In the not too distant past, child care facilities required children to be toilet trained before they were admitted to the program.
This worked out well for two reasons.
First, the earliest opportunity for children to attend a program was around the age of 2.
5 years.
And second, because many of those programs really were partial day programs lasting only a couple of hours.
Now many centers admit children as young as 6 weeks old.
These children are obviously not toilet trained.
Still there are many new parents who call centers with these young children hoping against hope that the center will not require toilet training before admission.
Most centers will have published toilet training procedures so is always a good idea, before enrolling any child, to find out what those procedures are.
The school's toileting plan and the parent's lifestyle and parenting beliefs should be a good match.
Most centers will state the staff is not responsible for toilet training your child.
Toilet training remains the primary responsibility of the parent.
However, when your child exhibits particular signs of toileting readiness the staff will work with you toward toilet training.
What are these readiness signs? In order for a child to begin to understand what is expected of him in terms of toilet training, he must become aware of when he is soiled.
Even this, knowing he is soiled is not quite enough; he must show some signs of discomfort from being soiled.
The child must be able to tell the teacher he has a soiled diaper.
Often, when asked if they have a soiled diaper, toddlers will respond with a firm, "NO.
" As they developmentally move closer to being ready to toilet training they will tell the teacher when they have a soiled diaper.
The child needs a toileting vocabulary.
What are these bodily functions called at home? Parents need to communicate this vocabulary to teachers.
This means everyone is using the same words.
He must show some interest in the toilet itself.
A toilet, to a toddler, can be a scary thing.
And a toddler may have fleeting moments of interest in flushing the toilet.
They can get excited with the "now it's here and now it's gone" properties of a toilet.
Anxious adults might read too much into this intermittent interest.
So the toddler's interest must be somewhat sustained.
Parents often find it difficult to understand that is perfectly normal for a child to exhibit all of the above behavior at home but not at school.
Remember, most homes don't have 10-12 other toddlers running around as a distraction.
Nevertheless, after parents and teachers have see these signs at home and at school, the child is ready to begin toilet training.
To make the process easier, the child will benefit from knowing the following: How to tell the teacher he has to use toilet, or he needs to relieve himself.
This means he can focus on the body sensations and can anticipate the event.
How to pull down and pull up his own clothing.
For this reason, many school request children to wear elasticized pants.
Trousers that use a belt or have a difficult snap take too much time to negotiate.
Other clothing items that are discouraged during toilet training are crotch snapping undershirts, zippers, and suspenders because they too are often difficult for a young child.
The goal is to arrange it so the child has as much clothing independence as possible during this time.
Once a child begins toilet training, parents are asked to be consistent at home.
Staff is asked to remain consistent at school.
Toilet training skills require a child to coordinate his muscles and control any anxiety over leaving his diaper behind.
Sometimes this means the child will do well on some days and seemingly regress on other days.
This is a common experience and need not be seen as discouraging.
With proper communication between staff and parents toileting can come easily for the child.
As long as adults remain calm, consistent, and patient the child will come to understand the process and will take the next leap toward growing up.