Soiled Underwear in Day Care Centers

[Unregistered]

As a daycare provider I don't rinse them out either. It's pretty unhygenic to rinse out someone else's underwear. Besides, if a child is not fully potty trained then they shouldn't be in underwear in a daycare setting anyway. Peeing and pooping in underwear exposes the other kids to it too. Yuck!

i totally disagree on a few different levels. first of all, as a parent of children who were in daycare, i know i would be IRATE to open a bag into the washer to find a big surprise of POOP (which has happened to me with no warning). as a daycare provider of 2 year olds, i know that i found it to be common sense and common courtesy to dump the feces into the toilet and run the underwear beneath the faucet (while wearing gloves, of course) before bagging them.

secondly, i don't see how you can say (as a child care provider OR mother) that

a child who isn't fully potty trained shouldn't be wearing underwear in a daycare setting. HELLO! if a child who is potty training spends the bulk of their day in a daycare, then they will not get potty trained without the help of the childcare provider!

one of the BEST ways to potty train is by making a potty training age child wear underwear (instead of pull ups) so that they will feel the mess and not like it. GOOD daycares work with kids who are potty training and take them to the potty every hour.

you can't expect a child in your care for 8 or 9 hours a day to suddenly go from pull ups to underwear with no accidents! there is an "in between" time there where there WILL be accidents. :::sigh:::: wow - just wow.

[Unregistered]

i should also mention that there was one time when i was dumpin feces from underwear into the toilet when a co-worker told me that i didn't have to do that - to which i replied - i couldn't imagine putting it into a bag when it was so easy to move my hand over and dump it

furthermore, when i worked at a daycare, my son was in the 3 year old room (had just been moved up) and i worked with school aged children. i could see how frustrated the "teachers" in his room would get when a child had an accident, so i SPECIFICALLY requested that if my son had an accident that they send him over to me to clean him up myself. well, i got home one night and was opening his soiled clothes bag into the laundry only to find a big lump of feces. i was FURIOUS and i let the worker know it the next day. i was in the same building - just a hop, skip, and a jump away - and instead of sending him over to me, she put his dirty underwear, feces and all, into a bag. that is not only disgusting, but rude! if you aren't prepared to deal with potty accidents, then i suggest you find a new profession!

[Unregistered]

kpa0627 -

while it may be unsanitary to rinse in the sink, you can always put the underwear down in the toilet, and when you flush it, it usually takes off the feces and most of the mess from the underwear.

from there, you put it in a bag. there's no excuse for sending a turd home in a bag to someone who pays tons of money for you to care for their child.

[toddletots]

I flush the stool down the toilet if it solid, bag it and send it home. If the parent wants to toss it, it's their choice. They are made aware of what is in that bag! Some of my coworkers won't even remove the solid bm. They think it's gross, well, it is, but that is a part of working with children!

[mac60]

kpa0627 -

while it may be unsanitary to rinse in the sink, you can always put the underwear down in the toilet, and when you flush it, it usually takes off the feces and most of the mess from the underwear.

from there, you put it in a bag. there's no excuse for sending a turd home in a bag to someone who pays tons of money for you to care for their child.

Trust me, I don't get paid tons of money to care for someones child. And really, do you want to touch someone wet and soiled underwear, wring them out with YOUR hands after you have dipped them into the toilet. I doudt it, and I don't either.

[Daycare Mommy]

there's no excuse for sending a turd home in a bag to someone who pays tons of money for you to care for their child.

You've got to be kidding me! I do NOT make tons of money and I doubt anyone on here does. I charge an average rate for where I live and only made $25k last year TOTAL watching 5 children. That was working 50+ hours per week BEFORE EXPENSES. Out of that I paid for the children's meals, activities, new toys, books, equipment, etc. so my actual income was much less!

while it may be unsanitary to rinse in the sink, you can always put the underwear down in the toilet, and when you flush it, it usually takes off the feces and most of the mess from the underwear. from there, you put it in a bag.

That is an absolutely disgusting suggestion. Even worse than the suggestion that we rinse it in the sink where the children have to wash their hands. Do you think that makes the underwear more sanitary to swirl around in my toilet before I bag it?

