Potty Training at Daycare

1. Books, books, and more books. Read potty books to them and watch videos about other children learning how to pee and poop on the potty.
2. Talk to them about going pee and poop on the toilet and why it is important before you even attempt to make them do it.
3. Let your child come with you or older siblings to the toilet when you need to go. “Lead by example” approach.
4. Reward/praise them for letting you know they need to be changed.
5. Let your child “play” with a potty chair. Teach them what should go in there and what should not.
6. Have your child sit on the potty during natural transition times (before and after meals, before and after naps, and diaper changes)
7. Practice getting their pants up and down on their own.
8. Watch for signs that they have to go or are going and put them on the potty.
9. Keep close communication with me about any indicators suggesting the child is ready to begin Potty Training.
10. Communicate with me about what method you are planning on doing at home with me so I can see if we will both be on the same page.  

1. Children use the toilet/potty one at a time on an as-needed basis.   Children are reminded to use the potty at certain times of the day, but there's always an open-door policy to use the bathroom supervised when needed.
2. In the beginning, I remind children they need to try and go, but I do expect children to move to ask when they need to go as they get better at reading their bodies.  Watching for body cues is easily missed in this busy setting, so children need to be taught to ask to go to the potty (even if at home you don't supervise them).  They will need to ask at school and it is easier to teach this from the beginning.
3. I use rewards like sticker charts, smarties, and special recognition to motivate children to use the potty.
4. I am here to work with you and can often offer tips and tricks to try if needed.
5. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about whether a potty-training child should wear diapers, pull-ups, underwear, or be naked while they are in the process of learning. In my setting, I require that diapers or pull-ups be worn until a child has consistently been using the toilet/potty and I award them with their Potty Training Certificate.
6. Please make sure the pullups you purchase can be torn from the sides in order to make clean-ups easier.  Also please make sure they fit properly around your child's legs and that there isn't too much extra space.
7. I use both a potty and the toilet when learning.  Teaching children how to move between the two will be useful to you as parents when out in a public setting and your child needs to go to the washroom.
8. We always wash our hands when finished going to the washroom.
9. The potty is kept in the bathroom at all times and children will be supervised at all times when using the potty/toilet until they are school-age.
10. When accidents happen I will remind your child that we need to use the potty and encourage them to try again next time. 
11. Under NO circumstances can your child go commando or in underwear here at daycare when potty training.  This is a Health and Safety issue and I am unable to offer this.  All children must train in a pull-up or diaper.
12. When children need to go to the washroom they can bring the toy they are playing with and leave it just outside the bathroom so they can continue to play with it once they are finished.  This helps kids who don't want to take a potty break because they fear "losing" the toy they are playing with to another child.  
13. You will need to send many changes of clothing in case they have an accident that the pull-up doesn't entirely hold.  I will bag the soiled clothing in order to be laundered at home.  I do not launder soiled clothing.   
14. If within 2-3 weeks, your child shows no signs of progress, we may need to take a break and try again at a later date.
15. I refer to going for a number 1 as pee and a number 2 as poo or poop and I don't refer to diapers or pull-ups as underwear.  Keeping real underwear as a reward for successfully learning to use the toilet gives them motivation and something to work towards.
16. Please send your child in clothing that are comfortable and easy for your child to remove independently. (No overalls, buttons, jeans, jumpers, tights, etc.) and provide at least 2 complete changes of your child’s clothing including socks.
17. Children must arrive in pull-ups for their day at daycare and they will go home in a pull-up until they receive their Potty Training Certificate saying they are now able to come in underwear.

It is not feasible for me to put kids on a potty schedule where they go every 20-30 minutes.  This is very time-consuming and creates an environment that revolves entirely around the potty, especially with more than one child potty training at the same time.  This is a great way to start and can work really well to catch them at the start, but it isn't realistic in this setting.

I also don't limit food or drinks or force extra fluids into children.  I maintain the same schedule during potty training as a normal day and if a child is thirsty they will be given something to drink as always.  Limiting drinks before bedtime can be helpful for nighttime training, but not during the day when a child is active.

Sometimes it is required that a child "try" to go to the potty because of outings, nap time, etc.  I find that saying It's time to "pee" or I need you to "try and pee" works best.  I use this prior to outings, naps, snacks/lunches, etc. There are times when giving choices works, but not all situations allow for that.  In these situations, I will tell the child it is time to use the potty and not ask them if they want to go - if it is an open-ended question and they say NO then what do you do after that?  

I use a sticker chart to keep track of your child's progress and they get a couple of smarties as a reward for successfully using the toilet here at daycare.  

When children start showing signs that they realize they are dirty and need to be changed I will reward them with a sticker on their chart for telling me they need to be changed.  Letting them master this step is important.  Once they start to realize they need to go pee or poop it is time to start potty training.  The rewards quickly become part of the routine surrounding potty training.  

