Hi Mamas and Daddies,
We're at the tail end of potty training our son! He's doing great, and before this morning he had gone a whole 7 days without a daytime accident at all. I keep him in a diaper at night and I'd say it's only about 30% of the time that he wets during the night. We're about to embark on a 5-6 hour car trip home to my mom's house. Do I leave him in underwear and trust that he'll tell me in enough time to find an exit and get to the nearest toilet? Or should I put a diaper on him just in case? Of course if I do the underwear I will plan to stop several times anyhow for potty breaks. I just worry if he falls asleep in the carseat that he could pee without realizing it and then we'd have a mess. What would you do?
Thanks so much for all your advice ladies. I'm just going to do a diaper and plan to stop for potty breaks often to encourage him to keep the diaper dry. It's just not worth the mess. I like the idea of the diaper over the underwear, but I'm afraid that the underwear would stick out the sides of the diaper and cause a leak anyhow, or that it just wouldn't be comfortable for him to sit like that in the carseat. I will look into the piddle pads for the carseat in general though. I'm always nervous taking him in the car, but he's done well so far with only one close call. Thanks again ladies :)
UPDATE: We're back from our trip... I had him wear a diaper there and back while on the long car ride, but we stopped a few times to go potty and he kept it dry the entire time! Yay!
Pull ups over underwear, and tell him that he's a big boy and doing great, but since he might fall asleep, you don't want there to be a mess, just in case :)
How about putting him in underwear and putting a pull-up on over that? If he has an accident, he will only mess his underwear and pull-up. If he stays dry, you can re-use the pull-up for the ride home.
You can get a washable pittle pad for $15 from a baby store, or maybe even Target. I took several 4-6 hour trips this summer with my daughter. I left her in underwear, told her to tell me when she had to go, and she did. The best was when she screamed at my husband to "PULL OVER DADDY!" I also bought a portable potty. It was the best thing ever. When she said she had to go, we were not near a exit with rest area or restaurants to go potty. We pulled over to the side of the road and she went in the portapotty. I don't know how many times we used it this year, but it stays in the car. Best money ever spent and I think it was only $20 at Babies R Us.
We went on a 9 hour car trip when DS was just recently daytime trained. We put him in the car asleep in his pjs and diaper. When he woke up, we stopped for breakfast, bathroom, tooth brushing and got him dressed (w/ underwear) in the bathroom. After that we stopped every 2 hours whether we needed to or not and took him to the bathroom. We had one close call where we had to pull off the highway and DH took him behind some bushes (it was pretty funny, he was two and had never peed outside before) and one episode where we were driving around some little deserted road, filled with old deserted gas stations and finally DS decided he did not really need to go anyway. He made it both ways without an accident. I have never seen so many rest stops and gas station bathrooms in my life.
Pull ups definitely. Who needs one more thing to worry about on a long car trip?
pull up? ts not worth the risk of having a soaked car seat if its only been 7 days. J. dont make him aware he can pee. say you ran out of underwear and its drying or something so he knows its not ok to pee in the pull up on purpose
I say underwear and plenty of stops. If you are traveling at night put him in the pull ups since he is used to sleeping in them anyway.
I like the idea of the pull ups over the underwear too.
I just am not a big fan of going backward when you are making forward progress. It would be worth it to make more stops but if all else fails get yourself a widemouth jar with a screw on lid and let him make an emergency tinkle in the jar. That is what my mom would do for us when we would take that 8 hour drive to NC and back every summer.
If you think he might sleep, put on a pull up and explain that since he wears diapers at night, these are special travel diapers in case he sleeps in the car. If you have the room, put the potty in a trash bag and pull over to the side of the road if you can't make a rest stop. If you don't want to use a pull up, put some padding (like a towel or piddle pad) under him in the seat. Using the pull ups with the explanation worked well with DD when it was necessary but a dry pull up at the end of the trip was celebrated, or any time she told me and we were able to pull over.
I would do a diaper for the long trip. I'm not comfortable putting anything on the carseat itself that didn't come with it (like no towels in summer), but a diaper on the kid, sure!
I put my 6-year-old in a pull-up on our last long trip because when he was 5, he fell asleep and peed. He still wets the bed every single night through a Goodnight!
I'd bring a pullup.
While potty training my kiddo there was a mat on her carseat at all times. Target has them. They are soft and flannely so don't worry about them being uncomfortable or sticky. And, they are waterproof! They come in squares or rectangles so you can pick your size.
I used pull ups around nap/bed time with my kiddos on road trips about this time in their potty training.
