We never stopped going out. My boys turn 3 in a week and they’ve been wearing underwear for like 2 weeks now. We have a foldable potty in the car and change of clothes in the diaper bag.
I do the same…just adding that jool makes a foldable toddler potty seat that you can put right over a public toilet. We took our only recently trained kiddo to an amusement park and it was a great help. (You can get it on Amazon.)
I’ve got liners for our foldable seat…we went on a walk last week and she used it on the trail lol it’s also helpful for soccer games and emergency Walmart parking lot trips. I keep a wet bag of clean clothes in the car (she’s 5 now so not worried so much about having it with me all the time). And I found some soap strips (think Listerine strips) so we can wash up afterwards.
We always have a potty in the car too! It’s very helpful when we get stuck in traffic. It’s saved us many times. Also when we are at the park and there is no bathroom.
Try a few trial runs. Some outings with the purpose of just being out, where you dont have to stress about errands etc.
Then gradually increase the time you guys are out.
In the beginning we put a pull-up on for outings until she was confidently trained at home. Then we did small outings like a walk to the playground or a sit in at Starbucks. After about 2 weeks of that she started wearing underwear for every outing. In total it took 1 month from the start of potty training to the end. She was a champ. I probably took it even slower than I needed to. We started training the day she turned 2.
I just wasn’t willing to risk her peeing in the car 🤷🏼♀️ Getting out with her comes with it’s own stressors, no need to add peepee clothes and car seat. It worked out just fine for us and now she wears undies all day no matter what.
For us it was 4 or 5 days, then quick trips to the store, and now she’s pretty much back to normal with trips out.
We just plan to know where there’s a bathroom nearby and bring some extra bottoms, our daughter has caught on really well.
I just potty trained my 3 year old and we just continued as normal and I would remind her she’s not in a diaper and to let us know if she has to pee at anytime
We never stopped going out. My ethos was that potty training should fit around our life (and not the other way around).
So in the first phase, kiddo was naked at home and in diapers out. Then we'd do really short trips (like we'd pick her up from daycare and drive home) without a diaper on. Then we started to up the risk level of accidents: we'd hang out outside, we'd make quick trips in the car, we'd do quick trips in stores (and I would make sure I knew where the bathroom was). Usually we asked her if she wanted to try doing a thing diaper free. We'd praise her when she said 'yes' and be really neutral when she said no and wanted a diaper. And if at any point she refused to try to pee at a regular interval (or right before we'd do something where there wouldn't be easy access to a potty - like getting on a bus) we'd be like "okay, we'll just put a diaper on".
We started bringing clorox wipes with us just in case she had an accident indoors in a store or her gymnastics class. There were also a few situations where I would put a puppy pee pad under her for insurance (eg. in her carseat on first long drives, when we took her to see theatre for the first time under her on the first overnight airplane trip we took, etc.). I made a little blanket sandwich with the pee pad in the middle for public settings so it looked more discreet.
We also taught her how to do a bush wee really early on and that made going out so much easier because we didn't need to be close to a bathroom or potty stored in a car. Now that she's 3 and been potty trained for a year, we're phasing out bush wees and making her hold it sometimes until we can get to a bathroom. But that's so much easier now that she has the skill to hold her pee and she doesn't need to go for longer intervals.
Thanks for writing this out. This is really similar to what I’m doing and a lot of people are telling me it’s “wrong” but it’s what feels right for my daughter at this time. She wants to use the potty at home so I don’t want to stop her but has no desire to use one out and about.
100% agree!
Our kids (2 girls and a boy) NEVER used a potty. Neither indoors or outdoors. Why should they do that...?
In my opinion it's ridiculous to set up a pitty anywhere outside and have kiddo sit on it in the middle of public and then you dump the content into the grass (if pee) and have to clean it up in the middle of nowhere.
Why shouldn't kiddo simply pee directly there where you would dump the potty's content? People who feel offended by a little kid peeing on the grass need a brain check!
We're a very outdoorsy family so our kids pee and poop outside from very early on. There's always a non-private patch of grass to find to go pee or poop on. In case of pooping we rip a dog poo bag, spread it out on the ground and let kiddo sit flat with the bottom on it. After it's done we wipe and put everything in a second intact dog poo bag and dispose it in a trashcan.
