Potty Training 18 month old

[KingstonMom]

I have a parent who informed me yesterday she attemped potty training her 18 month old girl over the long weekend.
She did well at home, still having a few accidents but she mostly would be naked waist down and pee in the potty when/if she needed to.
I expressed concern to parent that it wil be different here with her friends around, she may not want to stop playing to pee on the potty.
PLUS she is still so young, I am not 100% convinced she is mentally or physically mature to potty train. (I have a son the exact age as her daughter, and I am not attempting to start potty training at this point!)
The morning went okay, she peed in the potty twice, but the got busy with her friends and had two accidents on the floor.
it would not bother me AS MUCH if I didnt just have a new area carpet purchased for our livingroom ($500) that she just peed on!
I am excited for her to be so interested and for giving the potty a try, and I really want her to 'get it' just as much as her paretns do, but I dont know what my limit is as far as the extra mess is concerned.

Has anyone experienced this before, how do you handle and how do you cope?
I know alot of daycares may have a 'no potty training' rule but I know it would assist dck alot quicker if home and daycare were consistant in their practises as far as this is concerned.
Thanks

[mamaof4]

18 months is really young to potty train, but not unheard of. I would not go making this a huge 'thing' can you ask for pull ups or something?

[lori123]

I had one child who was potty trained at 16 months old....but then again, she had her parents trained to take her to the potty one or two times per hour and they told me she was totally potty trained. They expected me to do the same. It was definitely hard bc they really did not want me to put her in a pullup. I just waited it out for a few months, rolled up my area carpets, kept potties visible and present in every room. Eventually, she was potty trained by 20 months but there were many accidents in between. I would try to keep the dck out of your new area because that is just hard to keep your cool when something new and nice gets ruined.

[playfelt]

My rule is pullups till I say otherwise. They get too busy and I am too busy to watch for the signs and remind them. Not fair to have to clean up that kind of mess when it isn't necessary. Parents forget that when we trained years ago we would have used the thick training pants that were about 4 layers plus had a pair of plastic pants on the child till we were pretty sure accidents had ceased. Now they jump from diapers to silky underpants and expect miracles. Does not happen.

I am just coming off a month of potty training three kids with varied results. It wasn't my idea so I went with it cause that is what parents wanted. Well they got told in the newsletter last week time is up. I am taking back control of my daycare and they have agreed cause they saw what happened. They were training the kids to tell me fine but at the least sign they wanted to go or to go because a friend went or whatever so I literaly lived in the bathroom. We never made it down to the basement playroom the entire month, never did a craft, rarely got through an entire store etc. One of them piddled every 10-15 minutes. So what if he could tell me he needed to piddle.

I have them all back in a pullup and we visit the potty regularly (30-45 minutes) based on our schedule as in before snack, before story, before going to the basement to play. A child that can not hold it for 30-45 minutes is not ready. Been only a week and already they are much more relaxed and 1 is still on target, one sometimes and the piddler well he is glad to not have to live in the bathroom too I am sure. He has produced something at each visit even if wet in between. It will come just not at the expense of our other learning.

[Play and Learn]

First off, I would ask that the parent pay part of the cleaning for the part where their daughter peed on your new carpet. That's not fair to you.

Secondly, I've seen it happen where children are as young as a year that are potty trained. If you want, PM and I'll send you a document on Potty training.

The rules here are and stated in the manual and contract:

I will be more than happy to assist with toilet training once the child shows signs of being ready and the routine has been established at home for two weeks. Once the training has been initiated at home, parents are asked to provide easy to remove clothing and extra training pants, underwear, and socks!

[KingstonMom]

So as an update, we tried again the diaper free today, and let dcg run about while I kept a VERY close eye on her. She had two accidents and has not really shown me she understands the concept. She apparantely only pees in the potty at home and has had no accidents as of recently. This makes me wonder why she is not showing this behaviour here.
I am getting fed up with the 'accidents' and decided that I would tell parents we need diapers or pull ups until she shows me she understands more that pee goes in the potty.
Just this evening I get a text msg from my 3 year old dck's dad. He said he noticed Sally sitting on an ottoman with no pants on and has concern because kids touch that and hands go in the mouth etc. He doesnt think this should be happening at daycare (no pants on)
I was kind of taken aback from this comment. His 3 yo girl is NOT potty trained and we tried diaper-less afternoon with her one day (when she was willing) and he thanked me for it!!
This puts me in a position between two families- but also gives me an out as it was not quite working anyways!
What would you do?

[Play and Learn]

I would NOT be letting any child (other than if it was my own) to go pants-less in MY home. Parents do NOT have the right to tell me what to do in MY business. I AM THE BOSS.

I would tell the parents that when I personally see the signs of the child understand the concept, I will try it out (but after the parents have been successful at home for min of 2 weeks and no accidents). As a provider, I will help, but NOT take on the job, as I am NOT the parent!

[playfelt]

Potty training is not about going around with a bare bum. At minimum child should be in underwear and pants that absorb such as sweat pants. Child is not ready for training at daycare until they are ready to tell you they need to go. Otherwise they stay in diapers and are put on at strategic times if they ask such as when they wake from nap dry - this is usually the first pee I catch at daycare and that is my first sign.

[sunnydays]

I would never let a daycare child go pantless in my home (or my own children during daycare hours) as I believe it is inappropriate and is unsanitary just as the other parent voiced concern about. I have a child in my daycare who potty trained at 18 months and I went through a very similar thing. At home she was fine and telling her parents when she needed to go, but at daycare she had a ton of accidents in the first week and did not tell me. I persisted and it got better and she is still diaper free a few months later, but I am still having problems. She never tells me when she needs to go and she often resists when I take her at the regular times unless I make it fun (we make the stuffed toys go pee pee first etc). It takes a lot of my time and energy to do this whole routine each time she needs to go to the bathroom and she still has frequent accidents. I don't think parents understand that home and daycare are very different. In retrospect, I think next time I would have asked the parents to wait and try again later, not so much because of the age, but because she is not fully cooperative with the process and months later still not telling me until after she's peed her pants. Another note, I wouldn't have expensive rugs in my daycare area because someone is bound to pee or poop or puke on it at some point in time! That is why I don't take the kids in my livingroom.

[MunchkinMinder]

I started to potty train my daughter when she was 18 months...but then again she was showing signs of being ready (ie. waking dry morning and nap more days than not, holding herself then peeing in her diaper, sitting herself on her potty with her clothes on, etc.) There were days when she had more accidents then times she peed in the potty but that subsided in a month or two and now at 2 (just had her birthday 3 days ago) she is pretty much day time potty trained. We only put a pull-up on her if it bed time or if we're leaving the house. She willingly uses the potty while we're out and it's great! No more dirty diapers for this mama!!!