Help! My Daughter Won't Use the Potty at Preschool!

My daughter has been a preschool teacher for a couple of years now, and she uses the sticker reward system for times like this.
Take some stickers to the preschool teacher and have her reward her with a sticker (privately) when she was brave enough to use the potty there. Yeah it's bribery, but it works most of the time.
You might want to see if the potty's there are like the one at home, or are they the more industrial type with a stronger flush. She may be intimidated by them if it's the industrial type. If so ,she may need more coaxing than the teacher is giving.
I'd visit the preschool director and discuss this with her. She may have some ideas on how to overcome this fear.

Talk to her and try to figure out what the problem is. My daughter did not want to use the potty at school because our potty seat at home was white and her potty seat at school was black. I think she thought it was dirty. Our compromise was that she would put toliet paper down on the seat before she sat on it. Try to talk to her about it and figure out what is going on in her little mind about the potty at pre-school.

Now, the other thing that could be happening in this situation is that she is having issues with the transition. Some kids regress when they have a change in their lives. It may just be a matter of giving her a little time and space to get used to the new pre-school. Change = stress for lots of kids. Stress can make kids regress. Talk to the director. Let them know she is potty trained. See if the director has any solutions. She has probably had this problem before and may have some ideas for you. If you involve them in finding a solution to the problem they will be less likely to kick her out because she is potty trained at home and does not seem to be potty trained at school. Get them to be part of the solution, not just one more thing stressing you out.

Could you get a potty chair like at home to see if she will use it?
It might work.

oo, that is a hard one. I don;t like using potties anywhere else either.
I would have to think on that one.

Has she told you why she won't use the potty at school? You should calmly and lovingly question her about it. Perhaps there's some sort of irrational fear at the root of the problem, or just that it's a different kind of potty than the one you have at home.

Can you and/or the teachers offer her an incentive for going potty? For example, if she goes potty at school all week without an accident she gets a treat?

Does she have a reason that she won't use the potty at preschool? I used to work in a daycare and had a girl, a little younger, she did not like to use a messy bathroom. Not all children are good at aiming or getting the TP in the toilet. If the bathroom was clean she would use it. Could it be something like this situation? Good Luck.

I assume she's never beem to daycare or anything else away from home before now. My 4 yr old son has been in a 2 day a week program since he was 2yrs and it took him much longer to master the potty at school than at home. He still refuses to have a BM anyway but home or grandparents house. If he's out and can't hold it any longer he'll just poop his pannts rather than go to the public toilet. He doesn't object to peeing when we're out but as a boy he can stand up and go and that may make all the difference. I haven't found a solution to my issue so I'm not much help with yours.
Trying talking to her about why she's not going and that its important that she does go. If its a 5 day a week she soon should be use to the situation and feel more comfortable about going. Maybe you should talk to her teacher. If they don't have scheduled potty times maybe the teacher could make an effort to ask your dd if she needs to go periodically. My son would go at his old daycare during the scheduled potty times but if he had to got in between them he would just wet himself. He felt shy about tellinghis teacher he needed to go even though he loved his teachers very much. His new daycare has a potty connected to their classroom and it is always accessible. He can go whenever he wants and doesn't even have to tell the teacher because he can see if he goes in there. We had much better success with this last year. He hasn't started back yet this year but hopefully it will continue.

hi L.! when my oldest daughter started pre-k we had the same problem. everyone had advice....i decided to go with "the mother's instinct" i took her out of pre-k because i thought she was havin separation anxiety. she never wet her pants at home. only at school and not all the time. by observing other children who also wet their pants at school when my 2 younger daughters started school, i noticed that the children who did wet their pants were usually engaged in a project they were really enjoying and just didn't want to stop playing long enough to go to the restroom. if you don't believe your child is having separation issues maybe you could have her teacher take her to the restroom before they have their centers time so she wouldn't have to stop playing to go to the bathroom. if that doesn't work she may be frightened of the toilets. most of them are self flushing now and really loud. good luck. i hope my advice helps.

There is a little boy in my grandson's preschool class that wouldn't use the potty until he saw a child's seat up on a shelf. He asked for it and once he sat on that, he was fine. It's the small kind that you put on the big toilet to help them feel secure. I wouldn't have thought he needed it, since the potties at preschool are child size, but he thought he needed it. You know...whatever works!!

Have you asked her why she won't use it? I have been phobic about public restrooms for as long as I can remember and it could be that there is a smell to it that prevents her from wanting to use it. I literally start gagging the minute I try to set foot into a public restroom. The only place I have ever found that I can actually "go potty" without fighting the gagging is at interstate rest areas (no, I have no idea why). I would just talk to her about it, tell her you are not upset with her, you just need to understand why she does so well at home but not at school. Another thing could be that she is having so much fun at school that she doesn't want to stop what she is doing to go to the bathroom. For your sake I hope she's having too much fun and not that she's restroom phobic because you sure don't want to deal with someone like me for the next 20 years! LOL

It's probably all new and it's freakin' her out a little. Go with her to the potty one morning when you take her to preschool. Then if possible wait until she has to potty again and take her to her teacher and explain that when she has to potty she should go to her teacher, then let the teacher take her and you follow them, just so she knows you think it's okay for her to do that. A lot of times, new situations and new people may cause them to regress a little, but you should be okay, just let her know you understand how she feels. Good luck.

when u drop her off, leave early and take her to the preschool potty yourself, and help her get to know it. use the potty yourself, tell her it okay its just like the one at home but more fun b/c its the preschool potty. shes probaly just scared of it

Im not sure I would want my child at a pre-k that doesn't seem to understand basic childhood development.

Potty issues are common when changes occur - something big like starting at a new school. She could be nervous about school even though she's having fun. She may be too excited or having too much fun to go potty, or maybe she isn't sure where the potty is or what the rules are. She may also dislike the potty environment. I used to teach at a pre-k and the bathroom doors had to be left open and there were two toilets and sinks in each bathroom (no stalls) and some kids had a privacy issue.

Maybe have a talk with her and see if you can find out why/when these accidents are happening. Stress to her that you aren't mad about the accidents, but you'd like to help her be a big girl at school like she is at home.