travel tips with a PTed child

[i.<3.cheesysmiles]

We are making our first daytime long trip (4-5 hours with just a short stop) tomorrow. Inthe past, we've done this with children in diapers, so it wasn't a big deal.

Now, we have a child who is PTed. How do I handle this? Bathrooms in rest areas are disgusting. Do I bring Lysol wipes? DO I just bring a little seat? Do I bring anything?? I hate the idea of him sitting on a public toilet. Plus, he fears them.

Also, any idea of how often I should make stops? DS doesnt usually tell us when he has to go until he HAS to go lol. He will be wearing his fleece underwear, so if he has an accident, that will help. I know we'll be making lots of stops for bathroom and jus to stretch, so I know it will take longer.

ETA: also anyone have some entertainment ideas?? I also have a 21 month old. no dvd player or any kind of electronics

[MommyShannon]

I take a small potty with us. We cloth diaper so I just put a diaper or prefold in it to avoid spills. I wipe it with chlorox wipes after. We just stop often (2-3 hours). My kids tend to hold their pee a long time in the car without trouble.

[pepperlru]

We did an 8 hour trip with a newly PTed one this summer. I definitely brought our little potty seat (the small Bjorn one), and she mostly used that when we stopped (she was afraid of public restrooms, too). We made sure to stop often, even if it was just the side of the road to give her a chance to go. I think we stopped around once per hour. The other thing I did was to lay a disposable waterproof "chukka" pad in her carseat, just in case -- so if she had an accident, I could change her clothes (and I also did have a change of clothes handy so I didn't have to rifle through the luggage in the back) but her seat wouldn't be wet. That came in really handy for our only mishap, when we got stuck in traffic on the highway with no way to pull off and all of a sudden she HAD to go.
I had the chukka pads already because they were handouts from the hospital when my older dd had surgery, but I think you can buy them at the drugstore next to the adult incontinence pads. Or you could use one of those small fleece waterproof crib pads, if you have one of those.

[i.<3.cheesysmiles]

great! i will bring the little bjorn seat i have. where did you have them go? i am thinking trunk (I have an suv) but we have lots of luggage..maybe i'll try to pack really light.

I defintely have some water proof liners. I will look for those. And that was a great idea with the PF in the potty to avoid spills. i have lots of those.

[MommyShannon]

We have a minivan and the side seat is moved more to the center so we have a little open space there. I just had them sit there and I blocked them, but really we were always in the middle of nowhere and didn't have any other toilet options. The only issue with prefolds is washing them when you get somewhere, but I've always had one in diapers too so it just went in the wetbag with the baby's diapers. Bigger kids seem to pee more and faster so having something in there that's absorbent just works better if we are stuck with no bathroom and my older kids need to go. They prefer a bathroom, but we can't always get to one driving through rural areas. Of course DH will have DS pee in the woods if we are out in the country too.

[i.<3.cheesysmiles]

we will be traveling in pretty highly-populated areas where even the rest stops are really busy. we are only going for a short time, so the pee-soaked PF-s could just be washed when we get back.

maybe we will actually get off the highway instead of using rest stops...maybe we could find more privacy.

[Babidol]

We did a 6 hour trip right after she PT'd. We did put her in a pull up just in case but she refused to use it. We put the small potty in the car and let her go on there. Just dumped it after she finished. It was only her so we kept the potty on the seat next her and just pulled off at exits and let her go. Good luck!

[3andMe]

I still keep a potty in every car, all the time. For road trips, I keep a potty and wipes and waterproof pads on the floor (under the potty) and plastic bags. You can also buy waterproof pads to fit your car seat. I stop frequently, not just for potty breaks but for running around. 4-5 hours in a car is a long time for a kid, unless we cover a lot of the drive during their normal sleep time. We will often leave at 4 AM just to do a few hours while they're still sleeping. We take a 6 hour trip that usually turns into 10 hours because they need to run around and stretch their legs every hour or so. Also, one of our kids (not naming names) does the "I gotta go!" every exit, and then a few minute wait on the potty, and then can't go, and then after a few miles has to go again.

I really hate potty training. My older ones have been potty trained for more than 2 1/2 years now, and this still happens on this road trip.

ETA: Entertainment ideas for the road include books, books on CD, playing "I Spy" games on the freeway, magnadoodles, puppets and cars, pretty much anything soft or manipulative that they can hold in their laps that don't have little pieces that can get lost, or things they can look for on the road. We try to see who can spot the first tractor that is red, the first blue truck, etc. It's exhausting. And snack.

[Babidol]

LOL. We took a 14 hour car ride this October with my 3 year old and we literally stopped every hour for like 6 hours in a row to "pee". Sometimes she went....sometimes not. I thought my DH was going to explode. I found it more funny than anything.