When a child leaves with a poopy diaper. It's happened 2x in the past 2 weeks to one family. They pick up any time between 3:45 and 5:00 so it's not like I can plan. I check them every hour unless my sniffers(me and dcks) tell me otherwise. Well, I changed dcg 10 minutes earlier, then dcm arrived, took her out and came right back in, said she had a poopy diaper so I changed her, apologizing. It had evidently happened the week before with dcd but he left and I didn't know till the next morning, unsure if she left that way or she did it on the way home.
It seems like I'm always checking them; it's almost as if they wait for a clean diaper to poop in.
Does this happen to any of you?

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She brought her back for you to change her? Why did you apologize for a child pooping? Doesn't she every poop on her watch? lol If a mom picks up & the child just pooped I say, "Tag..., your it!" I have a few nap time poopers & one mom picks up right when they are getting up. She goes in, picks up her child & goes straight to the changing table to take care of Mr Smelly Pants.

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I'm sorry ... Why are they complaining to you? I change diapers for my toddlers at 10:00, 1:00, and 4:00. If they need another change because I smell something, I do it. I let parents know my schedule, so they aren't wondering if/when I change their child. Also, I'm not super strict about this. If one child has saggy bottom pants, I'm obviously changing him/her earlier.

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Well, they're not really complaining, I just feel guilty I guess. I should have them all ready to go home. It's just difficult when I'm not sure when they're going to be here. For example, I have a dcm that picks up at 4:40, I can count on it almost to the minute. So her final change is 4:30ish. But this one I just never know.
Dcm is kind of a stickler about things or at least she makes lots of comments about stuff. We had just come in from outside the other day, there were puddles left around from an earlier rain. I hadn't even had time to wash her dd's hands yet as we had just come in the door. She was questioning why her shorts and shoes were wet. Well......it was wet out?
I have warned dcps several times to always expect their kid to go home with the well-played look, even though I always try to clean off the first layer. This dcm just comments about everything and it makes me feel inferior. It's just me, I suppose.

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When she makes comments you need to question her back. "Does dcg only go out when it is sunny?" "Don't you carry diapers in your car?" "Do you need help changing her diapers?" "Doesn't dcg get dirty when she plays at home?"
Put her on the spot and she will soon realize how silly her comments are. Don't defend yourself. You have done nothing wrong. Put her on the defense.

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Try not own her remarks. When a DCP makes a snide comment, I'm quick with the comeback. As far as being wet I would have said, "The thing about water.., it tends to be wet." I usually toss in a *quirky* look & then mentally walk away from it. Sometimes I feel different on the inside, but I don't let them know the comment bothered me.

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I have parents who make me feel this way, too. I think it's part my own guilt and part their unfiltered comments.

I've had the same thing happen with poopy diapers. I always make sure to tell my parents during regular conversation (when it comes up) our normal diaper changing times (8, 10, 11:30, 2 (after nap), & 4) so they know that if there's a full diaper it happened recently because the entire group does potty breaks/diaper changes at those times.

But honestly? It's bound to happen... since this child has a history of pooping in the afternoon before pick up maybe just watch a little closer for a while...

I've also had incidents where parents have commented about food I might have missed in a child's face from snack, or in their hair, or messy clothes - but I think I'm going to steal the warning another poster gives and let everyone know that we let the kids be kids and majority of the time they will go home with the "well-played" look.

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Once in a while. It is embarrassing.

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When I worked in a center a few years back, this kept happening to one teacher with a dcb. The dcd was furious over it, made a big deal to the director, and we all got a stern talking to from the director that all teachers need to make sure no one goes home with a poopy diaper- like anyone does that intentionally?! Anyway, to my knowledge, this hasn't happened at my home daycare, but it could- especially while playing outside. We do the best we can, change kids on a regular schedule, and then do periodic smell and visual checks- what more can you do?! I get plenty of kids that come IN with a poopy diaper- parents always seem to be running late on those days, and bolt out the door

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As soon as DCM came back in and said she was poopy, I would have handed her a diaper/wipes and said "Good thing you are here then. Here's a diaper and wipes. It gets crazy here toward the end of the day and managing 200 things at once for several different kids makes it challenging at times."

