How to travel with a recently toilet trained child

You've started the process of toilet training your child, they are doing really well and wearing big girls/boys pants in the day time and you are pleased that the 'accidents' are reducing in number.

So what do you do when you find yourself needing to take a long car journey with them?  Do you put them back in a nappy or pull-up for the duration?  Does that contradict all the messages you've been giving about their progress into big girls/boys pants and the new rule that involves only weeing on the toilet (or potty)?  Will it take you a few steps backwards in the process?

If your journey is going to take longer than half an hour you need, in all cases to ALWAYS put your child on the toilet just before you leave the house and don't give them large drinks within half an hour of travelling.

You also need a toilet training travel pack as follows:

Toilet training travel pack

• Spare pants for the child (At least 2 pairs just in case!)
• A couple of nappies (not to wear - see below)
• A packet of wipes
• A handful of nappy bags
• A muslin (or two)
• A spare set of clothes.  (Maybe two sets of trousers/skirts just in case)
• A potty or travel potty (optional - see below)

Keep it somewhere easily accessible.  I find the foot well under your child's feet the easiest place.  The canvas shopping bags that are so readily available these days are a perfect size to keep this kit in.  

Travelling with a recently toilet trained child

 

By car.  On motorways.

This is the worst type of journey that you can face in the UK.  In  France they've got it sorted because there is a place to stop for picnics and toileting literally every 5 minutes on their main roads.  Maybe this is because the culture is more for picnics than for buy your own lunches at the mall-style service stations you find on UK motorways?  Whatever the reason, you can find yourself stuck on a stretch of UK motorway and the 'Services' sign will tell you that the next 'Services' are in 43 miles.  43 miles!

You are on a motorway.  You aren't supposed to stop on the hard shoulder.  There won't be actual toilet facilities for 43 miles!

You have two approaches on a motorway that don't include putting a nappy on your child and don't ask your child to hold it for half an hour, which may be too much of a challenge early in the training process.

1.  The Special Cushion Method -  This is, by far, my favourite, as you are not racing a clock to find somewhere to stop.

You take a nappy, fold it over so that the most absorbent part is upwards and the tabs etc are tucked under.  Carefully fold a muslin around the nappy so that it could pass for a rectangular cushion.  Hold carefully and place it on your child's car seat so the absorbent part is still upwards.  Carefully ensure your child sits on top of the 'special cushion'.  With them sat on top of it the cushion is placed exactly where a nappy would be if they were wearing it.  If they have an accident, the worst case scenario is that their pants/trousers/skirt and the muslin all get wet.

At the next safe available opportunity you can pull over, pop the nappy/muslin/clothes into nappy bags and seal them to avoid smells, place on clean clothes and make a new cushion.

2.  The Potty in the Car Method - When you need to and it's safe to, pull over onto the hard shoulder.

Girls - For young girls you may get away with staying in the car (safest).  If their child seat is behind the passenger seat you have easier access to them when you turn towards your left shoulder.  You can unhook their seat belt and grab that kit.  Drape the muslin over the back seat behind you.  Sit the potty in the middle of it.  Sit the child on the potty.  Allow nature to take it's course.  Wipe child's bottom.  You could empty the potty out of the car; it involves a tricky balancing manoeuvre where you lift the potty up, through the gap between the front two seats and onto your lap, open your car door a little, empty the potty out, shut your door.  This is only really appropriate for wee wees in my view.  Wipe out the potty and place all wipes in a nappy bag.  Seal tight.  Refasten child securely into child seat.

Boys - For young boys the approach detailed for girls above may work, but they may not be able to sit on the potty.  Instead try them kneeing next to it.  This gets them closer to their target.

You can also buy travel potties that include liners.  This cuts out the need for clean up as you simply seal the bag once they have done.

In both cases this approach doesn't involve getting out of the car, so is probably the safest potty option.

By car.  On main roads with appropriate parking but no actual toilet facilities. 

Where you can pull over and exit your car safely at parking stops or on the road side on lower speed roads you also have another option.  Some may not be comfortable with this option, but sometimes needs must!  

3.  The Potty (or Hold) Outside the Car - When you need to, pull over into appropriate parking facilities.

You can exit your vehicle, place the potty on the floor next to the car, let your child use it, then clean up as before.

Alternatively, in the absence of a potty you can hold your child a little off the ground to enable them to wee (just watch your shoes!)

In both cases I'd consider how you park when you park.  What I mean is, if you park next to another car and open both front and back doors on your car, you create a small private space between your two doors to give your child a little bit of privacy.

Additionally it's easier for children to 'water grass' than to do this over concrete simply from the point of view of keeping your shoes dry and not creating rivers of wee across car parks!  So parking next to a grass verge or hedge is often helpful.    

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So there are my methods of coping with travelling with a child that is in the early stages of toilet training, and where you don't want to revert to nappies that you have worked so hard to remove.

I hope it's been useful.  If you know of any mums that may find this information useful please do feel free to share this page/URL with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, or your preferred social network.

For further tips on parenting, beauty, getting organised, travel, entertaining the kids and cheap days out with the kids, you can follow me by email.  Simply enter your email address in the right hand panel.  You can also follow on Twitter here or the Facebook page here.  

Finally, a selection of potties and travel potties are below in case you need to stock up! 
Thanks.

Parking on the Pavement - A hazard for pedestrians, and not so yummy!

