, but yeah thats great I thought I would have to do the lift and all thanks for posting your idea.

[Rick @ Tiny Prints]

Nice recognition on About.com Bravo!

http://babyparenting.about.com/b/2008/09/05/link-love-for-the-week-of-august-31-2008.htm