We went through this. We put them in a pullup but made it clear that it was not to pee in but it was to keep things clean in case he had an accident. We had already been treating the pullups like underwear as it was and always refered to them as special underwear and never equated them with a diaper.
For that long a drive with only 7 days of no accidents I would not risk or want to deal with all the extra mess, laundry or other issues that come with. We waited until they went a full month before we let them wear underwear on a long trip and since they weren't physically mature enough to stay dry while sleeping we'd put them in a pull up if there were any chance of them sleeping.
We went through this with our daughter. We just lined her car seat and kept her in panties. We didn't want to backtrack on progress. She did great!
GoodNights makes nighttime pads for children's beds that might work here. You'd just have to tuck the edges around the sides of the seat.
Good luck!
Bring, both underwear and pull-ups or diaper JUST in case. You have to be... prepared, for ANY scenario.
You never know... how it will go.
AND extra clothing for in the car ride.
He is young and accidents do happen.
Even Kindergarten kids have accidents. Even 1st grade kid have accidents. So keep that in mind.
Just make sure he doesn't feel pressured about it.
Or if you have a potty chair, you can put that in your car.
I know people who do that, of course they have a van and have room for it.
But then you will have to deal with, how/where to dispose of the pee/poop. We have a traveling car potty which I got from Amazon.
And it has a plastic bag to tie up and throw away. So its easy and clean.
For example.
And yes, when/if he falls asleep, there is the chance he will pee. And then your car seat will get all wet.
Per sleep/night time dryness... this is not something that is physiologically attained... even until 7, years old, and this is NORMAL.
So just keep that in mind.
My son is 6 for example, and still needs a night diaper at night.
He is not dry yet, per sleep/night time.
Normal.
BOTH of my kids, NEVER ever, got "confused" about being in underwear during the day, but night diaper at night. Why? Because, I explained to them, about their body developing and their bladder is not ready yet, to be dry ALL night for 10 hours straight.
They understood.
AND also, you might want to get, a water proof bed pad, to bring with you. I got mine from Amazon, and have 4 of them, and it totally protects the bed sheets from getting soiled! I have the fabric type. Not plastic.
If you decide on regular underwear, then stop every 2 hours. NO less. Don't trust a 2 year old to give you enough notice.
If you decide on a pull-up, then go until he asks.
We took my daughter, (then age 2) on a 16 hour drive to South Carolina. She was not fully potty trained at that point, so we had her in pull-ups for the trip, we stopped every 2 hours for a short potty break. She had one 'accident' in her pull-up due to us not being able to find a rest stop quick enough. Since your trip is significantly less, I would say go for the underwear & stop every 2 hours. I too bought the 'pad' for my daughter's car seat which works great! If you want to stop less frequently then 2 hours, and use a pull-up, you could be back tracking from the progress you've made. Good luck & enjoy the trip!!
Pull-ups and stop every hour, make him go or at least try when you stop. We used the symbol fade ones, that if they get wet the cute little heart disappeared, it was a game with my daughter to see if her hearts were still there in the mornings/ when we stopped at rest stops.
Our daughter is 100% potty trained during the day, but can't always make it through the night. When we have long car rides (more than just a couple of hours) we put her in her overnight pants just in case. We do our best to stop frequently and stop when she says she needs to, but sometimes we just can't get off the expressway fast enough. Using the overnight pants helps keep everybody calm! She doesn't like going in them when she's awake, but that's better than her getting upset because she peed in her panties/pants/car seat.
I discovered the answer to this in an interesting way. Tara was dry consistently while awake and had been for many many months. But I was going to my in laws and she would be coming home and falling asleep on the way, so I had put a diaper in the car to bring with.
Well, we are on the interstate, middle lane and an accident happens a bit ahead. Cars are not moving. For an hour. We are stuck, can't move at all, not over to the shoulder, not to an exit - seriously stuck. And Tara tells me she has to pee. I tell her to hold it. Fine. Half an hour later she says she REALLY has to go. So I got her out of her carseat, had her come up to me and I put the diaper on her. I told her to pee in it. She did. Then I took it off and buckled her back up in her carseat.
From then on I kept a spare diaper in her size in my purse (ok, I don't use a purse so in the coat jacket, her baby sister's diaper bag, in the trunk of the car or the fanny pac - you get the idea). It was great to pull it out and pop it on in situations like that. She did NOT wear the diaper for any amount of time, it was purely in an emergency it was put on her then immediately removed after it was used.