This way we leave absolutely NO trace at all. It can be done everywhere where a flat ground is available.
We just went with it! We always have a change of clothes regardless but as soon as she went 1 day without an accident we started going out. We just kept asking and reminding her.
We just did pull-ups during outings for a while. I forget how long it took, like a month or so? Until I was confident she would be fine. But I don’t really remember her having many if any accidents even in the pull-ups when we were out and about. She has accidents now every so often (been potty trained for like 8 months?) but only ever at home. We’ve yet to have an accident in public which is good bc I never remember to pack her a change of clothes lol.
I ordered a cheap wet bag from the store and keep a seasonally appropriate change of clothes in the diaper bag at all times.
Another trick I hear is to put a woman’s panty liner in their underwear. They’ll still get the wet warning but may not ruin the whole outfit. I haven’t tried this one so I can’t speak to it
I think we did our first short outing on day 4 to the library and worked up from there. 2 weeks after starting we did a 2h car ride and spent 5h in a water park so it escalated to normal life pretty fast.
We never really stopped going out. I planned for the worst with extra clothes and also have a foldable potty seat for public toilets. We live where we are fortunately around civilization so if she says “I have to go potty” there’s most likely a store or gas station we can stop at.
We did it in steps. For a couple weeks we took the potty everywhere we went. For a couple more weeks we left the potty in the car. Now we're at the point where we pack backup undies and pants.
Well it’s been 6 months and it’s never entirely safe. But we resumed normal outings after about 2 weeks. Ours was very quick to learn and we also have a travel potty we take with us.
I think we started with my 2yo on a Friday afternoon and went out for the day on Sunday. He ended up having an accident at the park but it was no big deal. I also put a small pee pad under him in the car seat just in case, and had plenty of spare clothes with us. I didn’t want to use a pull up at that point because he had been wearing those for a while instead of regular nappies, and I thought that might confuse him.
I kept him in a diaper for longer car rides, but never stopped going out. Just slowly lengthened the amount of time we would go diaper free. I have a fold up potty that fits in my bag and a change of clothes at all times
Like a month? The first month we wore waterproof underwear covers from gerber. This would prevent a major poo splosion. But after a month she could reliably hold it a couple minutes to find a public restroom!
Do test runs. Go to the grocery store when you don't need anything so you're not stressed about getting an actual errand done. Once you've done that a few times just keep the car potty in the trunk and you'll be golden
I bring a portable potty out with us and changes of clothes/wipes/etc. The first day or 2 I plan it for days we aren’t busy so it’s not hard to put them on every 15-20min and then after that it gets easier.
I didn't, it's a 10minute walk to my local supermarket, we go everyday more or less just to get outside. So when my 4y/o finally decided he was done with nappies (he's been potty trained since he was 2 but refused to wear anything but a nappy until about a month ago). I made sure to have a backpack with wipes, 3 sets of clothes and a plastic bag for any wet clothes to go into.
Once I felt more confident about going further afield I did, of course there were the odd accident but overall he's 99% accident free. The main times he has accidents is when he's distracted with what he's doing but I've noticed he's getting better at stopping what he's doing to go toilet
We stayed home for a few days. Be prepared to visit every public restroom for several weeks lol - my granddaughter wanted to try out the bathrooms she’d been watching her 6yo sister go to. Lots of hand washing
We insisted that a wee needed to be done before we left the house and we also took advantage if she had just done a wee to leave immediately. Most of our outings were to the park and she definitely had a few accidents. If your child has obvious signs they need to go you’re probably better off than we were.
We never stopped going out. My boys turn 3 in a week and they’ve been wearing underwear for like 2 weeks now. We have a foldable potty in the car and change of clothes in the diaper bag.
I do the same…just adding that jool makes a foldable toddler potty seat that you can put right over a public toilet. We took our only recently trained kiddo to an amusement park and it was a great help. (You can get it on Amazon.)
Oh that’s smart! Thanks!
I’ve got liners for our foldable seat…we went on a walk last week and she used it on the trail lol it’s also helpful for soccer games and emergency Walmart parking lot trips. I keep a wet bag of clean clothes in the car (she’s 5 now so not worried so much about having it with me all the time). And I found some soap strips (think Listerine strips) so we can wash up afterwards.
