Many parents will tell you that potty training is one of the more difficult challenges that you'll face during your child's younger years. It can be difficult enough when your child is in your own home every day, but how do you potty train a child who spends large chunks of most days in daycare? Take a look at some tips that can help.

Communication is Key

It's important to have an ongoing conversation with your daycare provider about potty training. Most daycares have policies about potty training. For example, if you're planning to go cold turkey on diapers and pull-ups, you may want to check with your daycare provider first – some providers require children who aren't fully potty trained to wear a pull-up during naptime so that they don't have to continually sanitize mats when children have accidents while sleeping.

Your daycare provider may also require children complete their potty training within a certain time frame or before moving on to a higher age level class. If your child has special needs or you're delaying potty training until your family completes a disruptive transition, like a move, it's important for your daycare provider to be aware.

Whatever the potty training policies are at your daycare, chances are that you can't change them. They were put in place to suit a group of children, not your individual child. The best you can do is take those policies into account when choosing a daycare, then work together with the staff to ensure that your child is successful within those policies. The specific rules don't matter too much – there are lots of different philosophies about potty training, and almost all of them result in a potty-trained child eventually. The important thing is that all of the child's caregivers are on the same page.

Create Consistency at Home

It's important to try to create as much consistency as you can for your child while potty training. It should be easy to get a sense of how it's handled at the daycare – ask your child's teacher for a rundown of the daily schedule, or volunteer in the classroom to get a sense of how your child's day goes. Then recreate that schedule and environment at home as much as possible.

For example, if your child's class lines up for trips to the toilet after snack time and lunchtime every day, you should do the same at home, and aim for those potty breaks to happen at about the same time of day on Saturday and Sunday as they do on the weekdays. Find out whether your child will be using a separate potty or a potty seat attached to a regular toilet, and do the same at home. The more consistent you can make your child's experience, the smoother the transition from diapers to potty will be.

Be Prepared for Accidents

Most kids will have accidents. Sometimes they'll occur weeks or months after you thought potty training was finished. Usually, these are just flukes or temporary setbacks, but it's important to be prepared. Make sure that your child always has a complete change of clothes (including socks and shoes) at daycare.

Having to scramble for clothes that fit in the lost-and-found bin is not just frustrating for the teacher, it can also be embarrassing and frustrating for your child, and it can turn what should have been a one-time accident into a traumatic event that leads to more potty problems later. To learn more, contact a school like Carousel Of Learning Pre-School & Nursery.