potty training trouble at day care

[briannas auntie]

My sister wanted me to ask all of you who have children in day care and are potty training them a question.

My sister, Becky, is trying  to potty train my neice (who is 22 months old), and so far its going well at home.  Brianna will tell my sister when she needs to go potty and will even pull her diaper down.  My sister bought her a potty seat adaptor for the toilet and some pull-ups.  Becky and my mom have been training her find at home, but she is always required to wear a diaper to day care.  The day care says that they don't allow toddlers to wear pull ups all day there unless they are fully trained.  My sister told me on Facebook last night that its confusing Brianna, because she is in pull-ups one minute and diapers the next.

I honestly have never heard of rules like this for a day care, only preschools.  Has anyone else had this trouble?  Is there a way my sister can still toilet train Brianna, but abide by the day care's rules?  She has no choice but to have her in day care, due to her job and the fact that me and my mom are not always home to babysit.

Jessie

[K1329]

All of the preschools/daycares in my area have the same rule - no pull ups. Either the kids are potty trained and wearing underwear, or, they're still in diapers. I'm not sure why schools shun pull ups. With my kids (who were both much older than your neice - 36 mos. +) I used training underwear - thick, cotton undies. They worked pretty well, IMO. Would the daycare accept those? Is the daycare staff on board with your neice being potty trained? If they don't think she's ready, and, considering they're such a large part of her day, I would wait. Your sister should talk to her daycare providers and get their opinions - more than likely they've assisted in potty training many toddlers!

[pranava]

That seems like a strange rule.  Pull-ups work just like diapers, so I don't see what their issue would be unless they think pull-ups are a crutch and hinderence to actual potty training ( which I agree with).  My DS is the same age and we are having similar issues with potty training and daycare.  I think some day care providers would prefer to wait until a child practically potty trains themselves.  I don't know how that is supposed to happen.  Some kids don't tell you they need to potty until later on in the training process.  Day care providers are very busy, I know, but opportunities to use the potty should be built into the daily routine for potty training children.

I plan on making "No More Diapers!!!" a big deal on his second birthday and then switching from disposable diapers to a cloth all in one waterproof trainer.  Probably this one http://www.totwraps.com/products/Transition-Trainer%E2%84%A2-.html 

Does the daycare work with people who cloth diaper?  If they do, this type of trainer should be acceptable and it would allow the child to feel wet.  I know for my DS the feeling wet is essential to him learning that the sensation of needing to pee preceeds the peeing.  Disposable diapers just wick the wetness away and he's not motivated by that at all.

[tzs]

i've never heard of that rule but as a former 2 year-old daycare teacher, i totally get it. 

pull-ups suck to work with, especially if you are dealing with 8-12 kids at a time. they are harder to put on correctly (especially if you are trying to diaper standing up) and they just don't seem to hold messes as well. plus, kids will pull them down (because that's what they're used to, they don't stop because there's poo in there) with all sorts of nastiness in them, getting it all over and requiring a more massive clean-up.

also, there are brands of pull-ups that people do bring in that require the kid to undress to put a new one on because they don;t have the adhesive sides. no way, jose!

the fact is, kids who are going to pee in a diaper are still going to pee in a pull-up so i've never seen the point of spending the extra dough on them anyway.

[just_lily]

I used to run a home daycare, and I will say that I found pull-ups to be a huge PITA, to be honest.  I think they are fine as occasional back up for a mostly potty trained child, for things like long car rides or trips to the park, but if a child needed to be in them all the time, I would much rather have them in regular diapers.

My reasons:

- most kids treat them as regular diapers anyways

- they don't contain messes as well as diapers. They always seem to leak, or poop ends up going up the back.

- disposing of a poopy pull-up is a pain.  Yes, they rip down the sides, but because they don't have tabs, you couldn't make a "poop burrito" like with a sposie.  This might be ok if you use a diaper genie or something, but I always had to put a poopy pull-up into a plastic bag before putting into my diaper pail so that the poop didn't get everywhere.  With a "poop burrito" I just threw it right in. 