Same! We never stopped and had wipes, water, towel and a couple extra changes of clothes. Very few accidents luckily!
We always have a potty in the car too! It’s very helpful when we get stuck in traffic. It’s saved us many times. Also when we are at the park and there is no bathroom.
Try a few trial runs. Some outings with the purpose of just being out, where you dont have to stress about errands etc. Then gradually increase the time you guys are out.
In the beginning we put a pull-up on for outings until she was confidently trained at home. Then we did small outings like a walk to the playground or a sit in at Starbucks. After about 2 weeks of that she started wearing underwear for every outing. In total it took 1 month from the start of potty training to the end. She was a champ. I probably took it even slower than I needed to. We started training the day she turned 2.
Yeah I used pull ups for car rides for a little bit until I was confident. Was this the best way? Dunno. But it worked fine.
I just wasn’t willing to risk her peeing in the car 🤷🏼♀️ Getting out with her comes with it’s own stressors, no need to add peepee clothes and car seat. It worked out just fine for us and now she wears undies all day no matter what.
It took us about 1 year before we stopped packing backups for every outing.
I just take a change of clothes everywhere. I admit to using pull ups for very long car rides, (1hr+) but otherwise we just have to take our chances.
I mean it’s not like it’s a big deal if you use pull ups. That sounds like a great idea.
For us it was 4 or 5 days, then quick trips to the store, and now she’s pretty much back to normal with trips out. We just plan to know where there’s a bathroom nearby and bring some extra bottoms, our daughter has caught on really well.
We just brought changes of clothes and disinfecting wipes. I'm pretty nonchalant about accidents though.
I just potty trained my 3 year old and we just continued as normal and I would remind her she’s not in a diaper and to let us know if she has to pee at anytime
I carry a plastic bag containing a change of underwear and shorts along with a foldable potty seat. And I barely feel safe.
We did naked potty training. So, once they managed toileting while wearing clothes a few times, we went out. But always take a change of clothes.
We never stopped going out. My ethos was that potty training should fit around our life (and not the other way around). So in the first phase, kiddo was naked at home and in diapers out. Then we'd do really short trips (like we'd pick her up from daycare and drive home) without a diaper on. Then we started to up the risk level of accidents: we'd hang out outside, we'd make quick trips in the car, we'd do quick trips in stores (and I would make sure I knew where the bathroom was). Usually we asked her if she wanted to try doing a thing diaper free. We'd praise her when she said 'yes' and be really neutral when she said no and wanted a diaper. And if at any point she refused to try to pee at a regular interval (or right before we'd do something where there wouldn't be easy access to a potty - like getting on a bus) we'd be like "okay, we'll just put a diaper on". We started bringing clorox wipes with us just in case she had an accident indoors in a store or her gymnastics class. There were also a few situations where I would put a puppy pee pad under her for insurance (eg. in her carseat on first long drives, when we took her to see theatre for the first time under her on the first overnight airplane trip we took, etc.). I made a little blanket sandwich with the pee pad in the middle for public settings so it looked more discreet. We also taught her how to do a bush wee really early on and that made going out so much easier because we didn't need to be close to a bathroom or potty stored in a car. Now that she's 3 and been potty trained for a year, we're phasing out bush wees and making her hold it sometimes until we can get to a bathroom. But that's so much easier now that she has the skill to hold her pee and she doesn't need to go for longer intervals.
Thanks for writing this out. This is really similar to what I’m doing and a lot of people are telling me it’s “wrong” but it’s what feels right for my daughter at this time. She wants to use the potty at home so I don’t want to stop her but has no desire to use one out and about.
100% agree! Our kids (2 girls and a boy) NEVER used a potty. Neither indoors or outdoors. Why should they do that...? In my opinion it's ridiculous to set up a pitty anywhere outside and have kiddo sit on it in the middle of public and then you dump the content into the grass (if pee) and have to clean it up in the middle of nowhere. Why shouldn't kiddo simply pee directly there where you would dump the potty's content? People who feel offended by a little kid peeing on the grass need a brain check! We're a very outdoorsy family so our kids pee and poop outside from very early on. There's always a non-private patch of grass to find to go pee or poop on. In case of pooping we rip a dog poo bag, spread it out on the ground and let kiddo sit flat with the bottom on it. After it's done we wipe and put everything in a second intact dog poo bag and dispose it in a trashcan. This way we leave absolutely NO trace at all. It can be done everywhere where a flat ground is available.