Then I would have smiled really big and left it at that.

It's not a big deal and it's not something I would feel bad or guilty about.

If mom makes snarky comments, I usually try and throw something back like "Yeah, not everyone can do this job so it's a good thing I'm flexible and don't get bent out of shape about the little things!"

Again...BIG smile!

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I have a similiar situation with my DCM. She picks up anywhere from 3:30pm-5:00pm. I used to stress myself out trying to make sure DCB was always fresh, clean, fed and content. It made the end of the day so long and stressful. I finally just informed DCM that i change him and give him snack when he wakes up from nap at 3:30pm. I check him again at 4:30pm if he is still here but otherwise he is how he is when she arrives. I gave her the option of settng a pick up time or texting me when she is close but she does not like to be held accountable(her words). Now i get to enjoy my afternoons and she knows she won't always be walking into a 100% fresh and clean child :-D

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I wouldnt worry about it at all. If a parent comments on a child being poopy I just say "yup, sometimes that happens" and smile at them with an awkward pause. They all live within a few minutes of the house. They can take their kid home for a change. same thing with dirty clothes, missing hair barrettes, or anything else that might happen that a parent is commenting on...."yup, sometimes that happens". I dont apologize or try to remedy at all. most of them get the hint.

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I wouldn't worry about it. I've have 2 or 3 DCKs like this too. And YES they wait for a clean fresh diaper and THEN decide they have to poop. Maybe it feels more comfy to poop in a fresh diaper .

When the parent comes back in because of a poopy diaper I just say "Oh, I just changed her not more than 10 minutes ago (laughing) looks like she was just waiting for you to poop (smile). (motion towards the changing table) Help yourself" and I keep doing what I'm doing.

I don't mind that they come back in, but unless I was in the process of changing all of the kids in diapers and I hadn't gotten to their child yet I'd let the parent take over.

My own 11mo DS will ALWAYS poop as soon as certain people pick him up. My DH, my SIL, my sister, one of my BIL's. It's the weirdest thing. Maybe he just feels comfortable and relaxed, IDK, but it ALWAYS happens.

This made me think of one time when I had a parent call me and ask me if they could stop by because their child pooped and they forgot to take diapers with them . I didn't mind, they were their diapers afterall but it was on one of their "off" days for daycare lol. They came in VERY embarrassed and quickly changed their child and left. They were only going to come in and grab a diaper and some wipes but I told them to bring her in and use the changing table. My house was closer to them than their house by 10 minutes so that's another reason why I didn't mind, better to change their kid than to make her wait another 10 minutes sitting in poop. They brought me a latte the next morning .

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I log all diaper changes up to 1 year, the all poopys until potty training, when I start logging everything again. So in this case the mom would be able to see that the child had just been changed 10 min before.

It's interesting how some parents will change their own child here, even if it's at pick-up time, while others won't, even if they come in poopy.

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That exact thing has happened to me twice this week w the same dcb! His Mom was great about it and I literally had just changed him ten minutes before. She just started for the wipes and I handed her his changing mat

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When there's a fairly large window of time for pick-up and I know the child hasn't been changed in the past half hour, I usually offer to check the diaper before they leave "just in case". Once in awhile, a kid I just changed will poop as he's leaving and the parent will usually bring him back for a diaper change.

I also send home a form that includes a log of diaper changes so parents can see how often I change the kids each day. I just had a little boy who went home with a bad diaper rash. I felt so bad because from the look of the rash, you would have thought I had let him sit in his poop for hours but it had only been about a half hour/45 minutes since his last change. When I smelled the poop, I changed him immediately. I apologized again the next morning and the parents told me not to worry; they know I change him frequently and that I don't let him sit in dirty diapers because they see the log every day. It's embarrassing but what can you do?

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