Potty Training When Out of House

Updated on April 29, 2008
M.R. asks from Saint Paul, MN
22 answers

My 2 y.o. wears underwear and uses the potty when at home. I'm just wondering what people who have potty trained toddlers do about leaving the house. She's too little for a normal sized toilet. Do I need to get some sort of travel potty?

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S.K.

answers from Minneapolis on

M.,

I used a traveling potty seat that fit over a regular one until my kids were old enough to use a regular potty. They sell them on line (Google and eBay comes to mind) and I paid about $10 for mine. You can even get ones that fold up and come with a clear carrying case. Fits right in the diaper bag.

Good luck,
S.

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J.B.

answers from Minneapolis on

Go to onestepahead.com and look for potty training products. There is a nice folding potty seat that I use for my son that costs less than $15.

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D.P.

answers from Minneapolis on

my girl was afraid of the automatic flushers at this age...so we sometimes wore pullups out, even though she was fully pottytrained as she would hold it forever so i didnt want her to have an accident...but then i would also try standing in front of the sensor to give her more time to go.

just hold on to her when she is on the toliet...i wouldnt want the hassle of bringing an extra seat.

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C.C.

answers from Cedar Rapids on

My daughter is 2 1/2 and has been potty trained for 4 months now. I just made sure she went potty before we left, and then if she has to go while we are out, I hold her on the toliet. She thinks its cool to us different bathrooms.

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S.K.

answers from Des Moines on

M.,

You have alot of great responses to this but I thought I would mention one that has not come up yet and it is what I did for my two girls and am now doing with my son. When using a big toilet even at someone elses house I have them sit backwards on the toilet. So they are facing the back of the toilet. Most toilets are narrower in the front so it fits there little bottoms better and they do not feel like they are falling in. YOu can be right there to help support them if need be but you do not have to help hold them up as much if at all. And I traveled with a little potty in the van just in case we needed it quick. Hope this helps and good luck.

S.

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N.S.

answers from Minneapolis on

I used both a fold up potty seat that you can tuck in a purse (find them at toys r us and www.onestepahead.com) and I just toted our potty seat in the back of the car until they got better control. This worked pretty good.

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P.K.

answers from Minneapolis on

I'd force a potty break before we left the house to help avoid public trips. (I'd do this by pouring verly slowly a cup of luke warm water on her belly starting right under her belly button and letting it run down her vagina into the toilet. Worked everytime.)

But, when we were out, I held her on the toilet on the side vs. the front of the toilet. I'd ask her to hold onto me so she didn't have to hold onto the dirty toilet. Then, I'd wipe her and remove her from the toilet quickly.

Good luck.

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J.P.

answers from Madison on

Practising at home on the big potty gets her ready for when she is out and needs to use the restroom!! I've never had a problem with any of my 5 kids using the big potty, even when out and about, and I have had all my kids trained by 18 months (so they too were little). Like someone else said, put her on sideways... then I stand in front of them, and they hold onto my legs.

I do like the idea of the fold up seat!

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T.N.

answers from Minneapolis on

M., you can buy little toilet seat rings that fit ontop of a normal toilet seat just about anywhere (in the baby section). I've even seen them at Menards. They come in Dora, Elmo, etc... and are padded. I also kept our little potty-training potty in our mini van for a LONG TIME. We called it our "travel potty". I just kept it in the back with a roll of toilet paper and a bunch of plastic grocery bags. I would line the part that catches the pee/poop with those and then just tie them up and throw them out as soon as possible. It works great for road trips and even parks -- we have a few around our house that don't have bathrooms.
Good luck!!

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L.V.

answers from Sioux Falls on

we carry an extra potty chair in the car with us and with public restrooms we always try to get the handicap stall so the kids can sit sideways and hold onto the rail for support.

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B.H.

answers from Minneapolis on

I just held my daughter as she used public potties or had her sit sideways on the potty she didn't fall in as easily.

