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  1. #1
    Shy
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    How to potty training a child?

    Hi,

    I am opening my daycare and it is my 1st time. How do you potty training a child? Need help!! Tia

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Love&care View Post
    Hi,

    I am opening my daycare and it is my 1st time. How do you potty training a child? Need help!! Tia
    I think we all have different methods that work with our day care schedules. For me, I toilet train the first business day after their 2nd birthday. It takes about 2 weeks of positive reinforcement, being tied to the house, with timers and reminders but it's worth that time investment for me. Around 18 months, I make sure that parents are getting the child to dress and undress themselves after diaper changes so they are competent at pulling their own clothing on and off their lower half.

    I also require real underwear, not training underwear or pull ups from day one. Other than nap time, children are in real underwear from the get go and parents are required to sign up to knowing this is a process and there's no going back because it's inconvenient for the adults.

    Other provider's wait until the child is showing interest which can be as late as 3.5-4 years for some children. Some require pull ups until the training is complete. It varies from provider to provider based on what they have found works for them.

    One of my objectives in my day care is to teach children independent skills. Children are taught from a very young age how to put on their outside clothing, shoes, feed themselves etc. Others have other priorities. It's very personal.

  3. #3
    Shy
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    Thx Suzie_Homemaker!It sounds Montessori to me and I am Montessori trained--Independent. Could you give me more detail how do you work with the child during the first week or the beginning?

    Do you remind the child to go to bathroom?
    how often do you remind that child?
    Will that child feel embarrass when you remind that child?
    What happen if the child wets the pants again during outdoor play? I bet you need to stop the outdoor activity completely, because you need to do cloth changing with that child...
    About the parent participation, what if they said they are working with you, but deep down they don't. What will you do?
    And wondering can i take a look your contract/agreement about the potty training?

    sorry for all the questions that i have. I know it is a tough process at the beginning, but down the road, we are giving an opportunity to guide the child to be independent.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Love&care View Post
    Thx Suzie_Homemaker!It sounds Montessori to me and I am Montessori trained--Independent. Could you give me more detail how do you work with the child during the first week or the beginning?
    Sure, I'm actually training my 31st child this week. Sigh.

    Do you remind the child to go to bathroom?
    Initially yes just until I can gauge for myself how long that individual child can hold their bladder, how often they need the washroom after eating/drinking. Once I know what's their normal, I tend to send to try a couple mins before hand. My goal is to get as many successful trips in as possible in order to have the Hi-5's and celebrations. That's the child's buy into the process.
    Likewise, if they have an accident, no negativity but the child gets their clean clothes from their book bag and changes themselves. I obviously help with wiping and clean up. They take their wet clothes off and after clean up, get themselves redressed. The reason for that, is they can begin to feel a bit uncomfortable but also, it has to be more inconvenient to have an accident, then it is to go to the potty.
    I require parents to commit to starting at a weekend. A full weekend, with zero plans to leave the house. I have a training guide that we discuss prior to training. The are not to pull the child's clothing down, or to pull their clothing up after using the washroom. And if there is an accident, they have to stand back and let the child take off the wet clothing and redress. If they aren't willing to buy into my process to ensure consistency, then I won't train their child so young.


    how often do you remind that child?
    Initially, every 20 mins. Yep, that often but these are children just barely two years old. I find this is the Window of time that works consistently as long as parents are invested too. By day 2, I normally have a better gauge of how often a child really needs to go because I'm making notes on when they pee, when they have an accident, when they have a drink etc. The child I started training yesterday can hold his bladder for about 45 mins consistently so I send him to pee every 43 mins - set a kitchen timer. If he's had a drink, I now know 18 mins is his max.

    Will that child feel embarrass when you remind that child?
    Never happened here before although I had one who didn't like being the centre of attention generally. For him, I toned down the Hi-5's and the group singing of "you did it" and just had a quiet well done between us while he selected the sticker he'd like for his chart. I always have a sticker chart. It's a train at the beginning and a winding track that goes across the whole board to the end. Each square of the track represents a successful toilet trip. One sticker for a pee, two for any solids. Make notes on this about accidents etc so you can begin to see any patterns for than particular child.
    Bear in mind too, mine are doing this when really young so they are typically to the younger end of the age range. They love their "big friends" Hi-5's them and congratulating them.

