Potty training at Disney World

[judypriv]

OK, I need some advice on this one! My son is 3 1/2 and has finally decided to potty train. We're OK with pee-pee but he still poops his pants almost every day. He is wearing (and loving) his underwear and has maybe one accident a day. He's only been doing this about 2 weeks. We have had our trip planned and I am not sure what to do. We're old hats at disney (this is his 7th trip, my 37th) so I know about the bathrooms, baby center, etc...

I am not sure what to about diapers. I really don't want him back in diapers all day long, even pull ups, when he is doing well and wants to be in big boy underpants. I fear putting him back in diapers for the trip will cause him to backslide. I'm not thrilled at the idea of him having accidents or a poop accident while on rides either but I am thinking I should suck it up and do the underpants for his own good. I work full time and he does the bathroom best with me (I work at it the most) so since I am going to be with him 24/10 I figure this is also a good time to work with him. He has been saying he wants to tell "Buzz" about his "big boy underpants."

My husband (who's not going this time, he's going to Superbowl) says just put him back in the pull ups and still work on the training but other mom's have told me it's not a good idea to put him back in diapers.

Any ideas? suggestions? tips? experiences?
thanks so much!

Judy

I was hoping he would be trained long ago and when he wasn't, I figured I would wait until we came back to work with him and he decided he wanted to do this himself just before our trip! Go figure!

 

[Mrs D]

OK, I need some advice on this one! My son is 3 1/2 and has finally decided to potty train. We're OK with pee-pee but he still poops his pants almost every day. He is wearing (and loving) his underwear and has maybe one accident a day. He's only been doing this about 2 weeks. We have had our trip planned and I am not sure what to do. We're old hats at disney (this is his 7th trip, my 37th) so I know about the bathrooms, baby center, etc...

I am not sure what to about diapers. I really don't want him back in diapers all day long, even pull ups, when he is doing well and wants to be in big boy underpants. I fear putting him back in diapers for the trip will cause him to backslide. I'm not thrilled at the idea of him having accidents or a poop accident while on rides either but I am thinking I should suck it up and do the underpants for his own good. I work full time and he does the bathroom best with me (I work at it the most) so since I am going to be with him 24/10 I figure this is also a good time to work with him. He has been saying he wants to tell "Buzz" about his "big boy underpants."

My husband (who's not going this time, he's going to Superbowl) says just put him back in the pull ups and still work on the training but other mom's have told me it's not a good idea to put him back in diapers.

Any ideas? suggestions? tips? experiences?
thanks so much!

Judy

I was hoping he would be trained long ago and when he wasn't, I figured I would wait until we came back to work with him and he decided he wanted to do this himself just before our trip! Go figure!

How long before your trip?

I'm not sure I agree that putting him in pullups will cause him to backslide. But if he's wanting to tell Buzz about his Big Boy underwear I would take that pretty seriously too!

Do he poop at the same time everyday? Are they solid or kinda squishy? I'm just wondering what you'd do with soiled underpants (and possibly pants too) for hours without it really stinking? DD's are little balls and could easily be dumped into a toilet but NO WAY with my DS's. I know even if I had DS's in a ziplock bag "I" would still be able to smell it (even if no one else could).

Only suggestion I could make is perhaps trying to get him to ask to put on a pullup to poop in. Either that or really cheap undies you don't mind throwing away.

to you! Have a great trip!

 

[crisi]

I'd put him back in pullups - which is what we did with my son. I don't think he'll backslide - in fact, I think it will spur him to "prove" to you he can be a big boy and not have any accidents.

Feces accidents in a public place are a bad thing - harborers of all sorts of disease - and a lot of kids at Disney are immunosupressed.

(Neither of my kids trained until 3 1/2. They are perfectly normal 10 and 11 year olds now and the stress of those days are a distant memory - you'll get through this.)

 

[MSSANDRA]

Try putting the pull up on over the underwear. He would still feel the same but save lots of trouble in the park!

If you choose to just use underwear I would take lots of extra (cheapest you can find) and just trash the poop ones!!!