If I were a daycare parent I'd tell the provider to toss the underwear if the poop was at all smooshed into it. I would never in a million years expect anyone to rinse or scrub my "potty-trained" child's underwear even if I had deluded myself into thinking they were pocketing "tons" of money.

[nannyde]

kpa0627 -

while it may be unsanitary to rinse in the sink, you can always put the underwear down in the toilet, and when you flush it, it usually takes off the feces and most of the mess from the underwear.

from there, you put it in a bag. there's no excuse for sending a turd home in a bag to someone who pays tons of money for you to care for their child.

I would be happy to do your suggestion if I got paid. I think five bucks a swirl would get me to do it. Parents willing to poney up for the Ick factor? Bring em on. Otherwise they go straight into the garbage and the kid goes back in diapers.

I don't build in underwear salvage into my daily rate so even though I do make "tons of money" it's not enough to get me to do it for free.

[GretasLittleFriends]

Soiled underwear... Haven't had this issue yet.

However, earlier in the week I had a child who soiled their jeans. The child is 5 1/2 and in kindergarten.

The child was sitting at my kitchen table with everyone else at snack time 3:30p. All of a sudden the children were complaining that the diapered one was stinky. I took him down, checked him. He was dry and clean.

Throughout the evening I kept catching an unpleasant aroma. Finally close to 8p as I'm getting the kids ready for bed/winding down for the evening (all scheduled to leave at 10:30p) I asked, "ok, who pooped their pants". Low and behold the kindergartner who was one that was complaining of the smell was the culprit. This one soiled pants at afternoon snack time and didn't say anything until I jokingly asked at 8ish. I honestly figured someone had bad gas, as it wasn't a constant smell. I of course questioned this, and the child admitted to pooping pants at snack time. I'm practically in tears angry at this point, as this child has been all over my house, on furniture, carpeting, dinner table etc.

Naturally I took the child into the bathroom, grabbed a change of clothes packed for the younger sibling. Helped the child undress the bottoms to prevent a bigger mess in the bathroom only to discover this child was going commando. I WAS FURIOUS!!! At this point I was ready to go find a size 6 diaper (I have a few spares from when my son finished potty training) and put this child into it. The child proceeds to throw a fit because there wasn't a change of underwear for them, so they had to just put the sweatpants on (after having themselves cleaned up).

Needless to say this child and the other three (my son included) got to stay up late (sitting on chairs in the kitchen) while I sani-tized the house. And the pants were NOT rinsed and just put into a plastic bag. I figured if the parent felt it was ok to send the child to school and daycare without underwear on, that parent would be ok scrubbing the child's jeans.

The best part... All of this for $2/hr for that particular child. Tons of $$.

[misol]

You've got to be kidding me! I do NOT make tons of money and I doubt anyone on here does. I charge an average rate for where I live and only made $25k last year TOTAL watching 5 children. That was working 50+ hours per week BEFORE EXPENSES. Out of that I paid for the children's meals, activities, new toys, books, equipment, etc. so my actual income was much less!



That is an absolutely disgusting suggestion. Even worse than the suggestion that we rinse it in the sink where the children have to wash their hands. Do you think that makes the underwear more sanitary to swirl around in my toilet before I bag it?

If I were a daycare parent I'd tell the provider to toss the underwear if the poop was at all smooshed into it. I would never in a million years expect anyone to rinse or scrub my "potty-trained" child's underwear even if I had deluded myself into thinking they were pocketing "tons" of money.

I totally agree with this.

I would be happy to do your suggestion if I got paid. I think five bucks a swirl would get me to do it. Parents willing to poney up for the Ick factor? Bring em on. Otherwise they go straight into the garbage and the kid goes back in diapers.

I don't build in underwear salvage into my daily rate so even though I do make "tons of money" it's not enough to get me to do it for free.

