Potty training

[mumofone]

Do any parents ever ask you potty train their child? Do you accept? What is your preferred method?

[Kaybeaa]

Parents regularly expect me to! My policy is that I will *help* potty train but I won't take it on fully. In order words, I expect the parent to start the child off over a week or 2 (preferably during holidays) and then when they are doing well and are confident asking to use the potty or going there themselves, I will pick up where parent has left off. It's impossible to put every effort to potty train when you have other children around and have days planned. I potty trained my own DS during the summer holidays when he was 2 (I'm term time only) and it was hard enough just me and him without everyone else around!

[hulahoops]

I I work with the parents. I don't start unless I think they are absolutely ready and I do try to get the parents to start over the weekend.
As we go out every morning I tend to leave them in nappies in the morning then leave them without for a few hours in the afternoon. I keep asking them if they want a wee (I know a lot of people don't like to do that but it works for me) I find that if they are truly ready they are usually clean and dry within 2 weeks.
My last one took 3 days!

[Maza]

I'm the same as Kaybeaa, although I must admit my parents have all been very good. The only thing that I didn't think about was underwear...For some reason, one mum told me that she wasn't sending her son in wearing a nappy, fine, BUT she hadn't put any underwear on him underneath his trousers. He had some wide legged baggy cords on and so when he had an accident it just all came trickling down his leg and straight onto the floor. I don't think his trousers even got wet (he was standing). At least underpants would have been able to contain some of it - especially if it was a number two! Fortunately that was the only accident he ever had.

It goes without saying - make sure they send in nappies for nap time.

You might start thinking about whether you want to buy a travel potty. I use the potette (sp?) from Jojo Maman Bebe. You can just use normal nappy sacks with it because the padded bags are quite costly.

[BallyH]

Similar to the other two posts. I have found with mutual respect through verbal communication with the parents it normally works well. I do try to suggest it always starts over a long weekend or family holiday time. I also update a 'potty' sheet for a short time. This is especially good if parents are adamant that the child is ready and I can prove that isn't the case. So we'll try again a short while later.

[Louise_Oaktree]

Some parents have given me warning, sometimes a week, a few days, some parents have turned up on my doorstep carrying a potty! I just go along with whatever the parents are wanting but I expect them to do the same at home with no breaks and i make this very clear, I usually have a no pull-ups policy because I have found them confusing for the child, but I do have one child who uses them like underwear and apart from initially he hasn't go used to wetting them. I just ensure communication is really 5 star because it is so important to feedback what is and isn't working and what technique is being used. I have my own potty and now a downstairs loo but encourage parents to bring the child's own potty for continuity in the beginning. At first I was really worried but with experience I haven't found it as bad, often the children are ready and any accidents are short lived. If it isn't working then I use up all the clean underwear provided and then when I run out I put a nappy on but this has only happened once, the child wasn't ready and I told them and we tried again a few months later.