Looking for advice from families that went with newly potty trained children.

[CassInChicago]

Hi, We will be at WDW over Thanksgiving break with our 7 and 3.5 year old. The youngest is just now getting potty trained but still has accidents every other day. I am a little worried about not having her in a pull up while we are there because when the little ones have to go, they HAVE to go and I can just see things getting hairy if we are in line for a ride and she's gotta go. Right now she fights to have a pull up on because she wants to have her "big girl undies" when she goes to bed so I can just imagine how she will resist a pull up during the day. How have you handled this with your newly potty trained child? Are the bathrooms so plentiful that I can zip her in a bathroom before every ride? I haven't been to Disney World in over 20 years and I can only imagine it's much different now. TIA for the advice.

 

[Caseheidi]

We took our little one about 5 weeks after she was potty trained. TBH I used pull ups when in the parks. Dumbo was the only line where she had an accident, but so worth having that pull up so she could safely go. She wanted to wear her panties, but I just explained it to her and told her she had no other option. I also emphasized that we could change her back to her panties when we got back to where we were staying, and that made her happy. After the first day, I think she was just so tired that she didn't care that they were pull ups.

I did increase how often we visited the rest rooms while there. My biggest issue (and still to this day at age 7) were the auto flushing toilets. They scare her something fierce. I read somewhere on a Disney Board about carrying post it note to cover the "eye" so it will not flush until I take it off. We called it the "magic paper" and used it for a few years. Now she finally trusts me to hold my hand over it until she is done. I also scout out the restrooms with Manuel flushing toilets (found most of the Baby care bathrooms work) so it was easier. In fact, using the baby care center for newly potty trained kids is my preference. The bathrooms are so busy and loud, it just makes it a little scary for them, and the one in the baby care center was blissfully peaceful for her.

 

[WooPigScientist]

We went in January after my daughter had potty trained in August. We only used pull-ups at night (which was what we were still doing at home), and had ZERO accidents the whole 9 days we were there. A lot can change in a few months, so I wouldn't be fretting too much yet.

We took frequent bathroom breaks (with the rule that EVERYONE goes, whether they think they need to or not), and I brought an extra change of clothes in a ziplock bag in my backpack. I was a little worried about accidents too, but she was a trooper.

I would be hesitant to reintroduce pull-ups during the day if you've stopped that at home - it makes me nervous that they will backslide in any progress made. But daytime pull-ups never worked for us anyways because my kids just treated them like diapers. Very expensive diapers. So your experience may be different.

If you have the chance before your trip to do a trial run at a nearby theme park, zoo, or anything similar, I would absolutely suggest that. It will give you a really good idea of how she'll handle it. My concern was that my daughter would get so caught up in everything Disney that she'd just not notice until it was too late. We got the chance to go to an aquarium/activity center very shortly after she potty trained, and I realized that she could absolutely handle it as long as I scheduled breaks every couple hours.

 

[Chucky!]

If it were me an she was 4 or nearly 4 and 6mths potty trained, I wouldn't not reintroduce pull ups, that is not behaviour I would want to be encouraging (my children just used them as diapers as opposed to like undies) You will probably find that by November she will be very reliably trained.

As a previous poster said. Ensure there are regular bathroom breaks and everyone goes or whenever someone else in the family goes, everyone goes.
My DD was just shy of 3 and had been trained for about 4mths when we were at WDW. At times she was resistant to go if she didn't need to. I told her if she didn't go when I asked her and the she suddenly needed to go when we were in a line that she would miss out on the ride so I could take her to the toilet.

In the end I had to follow through on that one for my 6year old and he missed out on Magic Carpets, after that I had no arguments about going when mum said.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Hi, We will be at WDW over Thanksgiving break with our 7 and 3.5 year old. The youngest is just now getting potty trained but still has accidents every other day. I am a little worried about not having her in a pull up while we are there because when the little ones have to go, they HAVE to go and I can just see things getting hairy if we are in line for a ride and she's gotta go. Right now she fights to have a pull up on because she wants to have her "big girl undies" when she goes to bed so I can just imagine how she will resist a pull up during the day. How have you handled this with your newly potty trained child? Are the bathrooms so plentiful that I can zip her in a bathroom before every ride? I haven't been to Disney World in over 20 years and I can only imagine it's much different now. TIA for the advice.

there are plenty of bathrooms but all have loud auto flushes which a lot of kids have trouble even with a post it note over their flusher as ones in other stalls flush. last time we had the potty training time at Disney the bathroom at baby center did not have the auto flusher but are not easy to get to from most rides esp if in a hurry. if you haven't used yet be sure to intro those before you arrive at Disney. a lot will change by November but something I would do if child is still having accidents. I would put pull up over the underwear that way child still feels the underwear but not the mess to clean up

 

[Mousemommy1]

On our 1st trip with our girls, they were 3 and 5. The 3 yr old was just potty trained. We still did pull ups in the park, but made sure to go potty before hopping into a line though and she didn't have any accidents. She still used pull ups at night for about a year after being potty trained.

