Switzerland: More and more school children are wearing diapers, educators are concerned

problem in schools
Because parents are becoming more comfortable: More and more Swiss school children are wearing diapers

According to educators, the fact that more and more children are still wearing diapers at school is sometimes due to the convenience of the parents. Teachers are concerned about the “worrying development”.

In Switzerland, students start primary school at the age of four, which roughly corresponds to primary school in Germany. It could happen that some are still wearing diapers, says Dagmar Rösler, President of the umbrella organization for teachers in Switzerland (LCH), to the Swiss daily newspaper “20 Minuten”. But not only young children would go to school in diapers. “When eleven-year-olds come to school in diapers, that’s a worrying development,” says Rösler.

The “diaper issue” is becoming more and more of a problem in Swiss schools. Educators are watching the development with concern. “Teachers aren’t there to change their students’ diapers. That’s going too far,” says Rösler. According to the Swiss Sunday newspaper, there are advertisements in which parents are looking for diaper changing staff at pedagogical universities. For example, a notice was posted saying “a lady who could have our five-year-old son have his diaper changed on demand.”

Parents make older children wear diapers so they can sleep in at the weekend

The development educator Rita Messmer is currently “overrun with inquiries,” she says. She notes that the number of children wearing diapers at school has “increased extremely”. She would have had an eleven-year-old patient in her practice who was still in diapers – simply because he had never learned to go to the toilet by himself.

According to the educators, the fact that more and more school children are wearing diapers is due to the increasing convenience of the parents. Today, diapers are made for children up to 57 kilograms and are “more and more comfortable and can be worn like normal underpants,” says educationalist Margrit Stamm. For example, parents would dress their children in diapers to sleep in at the weekend. “This is a completely wrong signal,” said Stamm.

Diapers in schools can lead to bullying

At the same time, the fact that children of primary school age wear diapers can indicate physical impairments, neglect or an extremely stressed family situation, says psychotherapist Felix Hof. For him, wearing diapers at school poses another problem: “These children are very likely to be teased or bullied. If the teachers are overwhelmed, it then becomes even more difficult to support the child and its parents,” he says.

Sources: “20 minutes“, “Sunday newspaper“