Rachel, a family child care provider in Iowa, recently wrote to me asking for help with potty training a young girl in her daycare, just about 3 years old. She wrote:
I'm currently in a situation where the parents wanted to start training their daughter at 22 months. No big deal right? Now, almost a year later and she still will not tell me when she has to go. If i ask her if she has to go I am told no and she goes in her underwear. Now, I've given them a checklist on what the signs for readiness are and I know that she doesn't have all the signs but the parents insist on training her. I'm kind of at a standstill here. Also, they use a mixture of Pull-Ups and the vinyl pants with the padded underwear built in them. Often they forget to send any extras so after an accident she has nothing to wear except a diaper I can give her from my own supply. She has accidents here and at home. Can you help?
It sounds to me like Rachel is having more problems with the parents than she is with the child. Successful potty training always begins with the parents! Everyone has to have an agreed upon plan in order to teach the child, or there will just be mixed signals for the child. I have a plan to offer Rachel, but I'd really like to hear your input first! Send in your comments to Rachel and let's help her solve this problem!
2 comments:
I think if both the parents and provider back off a bit and wait till the child is showing more signs of rediness then the process will go much easier and quicker. I have 20 years of experience with potty training kids and my own 4 children were all trained within 2 weeks because i waited until they were showing signs of interest and initiated it.
I have had the same problems....it does not sound like it is the child at all...it is the parents that are not cooperating and sticking to the same plan at home. Sometimes you get parents that are just too lazy and really dont want to spend the time and they just think that the provider will do the training and then they wont have to do anything and their child will just come home trained one day but it just does not work that way! I am dealing with the same problem right now. This little girl is totally trained at my house but not at home and the mom sends her to me in diapers and I asked the mom about it and she said "well she had an accident so I took her Dora pull ups away." I tried to nicely explain to her that if she has an accident you should not punish her...you need to work with her. She can not figure out why she goes on the potty all day here but not at home. I give all of my parents notes about my potty training policy and how they need to follow the same plan at home or it will not work. I even send home the same charts and stickers for the parents to use and the mom said she quit using those too so what does that tell you??? I find a lot of times it is the parents being lazy and not sticking to the plan or spending the time with the child.
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