Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Posted: **Sun Mar 24, 2013 2:40 pm**

Hi,
I have a 2 yr son who has been toilet training now for almost 3 weeks. He has not had any accidents at home for over a week & a 1/2. He has day sleeps in his undies with no accidents. He is, mostly, waking up dry in the mornings and will ask to go to the toilet and he is doing both 1s & 2s in the toilet with absolutely no problems at all. We are also able to make trips in the car and spend the day away from home (without immediate access to a toilet) with no accidents occurring. However, when he goes to Daycare he has multiple accidents in his time there. I picked him up on Thursday to find that he had had 3 accidents within 6 hours...and that time included a 2 hr dry sleep. I don't understand why the toilet training is regressing to such a degree while in Daycare. He goes to Daycare 2 days a week, and has never liked going (which has never really sat well with me). He also doesn't really play with the other kids at Daycare, yet when other children visit us he never has any trouble playing happily with them. Also, at home he is very active & very talkative whereas at Daycare he is quite withdrawn...like a different child. I like the ladies at Daycare but am concerned with the above mentioned issues. I am thinking about changing Daycare centres as a result. Any thoughts or advice?

Posted: **Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:12 pm**

Hi There,

I am a childcare professional and have had lots of experiences with toilet training toddlers within day care. While toilet training it is fairly typical for children to regress while attending day care during the initial stages. Children become easily distracted while at day care, while playing, during activities, not wanting to miss out on different activities, etc so when this occurs they are hesitant to go to the toilet which in turn causes accidents. However to reduce the amount of accidents your child's teacher should be taking all toilet trainers to the bathroom at regular intervals. For e.g. I make all toilet trainers go to the toilet every half an hour. This has now a consistent part of the routine and has reduced accidents considerably.

Another reason could be that your child may not feel comfortable using the toilet at day care. It's a different environment from home. Meaning it's not private, children coming in and out all the time, staff watching. It could be that he is hesitant to use the toilet which causes him to have accidents.

I think it's probably best for you to talk to your child's teacher and request them to take your child to the toilet at regular intervals. he may also need some encouragement so you could probably talk to him about using the toilet at daycare. Sometimes children need an incentive. Some parents use stickers as rewards for not having any accidents at day care.... maybe it's something you could try.

As far as from what I have experienced this is typical behavior. It may take a few weeks to settle but the accidents will stop.

The way a child acts at daycare can be completely different to how they act at home. Some children are like another child... this could be caused by a number of reasons such as a child may become withdrawn if there are too many children around, they feel bored, not stimulated, may not want to play with some children etc. Like I mentioned the overall environment in day care is much different to what you have at home. It will get better over time.

If you are thinking about changes centres, it could work out better or it could work out worse. Sometimes a child doesn't click with fellow peers, teachers, the environment or the routine of a particular center and then when you change centres you find that they are better off.

I suggest you talk to your child's teacher about your concerns with the toilet training etc and see how they deal with it. If in a couple of weeks nothing is improving, go have some visits/orientation visits at other centres and see how he goes. A change may be what he needed.

It may take time but everything will be OK,

,
L.A

Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Only has toilet training accidents at Daycare

Only has toilet training accidents at Daycare

Re: Only has toilet training accidents at Daycare