Also I put a plastic down in her carseat for awhile til I wasn't worried anymore about accidents

Until I was convinced the accident phase was done I would also put a diaper on over her undies just in case. If she did have a accident it would still be uncomfortable because the undies would be wet, (which is a good thing to learn when training) but it wouldn't make a puddle on the floor at the store cause she had the diaper over the undies. I really tried hard though to not use diapers for long just when we were in the middle of training and accidents were common.

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M.J.

answers from Omaha on

Yes, go to Walmart and in the baby area they have little travel folding potty seats. They come in different characters and my son's is Spiderman. He thinks that is just the coolest thing. "Piterman potty, cool, mom" he always says when he wants to go out of the house. We still have him wear pull ups at night and out of the house (or as we call them "car and sleeping underwear"), because he still only is good about going if he is in the mood. Hope this is helpful. Oh, and where we live, the seats I was talking about for some reason are not in the aisle with the regular potty chairs, but on the ends of the aisles. At first I couldn't find them. I kept the plastic bag it was packed in (inside of the box) and I just always put it right back into the bag when he's done and then put the bag in our diaper bag. It's pretty small, so if you had a slightly bigger purse it would fit.

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W.D.

answers from Lincoln on

I carried a fold-up pottyseat with us for ahwile too. I kept ours in a ziplock bag. IT worked good, and my daughter was the one that started to request not to use it and wanted to try the big toilets w/o it. I also would put her in a pull up when ever we went away from home... just in case. She also started to request no pullups after awhile. ..BUT I still pack an extra pair of pants and panties when ever we leave just in case. W.

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A.H.

answers from Cedar Rapids on

There are little foldable toilet seats that might work for you, I saw one recently at Toys R Us. When my DD was that age, I carried one of those foldable potty seats in my bag....and also durning the summer kept a little potty chair in my trunk. It did come in handy for emergencies and you can line it with a plastic shopping bag for easy cleanup if you like. My DS is 2 1/2 and still training, I put him in a pull up whenever we go out.

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E.P.

answers from Minneapolis on

I just put my 2 year old on the adult toliet. If you are right by her she should be fine. : )

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K.D.

answers from Minneapolis on

You can get small fold up hard seats that go over public toilets. I bought one for my sister at Babies R US and she just keeps it in a ziplock in her purse.

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A.R.

answers from Minneapolis on

I used to sit on the toilet holding my kids between my legs in order to avoid the hassle of a traveling potty seat. My ample bottom would take up the vastness of the seat. It was also comfortable for them having mom holding them so close in a strange bathroom.

I kept my clothes on, by the way. No need to get too into it :o).

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M.T.

answers from Madison on

Hi, My 2 yr old daughter was scared of the large public toliet and I was worried about all the germs so we bought a Folding Travel Potty Seat. I put down a paper toliet seat cover, then place the potty seat on top, it works great and folds up to fit in my purse. I've seen many brands in local stores, I bought ours on line from One Step A
Head here's the brands site.(http://www.primobaby.com/toilet_04.htm )

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C.N.

answers from Duluth on

you can purchase a clip on potty at lke wal-mart or k-mart and take that with you . I did that with my 2 girls when they were litle . and it work excellent.
C. N

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N.B.

answers from Lincoln on

When my 2 year old was potty training I bought a portable potty seat . it folded up and I was able to carry it around in my purse. I bought it because My daughter was afraid of the toilets in public and I was concerned about the germs. She is now 3 1/2 and no longer uses it. I bought it at toys r us. Hope this helps

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K.S.

answers from Minneapolis on

Hi M.,
We do a lot of running as our 4 year old has Down syndrome and we got to lots of therapy and doctors. When we trained his sister, she got drug around to everything as well. When they are young it is difficult to hold themselves up on a big potty and I got tired of trying to hold her up which was uncomfortable for her and me.

I found a great traveler potty seat which is cushioned and folds down small enough to fit in your daiper bag and also has a little bag to put it in. It is by Mommy's Helper and called the Cushie Traveler. You should be able to find it at a retail store, but if not, email me at ____@____.com. I have an on-line store under member perks and carry this.

K.

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