DS2.9 has been in underpants for three weeks now (except for a diaper at bedtime.) He is especially proud of his “scary spiderman underpants” that he chases his big sister around with, ha ha.
Anyway, we have a 6-7 hour drive to WDW coming up soon, and three park days, and I am trying to decide what to do. We have never used pull ups. DS does great when we take him to the potty every 30 minutes or so, but that’s not gonna work in the car…
Any thoughts, oh ye of toddler experience? I would just rather relax at WDW and not deal with cleaning up poopy pants, you know?
I would say, take it easy on drinks in the car. Also… Start now spreading out the time you take him… Push it to 45 mins and see what happens. Does he tell you he has to use the potty or is it only because you take him he stays dry? My friends son is “potty trained” but she consistently askes him, takes him every 2 hours and if she misses that mark he has an accident. Key is get him to tell you he has to go.
Maybe I’m a bad parent, but I’ve been dragging my heels on potty training my son until after our trip. I hope my wife hasn’t caught on to my strategy.
One thing we bought in preparation came from a local ‘green’ baby store. They are the cloth diaper version of pull ups. So they are cloth and look like underwear, but still have some absorbency. That way, we can avoid some of the regression that may come with pull ups, but still having a bit of protection in case of accidents. While you still may have to deal with some vacation laundry, you may be able to avoid a mid trip car detail
Ha ha, @keithloveswaffles, not a bad parent in my book! We did the same thing this summer when we knew we had a 10 hour flight coming up – didn’t want to deal with undies on the plane!
@chilepeppr4, DS just isn’t developmentally there yet to be able to tell us – we’ve had to rush the whole potty training a bit since at his preschool they wanted to go ahead and move him into the no-diaper room (for their own convenience), so we’re still in the initial stages, but DS has more good days than messy ones, so I’m happy. And as for reminding a child to go every two hours, we’ve had to do that even with my older child for years – she’s very distractable and just won’t think of it til too late! So probably just depends on the kid. As always.
So here’s my plan: I’m thinking, it’s just three days. Diapers in the car. But then for park days, I’m not sure… Maybe there too, or maybe diapers over his undies to prevent large messes… And still take regular potty breaks as we would otherwise. Hoping three days of regression won’t mess up all his progress. But surely once he’s back at school and in routine it won’t matter…
I know you said you have never done pull-ups, are you adverse for trying them for this trip? Easier than laundry, but maybe he’ll still recognize them as underwear? My DD2.9 has been pretty resistant to potty training, although she’s doing well at the preschool she just started at, but won’t try the potty here at the house. A combination of panties and pull-ups here at the house, but I’m pretty sure we’ll stick to pull-ups for our upcoming trip in WDW.
Same here @keithloveswaffles. We had a big trip this summer overseas and didn’t want to worry about accidents on the plane or finding a free, available, and clean toilet overseas, so we didn’t even mention potty training. Where we were, we saw some parents having their children (or themselves!) go on the curb. Different cultures, I guess!
By the way, @B_squared, maybe you already know this, but many people suggest post-it’s to put over the automatic toilet sensors if your child might get freaked out about it going off while he’s sitting on the potty.
Thanks, @eriinfo! Yes, I was thinking about pull ups too. We’ve never used them before, but I’m open to it… And thanks for the post it reminder! Good luck! Our DD was really resistant at home at that age too, and then eventually just grew into it. I think for a couple weeks candy rewards may have been involved, ha ha! DS is much more malleable than she was and usually okay, he just doesn’t want to interrupt play to go. And I understand. Sometimes I have the same problem, ha!
@B_squared For the car ride, I suggest taking a small potty chair along. Worse case scenario, you pull over and let him go. For easy cleanup, put a diaper inside the potty chair and toss if after each use. We did this while PTing our daughter on a beach vacation and it worked great. For in the parks, I would use pullups.
When ds was 2 and newly potty trained, we drove and put on pull ups on him… He got mad but I don’t think he regressed or anything like that. Also once in the park, he will be sooooo distracted to go potty… Mine held it like all morning! I found a starburst bribe worked for us! Good luck!
Well, DD2.9 suddenly did great on the potty today, we might have just needed to find the right bribe for her (stickers weren’t good enough, but apparently 5 minutes of painting after each successful time worked wonders). Now my DW is determined not to regress despite our trip starting Friday. My DD still isn’t comfortable going #2 or being on a big potty, despite a foldable child-seat on it. We’ve been looking into travel potties, which is a small suitcase that folds out to a child potty, then has a liner that you can pick up and throw away afterwards. It’s at Buy Buy Baby (don’t know how close those are to people), or amazon or I’m sure at Babies R Us although I haven’t checked there. @B_squared, this might be an option for you in the car. We’ll be picking one up and depending how far DD2.9 progresses this week may stash it under our stroller to use in the park restrooms. We’ll definitely use it in the hotel to avoid bringing our regular child potty. We’ll probably still use pull-ups many times as well, and definitely in the car.
The portable folding potty seats are great. We’ve had our since dd was 2.5. She is now almost 5. We keep it in the vehicle and still use it from time to time. Pull ups aren’t the worst thing. We ran into a situation during potty training when dd was 2.7 and got really sick. I was so worried to go to pull ups fearing regression. Doctors best advice… “she won’t go to college wearing a pull up!” Really put things in perspective and made me relax. She wore them for about a week. No regression. After that I put one on her for long road trips. She never had an accident but it gave us (and her) peace of mind.
DS turns 2 next month. We travel to Disney in Nov. He is already using the potty out of his interest but not consistently. Im not pushing it and really hoping to wait until after the trip. I really dont want to visit EVERY restroom. :).
I have 3 kids and we’ve traveled with each of them at various stages of potty training. This is the portable folding potty seat we’ve used and it has been great: http://www.amazon.com/Potette-Port-A-Potty-Training-travel-toilet/dp/B003X4G55O/ref=sr_1_11?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1408944936&sr=1-11
Folds up really small and made several cross-country trips with us. And you don’t have to buy their expensive refills - just use a regular plastic shopping bag (make sure there are no holes though!) and throw in several napkins or paper towels and just throw the bag out when he’s done.
We also used pull-ups just for trips, but called them “special underpants”. I think that helped the kids realize that they weren’t in diapers, so they were still in potty training mode. But it gave me peace of mind knowing that if they had an accident or we couldn’t get to the bathroom right away it wasn’t a huge disaster. Plus, it’s also easier to deal with pull-ups in the public bathrooms if he does need to go. I was never good at getting the diapers back on straight while they were standing up.
Also, I put down a waterproof pad inside the car seat in case of a bigger accident. Much easier to take that out and wash it, rather than take the entire car seat apart!
good luck!
Went through this with our twins, 2 almost 3, last trip. Potty training twins is quite the feat, so I did not want them to regress! Ultimately we decided to put them in pull ups for the ride and while at the parks but keep them in undies while in the room. They slept in their undies but I did ask front desk for extra sheets and put puppy wee wee pads under them. We gave them treats (small candy) for making it on time. Overall they did great. While at Disney their entire routine changes, different environment, later bedtimes, ect… It’s OK if their potty training routine changes too. Once you get home just jump right back in where you left off. It may take a few days but things will become routine again:)
We just got the My Carry Potty, which looks very good. It folds in half and has a handle like a suitcase, and has a tight seal using a rubber cylinder which goes into the space of the potty when it’s folded up. She could go in the potty, and we could fold it up until we have a place to dump and clean it. It doesn’t use bags like the Potette. My DD2.9 already checked it out and used it and liked it. It is small but does the job.