I am cracking up at "five bucks a swirl"::

Funny though, when I was young I remember my babysitter doing exactly this. She would change my little brother's DISPOSEABLE diaper and if he pooped she would rinse it out in the toilet bowl with her bare hands, wring it out, then wrap the diaper in itself and throw it away. Since I was 9 at the time, I would sometimes change him while were at her house and just throw the poopy diaper in the bathroom trash. So, she showed me one day how she wanted me to handle the poopy diapers. She said that she did it that to cut down on the smell. I was NOT doing that so from that point forward, I just let her change all the poopy diapers after that LOL. It's WAY more sanitary to just take out the trash daily if you want to cut down on the smell. The crazy thing was that we lived in an apartment building and the trash incinerator was just 4 doors down from her! :confused:

[momofsix]

Soiled underwear... Haven't had this issue yet.

However, earlier in the week I had a child who soiled their jeans. The child is 5 1/2 and in kindergarten.

The child was sitting at my kitchen table with everyone else at snack time 3:30p. All of a sudden the children were complaining that the diapered one was stinky. I took him down, checked him. He was dry and clean.

Throughout the evening I kept catching an unpleasant aroma. Finally close to 8p as I'm getting the kids ready for bed/winding down for the evening (all scheduled to leave at 10:30p) I asked, "ok, who pooped their pants". Low and behold the kindergartner who was one that was complaining of the smell was the culprit. This one soiled pants at afternoon snack time and didn't say anything until I jokingly asked at 8ish. I honestly figured someone had bad gas, as it wasn't a constant smell. I of course questioned this, and the child admitted to pooping pants at snack time. I'm practically in tears angry at this point, as this child has been all over my house, on furniture, carpeting, dinner table etc.

Naturally I took the child into the bathroom, grabbed a change of clothes packed for the younger sibling. Helped the child undress the bottoms to prevent a bigger mess in the bathroom only to discover this child was going commando. I WAS FURIOUS!!! At this point I was ready to go find a size 6 diaper (I have a few spares from when my son finished potty training) and put this child into it. The child proceeds to throw a fit because there wasn't a change of underwear for them, so they had to just put the sweatpants on (after having themselves cleaned up).

Needless to say this child and the other three (my son included) got to stay up late (sitting on chairs in the kitchen) while I sani-tized the house. And the pants were NOT rinsed and just put into a plastic bag. I figured if the parent felt it was ok to send the child to school and daycare without underwear on, that parent would be ok scrubbing the child's jeans.

The best part... All of this for $2/hr for that particular child. Tons of $$.

Oh you poor thing! That is disgusting. Let us know how the parents respond to this one!

[jen]

kpa0627 -

while it may be unsanitary to rinse in the sink, you can always put the underwear down in the toilet, and when you flush it, it usually takes off the feces and most of the mess from the underwear.

from there, you put it in a bag. there's no excuse for sending a turd home in a bag to someone who pays tons of money for you to care for their child.

LOL! What is your version of "tons" of money??? I charge 140/week per child. So, lets see on average I work 60 hours per week. That "someone" is paying me $2.33 per hour! And out of that $2.33 an hour I pay for food, toys, activities and repairs..yeah, TONS of money.

Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, I love that I am at home, and I love that I can pick and choose what I offer and what I do not offer...and I don't offer toilet swirlies! YUCK!!!

[GretasLittleFriends]

Oh you poor thing! That is disgusting. Let us know how the parents respond to this one!

The dad just kind of blew it off. I'm not sure if he reprimanded the child at home. It seems to me that the children aren't the top most wrung on the father's ladder of priorities though. To make things more fun, mom's not actively in the pic either.

[QualiTcare]

i'm sorry, but i've worked in "chain daycares" and part of the job description IS cleaning up after children who have accidents. when i worked there, i made 7 dollars when i started, and then 8. i absolutely cleaned up the children AND their underwear.

when you keep children from home, it's no different- cleaning up messes is part of the territory. and yes, if a parent is paying anywhere from 150-200 a week - they shouldn't have poop sent home in a bag. furthermore, if you are charging 140 and keep 5 kids - by most people's standards, that is good money!

i am charging 175 a week and only keeping 4 kids, but i went to college for four years and earned a degree. i would never consider not cleaning up a child's underwear whose parents are paying nearly 800 bucks a month - which in my opinion most def. IS a "ton of money."

