Potty-training on the Go!

A friend of mine did this and it worked great for her (she has 4 kids and did the same with all of them!):
She would take a smaller potty ring - not a travel one, the kind that just sits on the big toilet and doesn't have a chair with it - and put it in a plastic grocery bag. It would go in a smaller backpack (with some baby wipes) so they had their own portable potty. Anyone who saw you would think the kid just had their own backpack. When it was time to go, out came the ring, no problem. Wipe it off with a baby wipe until you can get home and disinfect it yourself!

Hope that helps!

A., i will address the "what to do" thing but i wanted to first warn you, my son started acting real interested somewhere around 18 months, and some people told me, "oh yeah, he's ready!" he was very articulate and has a great vocabulary and acted like he knew exactly what he was supposed to do. then i mentioned it to my daycare provider (who i trust implicitly!) and she kinda said, "well...he'd be the youngest little boy i ever had!" and i could tell she was pretty skeptical. when i asked her she said, 99% of the time, they act really interested around this age, then the "new" wears off and they lose interest. sure enough, he got to the point where he'd fuss if i even mentioned sitting on the potty. sooo we let it go for awhile, and he's now 26 months and just starting to get back into it. SO my point is, support her, encourage her, but don't force her, because it could be that she is just interested because it's something new. if you stick with it she might skip over the not being interested part. who knows! just be prepared, is all i'm saying. i couldn't help but be disappointed when my son started refusing to sit on it. but he never got as far as your daughter is, either.

ok so the other thing i wanted to say is, regardless of how good she's doing, also keep in mind that with your trip coming up, it is possible that she will regress. just take her cues and go by how she seems to be doing. we moved recently and my son was back to square one. it may not matter how you go about it, the disruption of her schedule and not being home might just be too much for her to focus on pottying. i'm sorry to sound so negative, i don't mean to be - and keep in mind i have a boy and everyone says they're harder. you may have none of these issues - i hope you don't! Lol...

SO as far as your actual "question", i would just play it by ear. i honestly don't know what the "best" answer would be, i'm sure it's different for everyone. public restrooms worry me too, but it's kind of a fact of life. good luck and i hope she keeps going in the right direction! :)

I think it sounds like your daughter is doing a great job. Yeah, she's young, but if she gets the idea, then by all means pursue it. She probably will not be able to "hold it" if you are out in public though. I would buy some pull-ups to use when you go out, that way you're not wasting a diaper every time she goes. I'm currently working on training my third child, and some of the public restrooms aren't as bad as we fear. I like the previous idea of carrying antibacterial wipes with you. My youngest has been potty-training for a week, and he has learned to use a smaller seat, but he has also gone with me holding him on a larger toilet, and is (finally) starting to go standing up. Your daughter may be more versatile than you think, so give it a try! And if she keeps doing so well, try putting panties on her. She may decide she likes them better than diapers.

Side note...Since she can't tell you when she needs to go, I set a timer for my son. When the timer goes off, he knows that it's time to go potty, and that way I don't have to worry about forgetting. Good luck to both of you!!

I bought the fold up potty seat for my first child and he hated it because it would always pinch him when he sat down. As for my daughter, she just learned to balance herself on the front end of the toilet when she was out and never really had any problems. You can certainly get one of the larger potty rings and schlep it around with you...only problem is the round ones that you get for the home don't usually fit on the oblong toilets that are in most public places.

I don't subscribe to the "let's get serious"...I tried that with both of mine and it backfired horribly...so much so that my daughter refused to be potty trained until she was nearly 4! And I had to take her to a day care/preschool setting to get it really set in motion through peer pressure. If your daughter is showing the initiative then keep encouraging her, give her some small rewards, do the potty dance and tell her how wonderful she's doing. Yes, it's a PAIN IN THE BUTT when you go out and they ALWAYS have to go potty...but the good news is you will now know all the restrooms to all your favorite places for when you are pregnant again and YOU are the one that always has to go potty (LOL)... Just hang in there and keep up what your doing.

BTW- as for the potty toppers...I think they stick...always have from the days of old when my mom always made me line the toilet with toilet paper...get some anti-bacterial wipes and wipe the top of the toilet, dry with paper, and let her sit down just like she would at home...it's what will be natural to her. Just learn to grab the wipes on the fly as you are moving her towards the bathroom so while she is pulling her pants down you are wiping the toilet...very soon, she will start to better learn the triggers to her body and be able to give you a little more lead time for the bathroom.

As for the overnights...both my 4 & 5 yr old are still in them...the 5 yr old is almost at the point where he's dry nearly every night. I'm not waking them up...but instead letting them learn on their own and just cutting the liquids out earlier in the night. If she is soaking through a regular diaper at night you may want to consider moving to a Goodnight pull up...they tend to hold a little more on the liquid. Best of luck to you.

Girrrl, I still cringe at the thought of my daughter going on a public toilet. I try to avoid it at all costs! When she was first potty trained and we were out in public she told me she had to potty and I actually stood there for a second to think how long it would take me to rush home and get her on the pot. Well thats not always possible. Also up until a couple months ago my daughter had to strip down to go to the bathroom, I mean no pants, no underwear, no shoes!! Can you imagine trying to hold your half naked child and try to juggle all the clothes so they dont hit the disgusting floor! And then when she gets down with no shoes on!!! Her and I used to go round and round about taking all of her clothes off, she wouldnt go any other way! I dont know if you can tell but Im a little germaphob. I used a lot of hand sanitizer. I didnt ever think of carrying a potty with me. How would you do that? OK now advice, make her go before you go and hope that you can get to a decent toilet when she has to go again. But if I could make another comment about your daughter, she is younger than most kids when they start potty training, not that she isnt capable because It sounds like shes doing beautifully, but you may be prepared for her to regress a little bit. A lot of kids get really into it and then decide they dont feel like it or the time is not right for them. So be prepared for accidents, bring extra clothes and always be prepared. One that really got me too was when she wasnt wearing diapers anymore and we were driving and she had to go. At that point your not sure how long they can hold it. Its an interesting process. Good luck, I hope any of this helped!