When I think of potty training my children my mind goes one place, “I’ll never leave the house!”
I hate the thought of going somewhere and hearing that little voice say they need to go potty.
When you live in the country there are no quick trips to town. A 30 minute trip for a little one potty training toddler can be an eternity.
Depending on your potty training method car trips may not be an issue. Many parents opt to use diapers in the car for peace of mind. However, there does come a point in the training that they have graduated from diapers but still aren’t 100% trained. (
What’s a parent to do? Never leave home for 4-6 months to ensure complete success?
Another huge reason for my dread of potty training is the long car trips we take. My parents live 6 hours from us. Add potty breaks every hour and the trip becomes 8 hours.
Plus, we have a huge move coming up next month that will involve multiple 22+ hour trips every year. The thought of that pretty much seals the deal for me that Camden will not potty train until he’s FULLY willing, able, capable and at the least saying more words than momma and dadda.
Obviously, I didn’t write this post to talk just about the fears I have in potty training. I always have a solution for you!
About 18 months ago we used the My Carry Potty when Sterling was potty training. My Carry Potty is a portable potty that you stick in the car and take with you wherever you go.
Below I will list the pros and cons to the My Carry Potty.
Pros:
- You always have a potty with you even when there are no bathrooms around for miles.
- Leak-proof, smell-proof seal plus a lock to keep in all the urine and poo.
- Light weight and easy to carry with handle.
- Can be used by older children..sort of. In the cons I’ll elaborate.
- Use at home or away. Sometimes you need a little potty in a part of the house away from the bathrooms.
- Front contains a small shield for little boys’ parts.
Cons:
- Must have super tiny hiney to use. I’m serious. Sterling is tiny and at 2 he barely fit on it.
- The seal works so well that it creates an almost unbreakable suction. Be careful when prying open a full potty!
- DON’T FORGET IT IN THE CAR! Just a warning, not that I did this ever. You will vomit when you do remember that you didn’t empty it.
On Amazon the My Carry Potty runs about $30. A small price to pay for the convenience of a potty when traveling or visiting someplace does not have a potty (or a clean one at that).
Follow My Carry Potty on Facebook if you’d like to learn more about the product.
For more information on potty training check out the Ultimate Guide to Cloth Trainers! (there are 3 parts)
Stacy says
When my DD1 was PLing we used 2 different portable potties. We had the potette. The potette was nice because it doubled as a potty seat for regular potties (like when we went to grandparents and DD was afraid she would fall in). We also had and still have the potty briefcase in our car. Anytime she needs to go and we are no where near a restroom, we just drop in a ziplock back w/ a few paper towels (to soak up the pee) and then toss the bag the next chance we get. These were both lifesavers and I plan to use them when DD2 and DS starts potty training.
Athena says
I haven’t had to poddy trin yet as my Daughter is 12 weeks but i remember peeing in public as a kid all the time. we’d pull over and pull both doors for privacyand pee and then get on our merry way. I didn’t live in the country (born and raised in Brooklyn NY) but we went on trips & camping often and if there wasn’t a poddy we’d find a safe spot to pull over and do our business. Worked for us and trained us for camping poddy time as well.
The idea of carrying pee or poop around in the car sounds …. yucky!
Jenny says
Thanks for the article. We are currently potty training our 1 year old. (Before I get any flack, 1. She’s thrilled to be doing it. 2. She does baby signs & can TELL me she’s doing it 3. Most importantly, we’re expecting baby #2 & I am terrified of having two in diapers.)
She’s so small, she is super scared of the big potty when we go anywhere. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do because we live in Amish country, very far from civilization. I think I would much rather prefer to have something of this sort than an open container of poo that I’d need to clean with a wipe immediately.
Jenny says
I meant ‘She can tell me when she needs to go.’ If she waited to tell me when she was in the middle of going, it probably wouldn’t be much help. haha
Emily D says
I’m totally with you! I always say I refuse to have two kids in diapers full-time (nights are different of course), and seeing as my 3 dd are each 2 yrs apart… yes they trained early! My oldest dd trained about 18mos, my youngest was doing well with EC by 9 mos, but we had a setback with chickenpox and she didn’t want to sit on the potty, so I’m just about to get back into it- she just turned 1. And they all do baby signs too- it tmakes such a difference!