 

[MarriedToAPrince]

I am very curious to see the responses as well because my DD has been doing the potty for about a week. She wears panties all day, but I still put pull-ups on her to go out. We still call them panties. She does pee in those. She only has accidents sometimes, but she still isn't pooping on the potty. I am hoping by the time we are planning to go she will have it down, but what if she doesn't? I would hate to have to take 5 or 6 pairs of undies and 5 or 6 pairs of extra shorts into the parks with us. That is too much junk to take! LOL

 

[blessedby3]

I am on day 2 of potty training my 26 month old. She is doing fairly well as long as I take her to the potty often. I bought her panties, but also the plastic pants to go over top of them. I think Gerber makes them. That way they will hold in most any accident she would have. I was going to suggest plutting the plastic pants over his underwear, or a pull up over them as a pp suggested. I feel for you. My DS- now 14- didnt train until he was 3 1/2. I couldnt believe we could have full blown conversations about putting his pee and poo in the potty, and he wouldnt go
I thought he would be going to school in a diaper
Maybe your ds will come a long way in a short time and start pooping on the potty too, before your soon to be trip

 

[skyman8963]

thanks for the post, I am having the same issues. my 3 1/2 year old is in the same boat yours is. I honestly believe putting him back in pull ups will not be an issue, we had done this with our 7 yr old when he was that age when we went to DW. Better to be safe than sorry. He did great about letting us know when he had to go. i am sure you still have a little time before you go, so just keep his spirits high and tell him how proud you ar of him. I think our 3 yr old got into a competition with our puppy to see who would be house broken first, so far the child is winning.

 

[MSMomTJ]

My 2 year-old (close to 3 year-old) was doing great at potty training a few months ago, but now she won't tee-tee in the potty. When we decided earlier in the month that we were going to Disney in March, we decided that we weren't going to bother with potty training until we get back from DWD. If she wants to use the potty, we let her, but we're just not going to push it at all. I told her babysitter the plan, so she's not pushing it either. When we get back, we'll start working on again. So, I guess it's a "good thing" that she regressed a bit on her own???

 

[J3nn78]

I would stick with the underwear. Pull ups are simply over priced diapers. I refused to use them on either of my boys and they trained very quickly.



I would just bring lots of extra underwear and plan for an occasional accident. Get the thicker training underwear.

We went last August when my youngest had only been PTd for about a month. He did just fine. I expected accidents, but there were none, we just made sure we got him to the bathroom very often

 

[mjkacmom]

I am very curious to see the responses as well because my DD has been doing the potty for about a week. She wears panties all day, but I still put pull-ups on her to go out. We still call them panties. She does pee in those. She only has accidents sometimes, but she still isn't pooping on the potty. I am hoping by the time we are planning to go she will have it down, but what if she doesn't? I would hate to have to take 5 or 6 pairs of undies and 5 or 6 pairs of extra shorts into the parks with us. That is too much junk to take! LOL

Just so you know, half of my kids pee trained before they were poop trained, and needed a diaper/pullup to poop in (they would ask, or put them on). Ds11 did this for an entire year. It's pretty common (which I learned on the internet - people tend not to discuss this IRL, although ds11's bff had the same issue).

OP, how about a pullup over (old) underwear?

 

[vettechick99]

DD has pee-trained, but not poop-trained. She will tell me she needs a pull-up or diaper but also runs to the potty when she needs to pee. I don't know what to do, so I have no advice except to keep doing what you are doing. Put him in a pull-up and still go potty for peeing so you don't break that rhythm.

GL!

 

[Microcell]

Ok.. How about this..

I vote for pullups too because of the feces mess factor, but explain you know what a big boy he is and that he almost never has accidents, but it is a big park and you wanna be sure he doesn't feel bad if he can't make it to the bathroom!

Then when you get to Buzz.. fawn all over your DS and tell Buzz what a big boy he is and that he has big boy underwear!

I also got to the point where I could tell when they would poop, so if you can guess for a poop free couple of hours to meet Buzz he can be wearing big boy underwear.. tee hee my 11 year old still goes right at dinner time! LOL!

 

[lecach]

Well I wont win any Mom of the year awards, but when we took DS for his first trip right at that age and potty stage, I told him the week before we went that Mickey did not like it when little boys pooped their pants. Darn if he didnt start pooping in the potty . He didnt have a single accident of any kind the whole week at Disney.

