A 24-hour drive with potty training twins?!? Am I crazy?

[molly2004]

So we are planning to drive to WDW in January. The twins will be a month shy of their 3rd b-day. I had been counting on the fact that boys train later than girls so never really worried about potty training for our trip.

In the last 2 weeks, their interest has piqued! One has decided he wants to hang out on his potty so he's taking it upon himself to start trying. Kudos to him :, I say. Then the thought of driving !!!

What would you do? Unless SWA comes out with some amazing dings, we won't be able to fly. Would you cancel and delay your trip? How would you handle it?

 

[Ariel8676]

First i just wanted to say WTG big boy!!!!!
Second..since you have 5 months i think you will be ok. I definitely wouldn't cancel.
I would take the potty and put in in the car with you, and if they arent REALLY using the potty all the time maybe use pull ups for the ride. I know a lot of people don't like them, but we used them to help with the process of potty training with my older 2 girls. They were both trained in a few days and never really had any accidents. We had them(pull ups), but told them they were undies and (they had the princess' on them) the princess' would get upset if they got wet and we would have to throw them in the garbage. So we used them like regular undies, but if they did have an accident at least their car seats weren't soaked.
Good Luck..everything will be fine..don't stress yourself out about this!!!!

 

[JERSEYGIRLINSI]

Well my little darling ds(29months) has been on the potty with a #2 since 16 months . He's very unique, however this was the extent of the potty training. I had in vain tried to explain to him the concept of the #1 potty event, but he wasn't feeling this idea at all! So I was happy with not having to clean poop off of him , and waited for him to get the whole other half of potty training . (FORWARD TO LAST WEEK)
Last week on a Tuesday, my ds comes to me in that monotone little sqeak of a voice and announces potty, so I go with him to the potty...and Thank You Jesus...he gets it! . We have had exactly 2 wet pairs of undearwear since then. So it is safe to say we are pretty much trained now. But, there's our trip in less then 30 days...what do I do? Well I thought I would put the pull-up on him, and see if he would still tell me when he had to go to the potty....AND HE DID! So, this is what I will be doing. Unless he decides that he doesn't want to put the pull ups back on between now and then.
F.Y.I.-There is like 20 trips to the bathroom in a day. I think in time he will learn to hold on to let out a long full stream instead of a lot of half streams
But Thank God for overcoming Little Hurdles GOOD LUCK!

 

[molly2004]

Thanks for your responses! My major concern is having to stop every half hour. Is it practical for a roadtrip? I don't think you can NOT stop while you're training, right? If they wanna go, you have to give them the opportunity. DS #1 may be okay by the time we go if he keeps it up (so to speak ). But DS #2 isn't at all interested now and it may be that he'll just be starting by the time we go.

I don't think it's practical for us to keep a potty in the car because it will be January and we're driving from Boston. And we have station wagon, not a mini van so we can't just pull over and let him sit on the potty. The back tailgate would have to be open and he'll freeze before he'll potty.

Should we still try to roadtrip? What would YOU do?

 

[KristiKelly]

I would continue with the trip as planned & the potty training. Our DS, potty trained @ 2 years 1 month, (that was July) we went to WDW in Oct and had no problems whatsoever. We did fly, not drive, but by that time he was able to recognize the urge and let us know in time to get to a bathroom. For your DS that shows no interest, I would continue to work with him until a month or so before the trip, then I would just wait until after.

With my 2 older kids, DS trained at 2 yrs., 1 mo, and was completely trained in 1 week. I was very impressed since he's a boy.

DD, on the other hand, was our more difficult one to potty train. It took her 4-5 weeks to train.

I always used the cotton training pants with them but on road trips or bedtime, I would use Pull-Ups.

Good Luck!!!

 

[ckoncurat]

I've never had problems with putting pullups on any of my potty-training kids on a long drive. Train until your ready to go, use pullups for the trip (but take your boys to the potty regularly), then switch back to underwear when you get home. If you don't make it a big deal, neither will they. The reality is, rest stops are not always gonna be available when you need them. I've potty trained five girls, and with all of mine, it took a few months till THEY were mentally ready to stay completely dry. I've also been suprised on vacations before at how well they really did! Just take it at their pace.
Good Luck

 

[bartleby1]

First, definitely put a small potty in the car. I keep one in my car at all times, just in case. In an emergency, it is better for him to squish on the floor of the front or back seat, or even have to use it outside in the cold than not to have it. We had an incident with our DD when she was 3-1/2 coming home from disney. She had been fully potty trained for a year, but came down with a bad case of diarrhea in bumper to bumper traffic with road construction barriers on both sides of us. Thank goodness we had the potty! I line it with plastic bags and open a diaper up and place it inside to absorb the mess.