BTW, I used the potette like Stacy, it’s small enough to fit my youngest but sturdy enough that my 5yr dd can use it too (granted she’s only 38lbs). It’s basically a seat on legs, you just hook a plastic back into it with some paper towel or whatever to catch the pee/poop. When they’re done you just tie it up and throw in the next garbage! And the baby bjorn little potty is awesome for little ones- untippable.
Jenny S. says
What sign did you use? The sign language sign for potty/toilet or did you make up your own? I am on the second day of training my 15 month old. I started training him at 10 months and he was doing GREAT but then we had to stop because of a medical issue. :( Now that I am training him 5 months later, he seems to have regressed from where he was at 10 months. :( There’s just no way for him to communicate to me that he has to go…other than a pleading look if I happen to be looking at him. So, a sign or some kind of noise sounds like a good idea!
Molly says
We have a small Baby Bjorn potty that lives in the car. Helpful when kids need to go on trips or when we are at someone’s house and they are scared to use the big potty in a strange place. A few times when we needed the potty for #2 I covered the bowl part with a plastic bag then close it up and toss it when we can. A great investment, I would recommend it to anyone with a samll child, even if they are completely potty trained.
Heather says
I have invented my own potty with things I already had on hand :) I have a 3 or 3.5 gallon cleaning bucket and a potty seat. I use a bunch of old plastic shopping bags all set in the bucket and pulled over the edges. Then I put the seat on top. Every time one of the kids has to go we tie off one of the bags and leave it inside. When we stop somewhere we throw out all the tied off bags in the bucket. This works very well. I even used it once when a portable toilet was to icky to even enter. The one you talked about looks to be a one time use. I don’t know about your kids but if one has to go then they all have to go within a few minutes :D
Krista says
Great idea! That’s probably what I’ll do when the time comes. I can relax for now though. I’ve still got at LEAST a year I’m sure. :P
Andrea Morrison says
I really like the Caboose potty seat for the car. Its also kinda tiny, but since you can put any diaper in the bottom, like a prefold, it works pretty good in my opinion, especially for quick clean up on the go. :) http://www.amazon.com/Bonaco-Caboose-Travel-Potty-Diaper/dp/B000VJZOOC/ref=pd_sbs_ba_4
Mbra518 says
We also live in the country and dd trained fully at 2. One thing that made outings easier was to intoduce outdoor peeing. I’m quite serious, works great on car rides. This also makes public washroom (no potty seat) easier as she’s used to being held up to pee. We do that in the same way as they say to do in EC, which we didnt do, but i would next time.
Krista says
This is the simple solution, I think. Though, it doesn’t always work (if you can’t find a secluded area) so it would be nice to have a potty on hand just in case.
Emily D says
Ha, it may be simple but we ended up having to do that once or twice with dd, afterwards she kept wanting to pee in the grass even at home or in public!
Mbra518 says
Oh yah, dd has been known to just pee in the yard or insist on peeing in the grass LOL, but I’ll take that ‘issue’ over changing diapers ;-) She 3-1/2 now and doesn’t try this maneuver in public places so I’m ok with it.
Kristi says
That seems like a horrible waste of money. I bought a bjorn potty at Babies R Us for $10 (4 yrs ago). It didn’t fold up but all you have to do is pull over and dump and then wipe out with a wipe. For a 21 hour car ride, I would hope that you would empty it each time rather than keep filling it up anyway.
http://www.amazon.com/BabyBj%C3%B6rn-051021US-BABYBJ%C3%96RN-Smart-Potty/dp/B002Q0YA30/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1341939590&sr=1-1&keywords=bjorn+potty
Autumn Beck says
I don’t know that I would call it a “horrible waste of money” :)
Nicole says
perhaps you’re referring to the Swarovski Crystal covered version, but $30 for a useful tool doesn’t seem like a “horrible waste of money” to me either.