Now one night we got to the parking lot and he suddenly had to pee - so we took him over to the grass and then poured some water over it

 

[Microcell]

Pee is good fertalizer!

I will say that DD was told that she couldn't go to preschool unless she was potty trained, and it was at that age, and she stopped too. Might be worth a try!

 

[Syrreal]

DS is a bit younger than yours, but we had a similar issue back in November. We decided, last minute, to just put him back in pull ups. I wish I never had. He completely backslid and then it took almost a month to get him back to where he was (almost no accidents, etc). In hindsight I should have just done what I had initially planned and just carried around 4 or 5 changes of clothes in a backpack. It would have been a pain, but worth it in the long run. Then again, that trip was full of "Griswalds" like forgetting the stroller at home (not realizing it until we got to the airport 1.5 hours away) and losing the keys to the rental car.

We have the poop in the pants issue here too. If you could just throw them out in the toilet, then you could just put the dirty underwear in a ziplock or a plastic bag or whatever. If they are not, you may be able, after wiping as much as you can off with paper/wipes, to rinse them out in one of the bathroom sinks (I do this at home, but haven't had to do it elsewhere yet). If you choose this, though, make sure that you bring clorox wipes or something antibacterial like that to wipe down the sink after you're done (and make sure you have those wipes out in the open so you don't get strange looks).

 

[mphalens]

Our last trip DS#1 was at that exact same stage... he was almost there, but we'd have a poop or a pee accident here and there...
I would start him out in underware in the morning and I had a COMPLETE change of clothes in a gallon size ziploc with me EVERY day. Inside the gallon size ziploc I also had 2 quart size ziplocs that had either underwear or a pull up.
1st accident -he'd get changed and the soiled clothes would go in the gallon size bag... if it was a poop accident, I threw the underwear away if it was a "mushy" poop and didn't roll right off, kwim?
2nd accident (of which he only had ONE in a week and it was because we were in the MIDDLE of the line for Winnie the Pooh and he THOUGHT he could hold it -he'd get the pull up ...

We did LOTS of bathroom stops ... and he was so proud of himself when he didn't have ANY accidents

 

[tartemis]

I agree that pullups are glorified diapers and there really isn't a point to them.

But, from a public health standpoint, if he is having poo accidents everyday, I don't really think it is fair to just let him have an accident everyday somewhere at Disney, without taking some sort of precaution. My suggestion would be the plastic pants over the underwear. That way, you don't risk regression, but you know that you won't have to deal with some embarassing scenario where your son accidently soiled the seat on a ride with another person waiting.

Good luck!

 

[Erin1700]

I have to agree with the others...you can not have him exposing others to his poop accidents.

Buy pullups with Disney characters on them and tell them they are Disney undies and that is what kids who are his age wear at Disney.

 

[taitai]

Use cloth training pants. That way, you have the waterproof, leak protection of a pull-up but since they look and feel just like underwear, you won't need to worry about your child regressing in their potty learning. Imse Vimse makes some great ones
http://www.cottontailbaby.com/item_40/Imse-Vimse-Training-Pants.htm as does Happy Heiny's
http://www.cottontailbaby.com/item_576/Happy-Heiny-Pocket-Trainer.htm

You could try the Gerber plastic pants but I think those are rather cheap and are prone to leak. I would do some dry runs at home in those before doing them at Disney.

Have a great trip!

 

[Jiminy'sGirl]

This is tough. I've potty trained two kids now and I am not 100% sure what I would do in this situation!! But I don't think you're going to be able to carry around a poopy pair of undies all day, and pitching them in a trash can day after day seems kind of cruel to the maintenance staff! HHmmmm.. How about putting on the pull ups and then a pair of big boy pants over it?

OR

My kids never used pull ups... We went straight to underpants and dealt with accidents for a few days because i wanted to the truly feel what it wa slike to be wet, dirty. SO, I could've told them the pull ups were special "vacation underpants" and totally gotten away with it.

How far off is your trip? Since training is HIS idea, he will probably train super quickly. I waited until my kids told me they wanted to train and it took my son abour 4 days and my DD maybe 2.

Good luck!