This week my hubby and I strolled out for a walk and came across a lady stood still on the pavement, her guide dog not moving beside her.  A car had driven across the pavement to get onto a drive, but because the drive already had a car on it, the car had simply stopped across the pavement.  Clearly the guide dog wasn't sure what action to take.  The only way past was to take the owner onto the road, around the bumper of the car, and back up onto the pavement.

Being pretty considerate as a family, we, of course, stopped and asked if she needed help.  My hubby offered his arm and led the lady around the car.

Just over a year ago I had a little rant on this blog about cars parking halfway on pavements.  Drivers were parking half on pavements in a suburban area of Nottingham where the roads were perfectly wide enough for cars to park both sides of the road and not infringe the pavements. But of course they did; because a large proportion of drivers park their cars where is convenient for them and in a position they feel most protects their vehicle.

This means that "avoiding potentially being clipped by other cars on the road" trumps "blocking the pavement to such an extent that a pushchair (buggy) or wheelchair can't get past without stepping onto the road to get around the other side of the vehicle."

My feeling about this issue was exasperated when we came across this poor lady this week.

I was struck again by the blinkered nature of the human species.  Because, if I'm honest, I'd never considered the impact that this particular parking method would have on the blind.  Just like I'd not considered the impact on those with pushchairs until I myself had one.

What is amazing, is that this kind of parking, halfway on the pavement, is only technically illegal in London.  The  Pedestrian Liberation piece on this subject is particularly useful for guidance on the relevant rules and regulations.

In this particular case though, the car appears to fall foul of the Disability Discrimination Act, in that disabled people should not be discriminated against in accessing everyday goods and services.  Like the pavement!?

I wish I had thought to take a picture.  But I was so amazed, I didn't even think of it.

It turned out that the car was parked on the drive NEXT DOOR to the house that this lady lived in.  Her neighbours, knowing her disability, hadn't considered the impact the obstructive parking would have.

Her neighbours!

I'm now speechless.

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If you like this, you might also like:

Why do cars  park on the pavement?

Child safety - over protective or too relaxed?

Sleep.....? When cots become cot beds......

Just when you think you've got it all sorted; the girls are playing nicely together in the garden, you're actually getting some laundry sorted and ironed, and they're both sleeping through from 7.30pm until approx 6am; that's when it all goes awry again.

We have reached the point where our younger is nearly 2 years old and she can reach the top of her cot with her foot.  From 2 years of watching her older sister, she has a 'climbing' habit.  And it's purely a matter of time before she utilises her skills to throw herself out of her cot.  So we had to do it.  We had to convert the cot into a cot bed.  This weekend.

The first night was fine.  She was exhausted from a very busy day.  She went to bed late due to all the excitement surrounding the change to a new 'bed'.  So she was asleep before she could really worry about the change. 

The second night was fine.  Hubby sat with her for a bit after lullabies, and she fell to sleep whilst he was still there.  "We need to be careful we don't let that happen too often" he commented that night.  "Else she'll always want us to sit with her until she gets to sleep". 

He was right.

Today the problems started at nap time.  Usually she is brilliant at nap time.  She'll even switch into her pyjama bottoms for comfort, and snuggle up in her cot happily.  I'll say 'night night' and she'll wave me out of the room and indulge in between 1 and 2 hours kip.  Today she was absolutely not happy.  Every time I tucked her in and left the room she'd scream, run to the safety gate at her door, and stand screaming for me.

The screaming quickly reduced to whining, but 40 mins later, after so many 'tuckings-in' I lost count, when she was still getting up the second I left, I gave up and took them both out in the car for a drive.  I haven't done that in a while!  My elder was tired out too, the double buggy had been left in the boot of the hubby's car (scatty did you say?), so only my car could accommodate them both for a nap simultaneously. 

It completely messed up the afternoon's plan.  Instead of "quiet time with eldest whilst youngest naps, walk across to local supermarket for nappies, post letters, hand in forms to leisure centre, walk back via park, tea, bath bed".  It become "stressful time having to keep leaving my elder to sort the younger, stressful 30 mins trying to get the car seats back in my car (why they weren't in is a whole other story), weird 90 mins of driving around my local town so they'd sleep, a quick trip into the supermarket, forgot to post letters, no time to hand in forms, no time for park, no time for walk, a quick play in the garden, off to bed".

At 8.30pm tonight though, after trying to settle the younger down for 90 mins, I was seriously regretting letting her sleep in the day at all.  She was screaming as if she was scared to be left.  Very weird, considering that she's always been really good at saying goodnight and falling to sleep after we've left the room.

Hubby had the answer.  He pointed out that sleeping in a cot bed after a cot, was akin to me sleeping out in the middle of the garden after sleeping in my room.  Because, for her, the bars of the cot formed a wall around her, cocooning her. 

So how are we supposed to help her with this one then?  I guess I won't be doing much in the evenings this week!?

Why do Cars park on the Pavement?

Why?  Oh why?  Oh why?

Why would you park half on the road and half on the pavement?  Why would you do this, in a residential area, in a manner which effectively blocks the pavement?

Do you not realise that anyone with a buggy (pushchair, if you prefer), cannot get past the car?  Do you not realise that the mother and her buggy now have to venture into the road?  Unnecessarily.  Just to get past your inappropriately parked car.

When you park like that, do you not realise that you are putting the lives of babies and young children, along with their carers, at risk?

When you do it, thinking that cars are perhaps less likely to clip your wing mirror, do you not think that buggies with projecting parasols might accidentally scratch your car when trying to pass?

Is it really worth it?  Do you really think other cars on the road seriously can't get past you if you don't park that way?

Really?


I think I'll start a campaign against this...... who's with me?