- I find it easier to change a diaper than a pull-up.  With wet diapers I would often just pull pants down to the child's ankles rather than taking them off entirely but you can't do that with a pull up.  And if a child doesn't feel like cooperating getting a pull-up on is really tough - much easier to use a diaper on a squirmy toddler. 

- I even preferred to use a nap-time diaper rather than pull-up on a child who was otherwise in underwear.  In our pre-nap routine I would have the child use the potty and then while their pants were down I would put a diaper through their legs and fasten it, and then pull up their underwear and pants overtop.  After nap the child could usually remove their diaper themselves, use the potty, and pull back their undies and pants.  A pull-up always required the complete removal of pants which meant I needed to do more, and the child wasn't as independent.  (This makes me sound lazy, but really it is because kids like to be able to do things themselves.) 

When you only have one child in diapers/pullups then none of these things are really a big deal.  But at one point I had three kids in full-time diapers and two others who still wore a diaper to nap, so dealing with changes and pottying took up a lot of my day.  I never told parents they weren't allowed to bring pull-ups, but did express my preferance to just use diapers.  Most of them agreed, especially since pull ups are more expensive anyways. 

Maybe your did could ask the daycare to put your neice on the potty at every diaper change.  Then it wouldn't really matter if she is in a pullup or a diaper the rest of the time.

[sapphire_chan]

Since she says when she needs to go when she's wearing a diaper and pulls her diaper down herself, I don't get what the difficulty is.

[briannas auntie]

Thanks for all your replies.  The day care Becky takes Brianna to won't allow you to use cloth diapers.  In fact, I haven't seen any in our county that do, because the health department claims that they are a health risk to the employees, and its time consuming to clean them out after changing them. 

My sister thinks that the reason the day care won't help with potty training is because they have all these other kids to watch over and its too inconveient to take Brianna to the bathroom.  Plus, they don't have potty seat adaptors for the toilet (this is what Becky's been using so far).

I got Becky some cloth training pants (they were Gerber brand with butterflies and pink flowers on them), but she hasn't used them yet, because she is worried about it creating too much laundry (as you can tell, Becky never used cloth diapers).  Plus, Brianna saw the Pampers Easy Ups that had Dora The Explorer on them, and wanted those, so my sister got them for her.  I betcha anything that if there was a training pant that had Dora on them, she'd use them on Brianna.

Jessie

[pranava]

Huh, I never thought of diapers as easier than pull ups before.  I guess it depends on your preference and the kid.  I swithced to pull ups because DS will NOT lay down and lay still for a diaper change, and he won't stand still long enough to let me diaper him standing up.  He is OK with putting his feet in the pull up for me though and then pulling it up himself.  I think he feels more independent that way and DS is Mr. Independent!  I totally get the disposable poop burrito   Pull ups do make that impossible.  The bad thing I've experienced with cloth training pants or undies are the poo accidents.  It is a horrible mess to get those off.  That's why I'm looking into cloth training undies that unsnap at the sides!!

[beebalmmama]

When ds was potty learning his daycare was the same. They wouldn't take cloth dipes either. We tried pull ups once for daycare and saw a huge backslide in progress and so I stopped using them. Our problem with potty learning at daycare was that the bathroom was not accessible from his classroom (only from the 1-2 yr old class, yeah makes no sense). He was very independent to get to the potty at home but since he needed to ask a teacher at school, it just didn't happen. I think it was a good 3-4 months before he was pl'd at school after he was pl'd at home and everywhere else.

Is the care provider helping with the potty learning?

[Areia]

I haven't read all the replies, but I think it's strange that they won't allow pull ups.   In my DD's preschool, its the other way around.  They say that since they're not a day care and do not have designated changing areas, that they can't allow diapers.  My DD was still toilet training when she started preschool just past her 3rd birthday and I didn't notice any back sliding.  If anything I think it helped move things along as  she wanted to be a big girl like some of her new friends. 

ETA - sorry, just realized you did say daycare and not preschool and in reading all the replies, I can see why some would rather not sure pull ups.