Potty Training parent "guidelines"

Looking for some experienced advice!

I have suggested to all parents that when they are ready to potty train they start on a friday after daycare.. take the whole weekend to practice and IF it goes well then I will continue the training during the week... what does the weekend going well look like?
- Child is telling you "they need to go potty" before they go potty on a regular basis
-Child is confidently using the potty with ease

so what else should I be asking/preparing parents with?
Do you ask parents to send their children in pull ups for a certain amount of time or do you allow them to come in underwear right from the start?

When I trained my own children I went straight to undies as I feel it does encourage quicker training - but lets face it there were lots of puddles on the floor.. not sure I want to deal with that in a daycare setting??

any advice is welcome! thank you!

I don't have specific guidelines, but I don't initiate, I wait until the parents have started at home too. Last summer, dcb was trained when he came back after my 2 week vacation. Yah.

I tell parents I don't do pull-ups as they don't hold nearly as much and if there is any #2 then the #1 overflows and you have the same mess. Undies all the way.

I have had parents want to start too early, before the child is 2 and is not even close to being ready. This is always a disaster and I think it actually has lead to the child taking longer to train in the long run.

The biggest issue is always the spare clothes. Some parents will bring 2 spare pants and 2 underwear and 4 extra shirts. Huh? How does that make sense? And bringing clean clothes after dirty ones have gone home. A constant headache. I have some spare clothes here for this reason. On a couple of occasions, I have sent boys home in bright pink pants with my daycare name written up the legs in marker. No forgetting whose they are...those come back. lol

Nap time is different, I don't expect them to be able to sleep through in underwear at the beginning. Diapers are ok while they are getting used to the whole process.

I love the thick woven gerber training pants. With those, a pair of leggings and socks its rare for pee to hit the floor. The panties absorb lots, the leggings and socks absorb the rest. My daughter is now the point of yelling pee and starting to run but not making it to the potty in time, aside from laundry there us no puddle clean up.

For nap I put a diaper under the panties, just in case. And when we play outside or leave the house I put a diaper over the panties (this means she stays wet if she pees but no mess).

Anyways, the training underwear are 2 pairs for $6 so a lot less than pull ups would cost (they would need a handfull though) I'd also insist parents send 8 pairs of pants, 8 pairs of socks and 2 shirts each morning. Sounds like a lot but more is better and those first days can be full of missed timed runs!

Perfect thanks for the tips! I am feeling like the little one is not ready but parents really want to try. I've told them not to push it but if they really want to try they MUST try over the weekend first! If they're ready they will pick up the cues over the weekend pretty quick.

My rules :-

1. Be sure ready. It's a process and once begin then no going back to diaper because it's easier for parent. If you try and give up and go back to diaper, that tell child diaper returning is available. Bad bad cycle to get into. If we do this, we do this to the end, not matter how long it take. Start too soon, makes for long process.
2. Real underwear. Little bit of pee running down leg is good teaching aid.
3. Child must to be to pull own pants down unassisted before begin
4. Child must be able to pull own pants up unassisted before begin, including over their backside
5. Parent does weekend first - full weekend. If they not bother to do 2 days when one-on-one then don't expect me to do 10 hour day when 6 children. My level of support increases with parental effort.
6. If child is at the "no" phase and say no to everything, then this is not time to train.

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Originally Posted by Lee-Bee

I love the thick woven gerber training pants.

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I like these two but have only had a couple of kids with them. Be careful, though, I was in the habit of swishing poopy undies in the toilet before sending them home (long time ago) but then one day forgot and flush! Luckily they got stuck in the toilet and I didn't need a plumber, but I did have to get my dad to come, take the toilet off the floor to fish them out. I don't do that anymore. lol

Here I don't allow underwear until child has had no accidents for 2 weeks and tells me when they need to go. Pull-ups only until I agree to the switch. I have yet to see a child trained over a weekend or even 2 weeks for that matter. It is a process - start introducing potty from 18 months, slowly work at it at home. When child seems interested start wearing underwear or go naked during evenings weekends. No pressure. No treats no stickers etc either.

That's the advice I give my parents.

I also never actually start introducing them to the daycare potty until after aged 2. We also go straight to the big potty. Depending on how they react is how often I take them. We start with once a day for a bit then go more often.

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Originally Posted by kindertime

I like these two but have only had a couple of kids with them. Be careful, though, I was in the habit of swishing poopy undies in the toilet before sending them home (long time ago) but then one day forgot and flush! Luckily they got stuck in the toilet and I didn't need a plumber, but I did have to get my dad to come, take the toilet off the floor to fish them out. I don't do that anymore. lol

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Hahahaha...I can totally see this happening! Well, the forgetting it and flushing part, not the removing the toilet to fish it out lol. I haven't had to swish any. I just plop. We used cloth diapers on my daughter until about a month ago (she out grew them - she is 95th percentile for height and weight). SO I have the whole rinsing poop step mastered if I need to!

I use pullups for training at daycare. I do not deal with messes on the floor as it is unsanitary for the other children. I know all the arguments for and against this method but in 30 years of daycare have only had one child that never got it.

I haven't made an official rule on potty training. If the child is able, I prefer real underwear. About a month ago, I had a child take Monday off, they trained for 3 days, and then came here in real underwear. I insist on pull ups for naps though. This particular child just turned 2 last month, and he's doing better than I could have ever imagined.

I should add, all my parents so far have been wonderful about sending way more extra clothes than necessary. And I never plan to potty train a child without the parents starting it. When they want to potty train, then I'll help them. But if they don't put in the work, I'm not going to either.

I ask that the child be showing interest. The child has to be ready to be trained, not the parent!! They need to be practicing pulling up and down their pants, be able to communicate that they need to go and be waking up from bedtime or nap with a fairly dry diaper as this shows they are starting to have control of their voiding.

During training, I help with the clothes and I ask for pull ups. I have a small potty, a boys urinal and of course the big toilet but with a child sized seat that flips up and down. I go with what the child is comfortable with. The big toilet is ideal but some kids are really tiny, even with the smaller seat so we start on the potty. I also put the potty in the hallway so it's more accessible and in our face so they sit on it more often lol.

Once they go 2-3 weeks with no accidents HERE and they can do their clothes themselves, they can be sent in underwear and lots of extra clothes. If they still need a diaper for nap that is fine. I have one 3yo boy who still occasionally wears one for nap. I've started asking if he wants to put it on, most days he says no but I think at home for bedtime he still wears one. He sleeps on a plastic mat with sheets here so it's a quick and easy cleanup for the times he does have an accident. They're getting fewer and fewer though so he will be promoted to the "big bed" soon...a regalo cot lol.