Your child will earn their Potty Training Certificate and be able to come in underwear when they are consistently: 

1. Asking to use the toilet without being prompted by me.
2. Leaving in the same dry/clean pull-up that they came in.

If at any time after your child has been fully trained at daycare they start to  have several accidents in a one-week period, I reserve the right to start the training process here at daycare all over again in pull-ups.  This rarely happens, but sometimes if there is a very stressful situation happening in the child's life it can impact their ability to use the toilet properly (new baby, parents separate, someone dying....).

Pull-ups are still required for naps/quiet time as most children can not control their bodily functions when sleeping until they are older.  The Ministry of Education requires that all children under the age of 5 years have a min of 1-hour nap/quiet time daily.

Health Canada and my Agency require me to maintain certain Health & Safety Regulations for all children in my care, which is why I have this policy.    

I have to maintain a higher standard of sanitation and cleanliness.  Human waste is considered bio-waste so this policy helps avoid the spread of viral and bacterial diseases.  SANITATION refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feces.  Preventing human contact with urine and feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap.  This prevents the transmission of disease, especially through the fecal-oral route.  There are many diseases that are easily transmitted when there are low levels of sanitation.

This is also in place to avoid damaging my flooring, carpets, furniture, and toys because these are extremely costly to replace.

When children are learning they have many accidents and without a pull-up on it will be down their legs, all over their clothes/socks, and onto the floor.  Sometimes it is not discovered immediately and it very easily can be tracked all over the room or other children that are walking/crawling can get into it, As parents no one wants their children playing in other children's "messes".  Wearing a pull-up helps to contain most accidents and keeps my home more sanitary for everyone.

I will work with you to get your child potty trained, but some things I can not accommodate some.  I communicate to you when your child is ready to move into underwear at daycare.  Being fully potty trained does not occur in different settings simultaneously.  Many times children are trained at home and not daycare or at daycare and not home.  This can be for a variety of reasons and every child is different.  It always comes, but most of the time one comes before the other.

I have seen both sides of this.  Some are able to be trained at home and not here and vice versa.  

There are many reasons why training at daycare is sometimes harder:

1. There may be more distractions here with other children, toys, or activities.
2. Due to the various ages of children in my care, children can not leave the playroom without an adult and require supervision while using the potty/toilet.  So, it is important to teach your child to tell you/me they need to go to the toilet even if at home they are allowed free access unsupervised to the toilet.  This will cause less confusion for them and help with learning at daycare and also transitions to school.
3. At daycare, I have multi-aged children who have various needs and supervision requirements.  Therefore providing constant prompting or having to visually watch your child for non-verbal cues throughout the day in order to keep up with potty training is not feasible.  This is another reason why teaching them to ask the adult caring for them to go is important for this environment.  

It's sometimes felt by parents that if the child is 100% potty trained at home they should be also trained at daycare and feel they don't need to provide diapers/pull-ups here anymore.  This is usually NOT the case!  

• I have had many children 100% potty trained at home and refused to go for me here because they are associating potty training as something they do just at home.
• I've had some children who would leave daycare and go to Kindergarten never going potty at my house, but once in school with a new environment, they go there with no problem. 
• For others, this doesn't matter and they will go at anywhere consistently. 
• Some children decide they only want to go at daycare and nowhere else.  

Don't worry if the child is only successful with one of us, they will get it everywhere at some point and sometimes going to school is what forces this to happen - they don't want to have an accident in front of their friends, so they step-up because they really can do it.

There are only so many things in a child's life at this age they can control and this is one of those things  (eating, sleeping, going potty).  Some try to control these areas  more than others.

This is why you can only send your child to my house in underwear once you receive their Potty Training Certificate congratulating your child on being able to wear underwear at daycare (other than nap time when they will still need to wear a diaper/pull-up).  

Reasons why training at home is sometimes harder:

1. During the evenings and weekends, the child is on the go a lot, making it difficult for the parents to train them to use the potty.   
2. Potty training changes from one caregiver to another (families, babysitters, grandparents, etc.). 
3. Currently or within the next 3 months, your child's life is undergoing some major transitions.   It's not uncommon for fully trained children to slip back into diapers when under stress.  
4. Some parents want the training to be done only at daycare and feel they don't need to do anything at home to try and work alongside what's being done at daycare.  So, they put their child in diapers/pull-ups at home in the evenings and on weekends and don't take them to the toilet/potty at all.

***NOTE***

I will assist you in potty training your child once you have started at home and are putting 100% effort into it when the child is home in the evenings and on weekends.  The same applies if you aren't ready to work on this at home. I won't work on it either at daycare. It takes a team effort from the parents, caregiver, and child to make this happen.  In order to be successful at potty training, we have to work together and be consistent.