"Potty Trained" for preschool questions...

Septmomtobe

I registered by oldest for preschool to begin in the fall.  He will begin 2 weeks before he turns 3.  The paperwork said among other things he will need to be potty trained.  We kind of have started in that he goes on the potty like once day.  Obviously we're going to work really hard on this over the summer.  My question is how potty trained do you think he needs to be?  Underwear or pull ups?  I'm thinking for the most part they want them accident free but what about the occassional accident?  It's only for 3 hours a day twice a week.  Will he need to be able to tell them he needs to go or will they have like potty breaks for all this kids?

TIA!
Heather

xbrooklyngrl

Accidents are expected. He should, for the most part be able to say when he needs to go but if he's not at that stage yet, you can ask them to check on him every so often.

And yes, I think they'll expect him in underwear.

 

GrowingFamily

They want them FULLY trained. If a child is wearing pull-ups, they are not potty-trained.  I will tell you this, I have successfully potty-trained 3 children thus far (2 girls & 1 boy) all before the age of 3.  I never ONCE used pull-ups.  They are glorified diapers!  Kids know that they can have an accident in them & they won't get wet and won't be too uncomfortable.  Put the kid in undies & let them feel it when they have an accident & be uncomfortable in it for a couple minutes.  It's the fastest way for them to learn!

GL!

Ciarrai

My guess would be few accidents and in underwear not pull-ups, but you could talk to the school.  Most preschools (I think) have potty breaks where they line all the kids up and have them try at least.  DD#1 goes two days a week for five hours and they do the potty time before snack in the morning and after lunch (before nap) in the afternoon.  My friend's preschool does the same thing.  They also take kids if they say they need to go at any point during the day.  Everyone has accidents once in a while.  DD has been PT for almost a year and she had an accident a few weeks ago for the first time in months.  It happens.  Don't worry too much about it.  You have all summer.  We did the three-day method and it worked great.

GrowingFamily

The child needs to be able to tell the teacher when they have to use the bathroom.  The preschool our kids have gone to for 3 & 4 year old preschool does not do "potty breaks."  I am sure all schools handle that part a little differently, though.

Sulla

I think you need to call the school.

At the one where my son was supposed to go, it meant he had to be in underwear and not having any accidents. They said if he had an accident, I would have to come and change him, since they weren't equipped to do it. He, uh, didn't go there. 

hopefulmom

Sulla...you mean to say the preschool would not put him in dry clothes...make him/her sit there in wet clothes until their parent showed up?  That is just terrible.  I mean, there are kids in Kindergarten that occasionally have accidents!  I'm glad your DC did not go there!

Sulla

I didn't get into that many details. I had a newborn at the time and knew that wasn't going to fly! Turns out the school was batshitcrazy about all kinds of things. Dodged a major bullet.