[nannyde]

i'm sorry, but i've worked in "chain daycares" and part of the job description IS cleaning up after children who have accidents. when i worked there, i made 7 dollars when i started, and then 8. i absolutely cleaned up the children AND their underwear.

when you keep children from home, it's no different- cleaning up messes is part of the territory. and yes, if a parent is paying anywhere from 150-200 a week - they shouldn't have poop sent home in a bag. furthermore, if you are charging 140 and keep 5 kids - by most people's standards, that is good money!

i am charging 175 a week and only keeping 4 kids, but i went to college for four years and earned a degree. i would never consider not cleaning up a child's underwear whose parents are paying nearly 800 bucks a month - which in my opinion most def. IS a "ton of money."

Oh I agree we make a ton of money. I just won't do that for the ton of money. I'm not in the business of salvaging a cheapo pair of undies. It would cost me more in staff time to mess with the underwear than the underwear cost. I'm not going to do it. If the parent was upset about me tossing them I would be happy to give them a spare pair of undies I have in my stock. I have people leave spare clothes here thru the years and I'm sure I could find a replacement or buy a replacement for them.

I don't think my day care parents would even WANT pooped underwear back. I've never had a poop accident here in nine years so I don't know for sure. All my kids have been here since they were babies and I potty train them. They don't go into undies until they are very successful for a very long time.

My main concern isn't the undies it's the fact that the child is not potty trained if he is havin poop accidents. I would insist on pull ups for the child while in my house for at least a couple of weeks and a spare stack of cheapo undies her for the future.

[Daycare Mommy]

i'm sorry, but i've worked in "chain daycares" and part of the job description IS cleaning up after children who have accidents.

Cleaning up the child is our job. No argument there. Also I'm sure we all agree that keeping the daycare environment clean and sanitary for the safety of all children present is our job. Taking the extra time to wash (or rinse) feces out of the child's soiled clothing is not.

#1 Depends on the state regulations whether you are even allowed to do this, as many have already stated.

#2 It makes an even bigger mess to attempt this. (I'm guessing this is why it is against state regs in many places)

#3 Too much time considering we've already burned up lots of time cleaning child (sometimes all the way up to a bath if it's a very bad mess) and washing and sanitizing whatever else was hit (cot, couch, rugs, toilet, sink, bathroom floor). We have other children to be caring for too. (Could be another reason the state regs are there for some of us) We've already cleaned most of the mess (child and whatever else was hit). After all that it's time to get back to spending time with the other 4 (or more) children whose parents are paying us "tons of money" to provide quality daycare for. The parent can do the laundry.

when you keep children from home, it's no different- cleaning up messes is part of the territory. and yes, if a parent is paying anywhere from 150-200 a week - they shouldn't have poop sent home in a bag. furthermore, if you are charging 140 and keep 5 kids - by most people's standards, that is good money!

i am charging 175 a week and only keeping 4 kids, but i went to college for four years and earned a degree. i would never consider not cleaning up a child's underwear whose parents are paying nearly 800 bucks a month - which in my opinion most def. IS a "ton of money."

Soooo, does this mean that those of us who live in areas where the going rate is less than $150 have a reprieve from underwear scrubbing?

I will state this again. I DON'T make a ton of money. $25k last year, even if i did get to keep it all, is NOT a ton of money. And for 8 years of being open that's my record folks! People in my area charge $100-135 and when I started it was $80-$100. Most of us are providing meals and many are doing full preschool programs as well. $140 is a bit more than I make, but still after all the expenses... this isn't a profession you get into for the money.

$175 is unheard of here (4 year degree or not). So yeah, if you feel that you've worked really hard to get where you are and earn what you earn, and you decide that scrubbing underwear is important to you, by all means keep doing it. But I'll stand by what I said. Scrubbing poo out of dc kid underwear is not job requirement to be a daycare provider.

And no (in case anyone is wondering), NONE of the daycare parents over the last 8 years have had any problem with me giving them the poo bag the few times it's happened. It's in my contract that if potty accidents happen, I will clean kid and house, they clean the clothes.