How Would You Deal With This?

[Cat Herder]

For those of you who bathe a child after an incident like this or have a child smear there poop in the bathroom, how do you continue to supervise the other children in care while cleaning the child and/or the bathroom?

I do bathe children. Daily in summer because we must use sunscreen and mosquito spray with DEET here. I don't like to leave that on them longer than is necessary.

My playroom was designed with the expectation that I would be working alone and would need to leave the room for short periods of time throughout the day.

Infants each have their own gated, locked, areas with their own cribs. This is where they stay when I bathe other children.

The play centers (toys only) are gated away from the classroom area (art supplies). Centers are where toddlers stay while I bathe other children unless they are awaiting their turn seated nicely in the hallway, in both sight and reach. Toddlers are bathed first for logistical reasons. ::::::

The classroom area table is where preschoolers await their turn, typically painting, gluing or coloring with markers. What better time? They are already dirty.

I have a separate dining area with booster seats if I have a child in shadow at the time. Depending on their age they get water paint or crayons.

[Ariana]

What I did when I had this happen last week was to grab a towel and place DCG on it kind of in the middle of everyone. Then went to town with the wipes. My situation wasn’t quite as bad as what you are describing but hauling everyone into the bathroom would be an option too if you needed to put her in the shower, my bathroom is big enough for this. Like BC said I would only be worried about the under 2s and would likely put them somewhere safe and leave the others during that time. I think this is more of a survival situation to contain the mess until pickup.

It sounds to me like she might have been constipated and the loose poop behind the hard poop pushed through. I have read so much about impacted poop, constipation etc because I have had to deal with it from my DCK. That might account for the volume of poop. You should tell the parents to let her go in a pullup if she wants at home and I would get them to bring you pullups as well. Constipation can cause so many terrible problems. As a mom it was not worth it to me!

[mommyneedsadayoff]

To me, if they will only poop in a pull-up, then they are not ready for underwear.

I charge "underwear accident" fees--it really helps discourage parents from wanting to bring kids in underwear when the kid isn't ready.

And eeeew on the poopy arm!! I had a 3.5/4 yo who poop painted my bathroom twice. I took photos, because it was so unbelievable. But when it kept coming across the photos in my camera roll, they always made me gag so I had to delete them.

I agree. Not pooping on the potty means to me she is not potty trained. A lot of kids show resistance to pooping because they are potty trained too early and feel too much pressure. It can be a significant source of trauma for them, and lead to constipation and even more severe tummy issues. I would keep her in the pull up, and of course, allow her to use the potty when needed, but until she is pooping and peeing on the potty consistently, she would remain in a pull up or diaper.