Wearing underwear to daycare/preschool

[Anonymous]

Thanks to a schoolmate announcing her potty training sucesss, my son suddenly went full throttle into potty training mode. For the past two days he has worn underwear except during naptime and when he has to poop. He has TRIED to poop on the potty, but cannot. and he will ask for a diaper (he did try for hours before giving up). And he has had a few minor pee accidents.

If he were home, I'd keep him in underwear. But today he goes back to preschool/daycare. Part of me hates to go back to pull-ups as I fear he'll just stop using the potty, but part of me doesn't feel its right to expect the preschool teachers to clean up any accidents or be ready to get the diaper on for poops (or have time for him to sit on the potty for an hour to try to poop) I also don't know how receptive they are to kids having to use the bathroom (they do take them on a regular schedule, but what if my son has to go "off schedule"). My DH is suppose to talk to them this morning, but communication with them is not the best. And my DH tends to take the path of least resistence (I almost doubt he put underwear on my son while watching him at home).

So I thought I'd get an idea of what other people have done. Do you keep pull-ups on the kid when in daycare/preschool until they have successfully used the potty at school for several days? Or did you just go full throttle and stick with the underwear and hope that cleaning up any accidents is just part of the job description?

[Anonymous]

My day care asked me to send him in underwear with 3 changes. We tried about a week, but he wasn't getting it. So we stopped (I did at home what they did at day care to provide consistency). Have you asked them what they prefer?

[Anonymous]

If you son wants to wear underwear and has had as much success with potty training as you have described, then I think the teachers at your daycare/preschool should understand that this is a process and should respect your desire to not to back to pull-ups. They should anticipate this sort of thing and not be adverse to cleaning up accidents. If your son was never going in the potty and peeing and pooping all over the place, that would be another story. Congrats on his success. Keep it going!

[Anonymous]

Thanks! We have not yet talked to the school because we didn't realize my son's interest would sky-rocket. They have been working on him using the potty, but he has been very off and on. I will talk to them today, but I have some trouble understanding the head teacher and they often give us inconsistent messaging (which is one of the reasons we are moving to a new school in the Fall). I just wanted to get an idea of what other people and what is reasonable to expect. Hopefully, if my DH put him in pull-ups today, we can get back on track over the weekend.

[Anonymous]

Once we started in underwear, our preschool had us keep my DS in underwear. We just had to take plenty of changes of clothes.

[Anonymous]

It's definitely part of the job description!

Just send him in with 3-4 changes of clothes and a couple of plastic bags to put any soiled clothes in. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

OP here. My DH called. Not only did the preschool teachers support the wearing of underwear, he said they all clapped and cheered for my son. Then I said "so, you took extra underwear in right?" and my DH said "no."

I love my DH, but when it comes to things like this, the man is totally clueless.

For Monday, I will make sure we have several extra pairs of underwear and pants packed.