 

[DisneyChris2016]

You know your daughter best, but I would say that by November, she will probably be fine. My youngest had just turned 4 when we went the first time, and we didn't have any issues. You just have to remember that she will probably be overwhelmed with everything going on and will not tell you she has to go (until she HAS to go!). If you notice you are passing by a bathroom and she hasn't gone in over an hour, have her try. If you are about to get in a long line, take a bathroom break first. As you well know, you can't MAKE her go, just make sure you give her lots of chances and maybe a small reward if she is successful.

And if November comes and she is still having accidents, I would just make the bathroom breaks more frequent (check the maps and build them right into your itinerary if you have to). Personally, I would try to avoid reverting to the pull-ups, but you will know when the time comes what you need to do. Good luck!

 

[Thing 1]

Six months is a long time away, especially for a child. At 3ish now, I would expect, baring any specific issues, she will be completely trained. I would work hard at that goal now. There are lots of thoughts and ideas on potty training and some take a long time and others happen very quickly. Knowing that the trip is coming up, I would work hard to get her completely trained before then. Bed time is a whole different ball game where the child has way less control. If your child is not completely dry at night, I would certainly use pull ups for bedtime at WDW. Just not worth the issues of a wet bed on vacation. I would do everything possible to avoid putting her back in pull ups during the day at WDW.

 

[1983disneykid]

I really think by November you will be fine (unless your child has developmental delay difficulties). We used our trip to potty train our oldest (point out that if she wanted to ride big girl rides, she needed to tell us when she needed to go potty). We were down to one accident a week in late May and took her without any worries in July. (We were also going on the cruise and she couldn't go in the pools unless she was fully potty trained.)

But, I would ask her before almost every ride if she needed to go, and we went to a bathroom every 1.5 hours anyway. Epcot bathrooms are everywhere, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are very short walks, Animal Kingdom probably has the longest number of steps between bathrooms. The longest journey we experienced without bathrooms was the bus rides. I did always have a spare set of clothes for her and we were still using pull-ups at night.

 

[CassInChicago]

We took our little one about 5 weeks after she was potty trained. TBH I used pull ups when in the parks. Dumbo was the only line where she had an accident, but so worth having that pull up so she could safely go. She wanted to wear her panties, but I just explained it to her and told her she had no other option. I also emphasized that we could change her back to her panties when we got back to where we were staying, and that made her happy. After the first day, I think she was just so tired that she didn't care that they were pull ups.

I did increase how often we visited the rest rooms while there. My biggest issue (and still to this day at age 7) were the auto flushing toilets. They scare her something fierce. I read somewhere on a Disney Board about carrying post it note to cover the "eye" so it will not flush until I take it off. We called it the "magic paper" and used it for a few years. Now she finally trusts me to hold my hand over it until she is done. I also scout out the restrooms with Manuel flushing toilets (found most of the Baby care bathrooms work) so it was easier. In fact, using the baby care center for newly potty trained kids is my preference. The bathrooms are so busy and loud, it just makes it a little scary for them, and the one in the baby care center was blissfully peaceful for her.

Thanks! I will definitely look for the baby care restrooms. She hates the auto flush too and won't even sit down until I have covered "the scary eyes" as she calls them with my hand.

 

[CassInChicago]

You know your daughter best, but I would say that by November, she will probably be fine. My youngest had just turned 4 when we went the first time, and we didn't have any issues. You just have to remember that she will probably be overwhelmed with everything going on and will not tell you she has to go (until she HAS to go!). If you notice you are passing by a bathroom and she hasn't gone in over an hour, have her try. If you are about to get in a long line, take a bathroom break first. As you well know, you can't MAKE her go, just make sure you give her lots of chances and maybe a small reward if she is successful.

And if November comes and she is still having accidents, I would just make the bathroom breaks more frequent (check the maps and build them right into your itinerary if you have to). Personally, I would try to avoid reverting to the pull-ups, but you will know when the time comes what you need to do. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I am hesitant about reverting to pull ups too. My son had accidents long after he was "fully trained" but hoping she has more control than he did.

 

[CassInChicago]

there are plenty of bathrooms but all have loud auto flushes which a lot of kids have trouble even with a post it note over their flusher as ones in other stalls flush. last time we had the potty training time at Disney the bathroom at baby center did not have the auto flusher but are not easy to get to from most rides esp if in a hurry. if you haven't used yet be sure to intro those before you arrive at Disney. a lot will change by November but something I would do if child is still having accidents. I would put pull up over the underwear that way child still feels the underwear but not the mess to clean up

Great idea about the underwear under the pullup!

