Find the Balance: How to Manage Potty Training in Daycare

Potty training is a blessing and a curse rolled up into one for many parents. As your little one begins to transition from diapers to the toilet, you'll need help from their daycare to ensure that they truly learn to adopt healthy behaviors and an attitude about this big step in their lives. Every daycare has its own regulations when it comes to potty training, so you should speak with yours directly before you start helping your child make the transition. Daycare workers play a huge part in your child's life, so their cooperation and participation in the potty training process can make all the difference.

Set a Game Plan
If your child is in daycare full-time, their daily schedule needs to be considered first and foremost before you start potty training at home. How their bathroom breaks are scheduled or will be scheduled at daycare need to align with your personal schedule. Your potty training game plan should cover what techniques you will be doing at home and what you need the teachers to try to do at school. Some daycares require children to be potty trained before they start attending the facility. If this is the case, you should begin training months before their first day, as times of great change are typically the worst for potty training.

Be Consistent
You must enforce the same expectations as the daycare so that your child develops a healthy perspective on potty training. This means that you should not, for example, allow them to wear diapers or pull-ups at home when the daycare makes them wear underwear all day. The same method and approach to training should also be used to avoid sending your child mixed signals that ultimately confuse them and lead to more accidents. Talk to your daycare provider about how they assist the potty training process. Do they assign frequent trips to the potty, or do they ask children when they need to go? Find out as much as you can.

Rewards and Consequences
Your reactions to your child's inevitable potty training accidents can have a major effect on their self-esteem. The way parents praise and speak to their toddlers shapes a child's inner voice, so it's vital that you remain positive and encouraging at all times. Children need time to adjust, so your rewards should not become harsh punishments when your child has an accident. Instead, you should be in-tune with your child's needs, and help them learn to identify signs they have to use the potty. Aim for descriptive rather than evaluative praise. That is, encourage your child every time they use the potty rather than when they do it "right."

Every child is different when it comes to potty training. Some may seem to master it overnight, while others may take weeks or even months to fully transition away from diapers. The good news is that with the help of your daycare, your child can get the encouragement and consistency they need to learn how to use the potty faster.

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