    What happen if the child wets the pants again during outdoor play?
    In Summer I take the potty outside with us but remain on the premises vs going off site as we normally do. In Winter, we are tied to the house for a full week.


    I bet you need to stop the outdoor activity completely, because you need to do cloth changing with that child...
    In Winter time, yes but in Summer, I take the potty outside with us and carry on as if we were inside. I only suspend outside activities for a week. Week 2, I make sure that outside time is not soon after a drink and that the child has peed before headed out. I also limit the outside time to max of an hour. We split that so an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon which is manageable by week 2. I also make sure the potty is situated outside the washroom door so a newly training child is never in a line-up to use the washroom.


    About the parent participation, what if they said they are working with you, but deep down they don't. What will you do?
    I know in advance if a parent is on the same page as me and anyone who isn't, doesn't make it through my interview process.
    That said, I always speak to a parent when their child is around 18 months to get them on board with teaching their child to dress independently. Parent's know they are required to invest that initial weekend because if I am giving up my weekend making sure there's enough activities for a week for the others in case I'm back and forth, and drawing up charts, then it requires some effort from them too.
    I'm really lucky with my clients. As one child begins toilet training, others have done it so other client's will back up that my system works they just have to be invested too. It's two weeks out of their life, with me doing the majority of the waking hours. We have a great team-working environment here where I and the parents work together to ensure the success of the child. To be honest, a parent who doesn't think this way has normally been given their notice long before the 2nd birthday comes around.

    And wondering can i take a look your contract/agreement about the potty training?
    It's not in my contract because that has the generic requirement that we work together for all the developmental mile stones. But I do have a "preparing your child for toilet training" guide. I'll message it to you.

    sorry for all the questions that i have. I know it is a tough process at the beginning, but down the road, we are giving an opportunity to guide the child to be independent.
    It's not as bad as some make out. I find that some wait until a child is older but then they are more independent personality wise and more likely to object. This age is perfect as they are still at the stage of being willing to do anything you ask and get the praise/thanks. This is why 18-28 month old children like to "help" more than when they get a couple months older - that's when they hit the "no" and "I don't want to" stages which are so much harder for toilet training.

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  6. #5
    Shy
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    I need to say a big THANK YOU to you for a long detail information. Deeply appreciated. This info. helps me a lot on toilet training. I don't know is lucky or not, I was very seldom to deal with non-potty trained kids. Now, i feel more confidence, when i need to talk to some parents whose kids are not potty trained. May I have your toilet training guide sooner than later. I am starting to interview with some parents soon this and next week. Sorry for asking you again. Thank you again!

  7. #6
    Euphoric !
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    Quote Originally Posted by Love&care View Post
    I need to say a big THANK YOU to you for a long detail information. Deeply appreciated. This info. helps me a lot on toilet training. I don't know is lucky or not, I was very seldom to deal with non-potty trained kids. Now, i feel more confidence, when i need to talk to some parents whose kids are not potty trained. May I have your toilet training guide sooner than later. I am starting to interview with some parents soon this and next week. Sorry for asking you again. Thank you again!
    Yes, will just have to be when my son visits later this week as I don't know how to send a file on here.

  8. #7
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    Question for you as you seem to be the potty training queen! I just returned from 2 week vacation and one family decided to potty train while I was gone. She is 21 months old and was very successful at home but since being back at daycare this week she hasn't been super successful. I've never potty trained one so young so I'm a bit unsure. Lol. She relies fully on her parents to do the work at home but she does tell them "potty" when she has to go. And when she doesn't. And when she just wants to say the word potty. Or she look at the potty and says potty. I take her as much as I can with the rest of the crew here. We do walk to and from school daily and go places without bathrooms and have had more accidents each day since Monday. Both pee's and bowel movements. I can tell her parents are discouraged somewhat with her lack of success here when they see her in different clothes at pick up. They realize it's a 2:1 ratio at home and they can be right on it if she does her poo dance or says potty. I try my best but it does happen when she says she has to go and I'm in the middle of changing a poopy diaper, etc.
    She cannot pull her pants up or down yet. What would you suggest to me? How can I help her be as successful at daycare as she is at home? Sorry for being so long winded. I appreciate your input (or anyone else's)

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