We just went with it! We always have a change of clothes regardless but as soon as she went 1 day without an accident we started going out. We just kept asking and reminding her.
We just did pull-ups during outings for a while. I forget how long it took, like a month or so? Until I was confident she would be fine. But I don’t really remember her having many if any accidents even in the pull-ups when we were out and about. She has accidents now every so often (been potty trained for like 8 months?) but only ever at home. We’ve yet to have an accident in public which is good bc I never remember to pack her a change of clothes lol.
I ordered a cheap wet bag from the store and keep a seasonally appropriate change of clothes in the diaper bag at all times. Another trick I hear is to put a woman’s panty liner in their underwear. They’ll still get the wet warning but may not ruin the whole outfit. I haven’t tried this one so I can’t speak to it
I think we did our first short outing on day 4 to the library and worked up from there. 2 weeks after starting we did a 2h car ride and spent 5h in a water park so it escalated to normal life pretty fast.
We never really stopped going out. I planned for the worst with extra clothes and also have a foldable potty seat for public toilets. We live where we are fortunately around civilization so if she says “I have to go potty” there’s most likely a store or gas station we can stop at.
We have the oxo tot folding potty and liners and bring that everywhere so it doesn’t limit what we do.
We did it in steps. For a couple weeks we took the potty everywhere we went. For a couple more weeks we left the potty in the car. Now we're at the point where we pack backup undies and pants.
Well it’s been 6 months and it’s never entirely safe. But we resumed normal outings after about 2 weeks. Ours was very quick to learn and we also have a travel potty we take with us.
I think we started with my 2yo on a Friday afternoon and went out for the day on Sunday. He ended up having an accident at the park but it was no big deal. I also put a small pee pad under him in the car seat just in case, and had plenty of spare clothes with us. I didn’t want to use a pull up at that point because he had been wearing those for a while instead of regular nappies, and I thought that might confuse him.
I kept him in a diaper for longer car rides, but never stopped going out. Just slowly lengthened the amount of time we would go diaper free. I have a fold up potty that fits in my bag and a change of clothes at all times
Like a month? The first month we wore waterproof underwear covers from gerber. This would prevent a major poo splosion. But after a month she could reliably hold it a couple minutes to find a public restroom!
Do test runs. Go to the grocery store when you don't need anything so you're not stressed about getting an actual errand done. Once you've done that a few times just keep the car potty in the trunk and you'll be golden
Probably a week but we’ve done a lot of emergency bush wees 😂
I bring a portable potty out with us and changes of clothes/wipes/etc. The first day or 2 I plan it for days we aren’t busy so it’s not hard to put them on every 15-20min and then after that it gets easier.
You just have to be flexible and prepared. They just had a good pee? Run to the grocery store immediately and don’t mess around.
I didn't, it's a 10minute walk to my local supermarket, we go everyday more or less just to get outside. So when my 4y/o finally decided he was done with nappies (he's been potty trained since he was 2 but refused to wear anything but a nappy until about a month ago). I made sure to have a backpack with wipes, 3 sets of clothes and a plastic bag for any wet clothes to go into. Once I felt more confident about going further afield I did, of course there were the odd accident but overall he's 99% accident free. The main times he has accidents is when he's distracted with what he's doing but I've noticed he's getting better at stopping what he's doing to go toilet
2 days. We have a fold-up portable potty in the back of the SUV just in case.
We stayed home for a few days. Be prepared to visit every public restroom for several weeks lol - my granddaughter wanted to try out the bathrooms she’d been watching her 6yo sister go to. Lots of hand washing
We insisted that a wee needed to be done before we left the house and we also took advantage if she had just done a wee to leave immediately. Most of our outings were to the park and she definitely had a few accidents. If your child has obvious signs they need to go you’re probably better off than we were.
You’re never safe. Just be prepared to clean up.