Potty training Policy

[5 Little Monkeys]

Just wondering if anyone has a potty training policy or an info sheet to give to parents? I have a small blurb about it in my contract and than just talk to the parents when the time comes. However, I'm training 2 right now and thought a sheet for reference would be better. Also, This way I can just send it to future parents as well when needed.

If you have one, would you be willing to share? I'm in the process of writing mine and will post when I'm done!

[5 Little Monkeys]

This is my rough draft. I haven't sent it to the 2 parents yet. Please let me know what you think and if I should change or add anything! Thanks :)

Potty Training

Potty training is an exciting time but can be a lot of work! It will take time, patience, consistency, lots of praise and of course comes with some mishaps too!! Don't worry, they will make for funny stories down the road :) When you think that your child is ready to start training, please inform me and we will work together to reach this huge milestone as easily as possible for your child.

Firstly, please remember that each child is different and potty training starts at different ages for individual children. There isn't a right or wrong age to start at so don't feel pressured to have your child trained before they are developmentally ready. It will only make the process harder and last longer from my experience.

There are signs to watch for when trying to decide if your child is ready to train. Some of them are...
* waking up from nap with a dry diaper
* not liking the feel of a dirty diaper
* showing interest in the potty
* saying "pee", "poop" and any other bathroom words
* holding their bowel movements

There are also things you can do before your child starts to train. Some of them are....
* discussing the washroom and what we do in there
* letting them watch you go to the washroom
* read books about going to the washroom
* practice pulling up and down their pants during diaper changes

Once your child has started to train, I do ask that you send them in clothes that are "child friendly" to pull up and down and to send lots of extra clothing to keep in their drawer. When I send home dirty clothes please make sure to replenish the stock the next day. During training, I ask that you supply pull ups or the heavy cotton underwear training pants. This is to protect my furniture and carpets and to keep the daycare sanitary for the other children. Once your child has gone a week or two with dry pull ups than we will continue on to just underwear. If at any time after this I feel that your child needs pull ups again, I will talk to you and discuss this. The goal is to of course stay away from diapers and pull ups after underwear has been worn but sometimes children go through periods of regression and that is normal. Before a child can come to daycare wearing only underwear, they MUST be able to recognize when they need to use the washroom and be able to get their pants down and on the toilet with minimal help from me. This is due to the fact that I am not always able to run and help them in the washroom if I'm dealing with other children or duties. (During the training process, I make myself more available and we scale back our activities so that I can focus more on the child who is training.) It is normal to take longer at daycare than at home to be fully trained. There are many more distractions at daycare than at home