Second, you have quite a bit of time for them to get the hang of it. In my experience, when a kid is ready, it will happen almost overnight. DS announced he was finally ready to train two or three days before we drove down from NJ to disney (we had been working on it but he showed very little progress until I backed off and told him to let me know when he was ready). I SOOOO did not want him to decide he was ready right before we left for vacation, lol! But, he did great. I did keep pull-ups on him for the trip, but we put them OVER his underwear. That way, he knew he still couldn't use them out of convenience but we were still protected from accidents. (Someone here gave me that advice!!) He didn't have a single daytime accident the whole trip!

Otherwise, don't sweat it. I few set backs on vacation will not harm them. Wait and see how they are doing when it gets closer to the trip and use a pull up if you have to, just explain that it is just for the trip in case you can't find a bathroom quick enough. Like I said, using a pull up over regular undies worked great for us.

Good luck!

 

[lauritagoddess]

I'd just put pull-ups on them for the drive and make frequent stops. My DS had been fully trained for several months for our trip in March and I still had him wear a pull-up on the flights up and down and at night in WDW just in case. I just told him that was the rule, when you're 3 and you go to WDW you have to wear a pull-up on the airplane and at night. He never questioned it.

 

[liznboys]

I'd just put pull-ups on them for the drive and make frequent stops. My DS had been fully trained for several months for our trip in March and I still had him wear a pull-up on the flights up and down and at night in WDW just in case. I just told him that was the rule, when you're 3 and you go to WDW you have to wear a pull-up on the airplane and at night. He never questioned it.

I agree with this. I also think it won't be as complicated as you're anticipating. Just go with the "flow" I'll be potty training my 2 yr old soon, and on our trip next March I'll have him wear pull-ups sometimes JUST in case. I did this with my others and it was fine-they never once wet the pull-ups btw. I would try to budget in flying though if you can for overall ease.

 

[3littleHalls]

BRU has little port-a-potties which are the size of a plate(if that) and the legs fold down. We keep ours in the van. We have traveled many times while potty training. We stop every three hours get out, run around, and go potty...equals a 10 min stop. We have yet to hear our kids say we have to go now! And it doesn't really add that much to the length of the trip. If you don't trust that then I wouldn't reccomend having a bottomless sippy cup, keep it limited to meals and snacks. Have a great trip! You still have plenty of time to get them trained.

 

[mlacreta]

We were originally planning on driving down for our sept. trip with me, dh, dsitter, dts 7, dd 4, and ds 17months. Yep that was gonna be one loaded minivan! But just weeks ago we got a great deal from SW 135 - RT. Not sure what part of new england you are from but that is from NH. So keep your eyes out! you may get a last minute deal. if you end up driving you might consider doing what we had planned....start right before bedtime so for atleast the first 12 hours (or so) the kiddos will sleep and no stops will be needed! Goodluck!

 

[martyshoney]

I was just wondering when you were heading out that way! We will be bringing my daughter for her 5th birthday and she can't wait!

 

[Daydreamer64]

WELL, ahh, maybe you could use my emergency potty- it's worked more then one time for us .

I'm the oldest of 18 kids ( adopted ) and my Mom had a neat trick! She rinsed out plastic coke bottles with the replaceable ( I'm sure that scr** top will be deleated but you get the idea anyway) tops- she put a little blue dye in the bottle and closed it. When the traffic was stopped or the facilities were closed or questionable she got a bottle and - well have your little one ( boys only ! ) aim, and make the blue turn green - then the best part is to put the top back on and dump the now green water down the potty when you can find an open bathroom. Gross- yes but a life saver if you are out of pull-ups or have a young trained child that just can't wait. Also, the kids are so small they can stand up on the back floorboard in the warm car and do what needs to be done with your help.

 

[WantToGoNow]

We just got back two weeks ago from our first long drive (about 6 hours) since my dd2 potty trained. I can't say I wasn't nervous but she did great. I automatically stopped at EVERY rest area we passed - whether anyone said they had to go or not. She actually thought it was neat using these rest area potty's. We will be driving to Disney in November - 16+ hours. I'm not looking forward to the drive but I'm not so worried about my dd -- she will be 3 weeks short of her 3rd birthday and will have been trained for just under a year then.

 

[crl]

My DD potty trained in Jan and we wento to WDW in Feb of that year. We did the pull ups as undies and for us it worked great since we normally do cloth diapers. You could always get the gerber training undies which absorb a little then use the pull on covers by gerber to keep it all waterproof. As for the car ride, I got an inflateble potty from onestepahead.com for the car. Then you'd have a potty seat for in between exits on the highway if you needed it. I think you'd be fine.