 

[disney world dreamer]

my whole family child or adult tends to need to pee frequently and we have never found it difficult to find a bathroom when we need it.
there's practically a bathroom around every corner lol.

we took my niece at 2yrs4mos when she had just been potty trained and she did not have any accidents because we took her to the bathroom often.
although she had only had a couple accidents to begin with (she took to the toilet like a fish to water)

your trip is still about 5-1/2 months away so she may very well no longer have accidents by that time.
however if you find that she is there's a chance you can easily convince her to wear a pull up by letting her know that when you're going to get on a ride there's not going to be a potty for a while.
heck even buy her some panties that can fit over the pull ups if that would more easily convince her.

if there is no convincing her then just be sure to go to the bathroom before getting into a long line.
and make it known to her that she WILL be TRYING every time.

 

[NKHarris329]

We went this past spring with our recently potty trained 2.5 year old. We used pull ups during the day because she would have fallen into the "There is so much to see and do..... Oops!" camp. However your child may not (you know her best). If you decide against the pull up route, there are training pants that are thicker (some are also made with PUL material) that will absorb more moisture and keep the wetness in.

Despite the pull ups we did potty breaks every 1-2 hours (depending on how much we had to drink). Everyone had to try even if they didn't have to go. There were a number of bathrooms, everywhere we went. The one long walk to the potty we had, was when I overlooked a bathroom sign. We weren't accident free, but we had no more than we normally do at home.

 

[lorenni]

Hi, We will be at WDW over Thanksgiving break with our 7 and 3.5 year old. The youngest is just now getting potty trained but still has accidents every other day. I am a little worried about not having her in a pull up while we are there because when the little ones have to go, they HAVE to go and I can just see things getting hairy if we are in line for a ride and she's gotta go. Right now she fights to have a pull up on because she wants to have her "big girl undies" when she goes to bed so I can just imagine how she will resist a pull up during the day. How have you handled this with your newly potty trained child? Are the bathrooms so plentiful that I can zip her in a bathroom before every ride? I haven't been to Disney World in over 20 years and I can only imagine it's much different now. TIA for the advice.

My advice would be that if you have any doubt at all then put her in a pull up. One of our hands down worst experiences was a boy who peed his pants on the way down a slide in the dinoland playground, with my son sliding down right behind him. The mom was completely unapologetic and completely prepared - she immediately whipped out a full change of clothes for him and jokingly talked to a family member about how he never wants to stop playing but will go in his pants instead.

Meanwhile I have a fully potty trained 2.5 year old with someone else's piss all over his pants, no change of clothes and not a single store in AK that sold shorts in his size. One of the stores comped us a pair of size 4/5 shorts after hearing our story and watching my son apologize over and over about having wet his pants and ask me at the same time how his pants got wet because he didn't go potty?!?!? He was so confused.

Flame away, but I thought what that mom did was really selfish. If she knew her kid was prone to accidents, then he should have been in a pull up.

 

[Zoesmama03]

My dd's first trip she was potty training. She wore a pull up and didn't really mind. Maybe you can get her to agree to wearing a pull up over the top of her big girl pants.

 

[writermommy6]

Everyone has given you great advice and I would like to say even now with teenagers and my youngest being 9 years old we still have the "if one person goes we all go, whether you think you need to or not" rule. People think I'm crazy but those are the same people who have their own 9-12 year old have to pee the moment we're in the middle of a theme park ride.

 

[poosiegirl]

We took my (then) almost 3 year daughter after she was newly potty trained. She didn't like the auto-flush toilets, but the bigger issue was how loud the bathrooms were. I covered the sensor on the toilet she was using but all the other ones flushing freaked her out. What eventually worked was the week before the trip I took her to every public restroom within a 5 mile radius of the house in order to desensitize her a bit to the noise. I told her to cover her ears and I took care of everything for her while we were in the parks. We also took the full size potty seat (the travel wasn't sturdy enough for her at that point). The security guards at bag check got a chuckle every morning over that!

And we stopped at the bathrooms a lot. Every 45 minutes to an hour I think. But it worked she made it through the 10 day trip with no accidents. We also follow the everyone goes rule at the same time rule.

 

[MeghanG855]

My daughter is potty training right now too. We have these training underwear (I think Gerber makes them) that I have her wear if we're going to be out for a long time...they are a little padded so if she pees a little in them it won't go thru and ruin her outfit...I can then just bag up the underwear and give her new ones. If we are still having issues with PTing when we go to Disney then I plan on packing them.

 

[dislover8943]

Always keep a diaper handy incase you can't make it to the bathroom In time. It's easy to slide it on real quick