What do you do with the wee?!

[canichange]

Toilet training my 2 year old. He's fairly good, but I'm struggling a bit when we are out and about. I keep a potty in the boot of the car, but I'm wondering what to do with the wee when he's used it.

I want to buy a travel potty, where the lid seals the wee inside until you get home. My husband says just chuck it in a hedge/down a drain. This is fine if we're out somewhere like a wood, where no one will notice, but not so fine on the school run, where we park and walk in housing estates etc.

Husband says just take a large Tupperware box to tip the wee into for these occasions. I think a proper travel potty would really help.

What does everyone else do?

@Boogaloony

I've had four kids and this was never ever a thing. We took the potty if we were going to nanny's house for the day but toilet training (for dry days) was over and done with after 2-4 weeks. So we just took them out with knickers/undies on and made sure they went the loo/potty before we left. We intentionally stayed local and often had to emergency lo runs half way around Asda but that's just part and parcel of it. If wet knew we were going to be on a long journey or an accident would be unavoidable then we would put a nappy on. The 2 girls were always very quick to it and only had 1-2 accidents but my boys really dragged it out.

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We bought them for my youngest daughters travel sickness and found they could easily double up as an emergency pee bag when we were stuck in a rush lock traffic jam for 3 hours. Just dispose of them as soon as you can. Or go old school and just use a potty and empty it into the grass. Bleach spray and kitchen roll?

Just please don't be one of those parents that whips a potty in the super market/ pub/ school assembly/drs waiting room 🤮

We live 80 miles from where we go shopping so the potty had to come with us. I remember we had a Dodge minivan at the time, so there was lots of space for him to sit on it. Before we got out to go in stores we'd ask if he need to pee. It worked great. We'd pull over somewhere where we could empty it.

My son was 2 years and 2 months old when he was fully potty trained and amazingly never had an accident. I used to have terrible travel sickness and my mum always brought along a big plastic bucket. Even now the smell of a plastic bucket makes me feel sick.

Honestly, I just tip it in the ground but DD can generally hold it so usually only need it for long car journeys (live abroad so usually in the mountains, no indoor toilets available) or the park or whatever. I probably would tip it in a road though if needed.

If my child was ready for potty training I’d expect them to be able to go before leaving on the school run/hold it during that short time.

I think part of potty training is being able to give some notice and wait until at a toilet. If you’re just whipping them onto a potty in the car/on a walk/literally anywhere I’d wonder if they were properly ready.

Chucked it wherever I was. If a dog can pee on the road, so can my kid 😂

Yep we waited until a little later for toilet training but it did mean they were "ready." I can't imagine 2 years of carrying a potty round! We did make sure we used loos before we left etc and did have some outdoor ones on long drives or long walks but not in build up areas.

Some people on here!! Saying they're not toilet trained if they can't go 30 mins.... well sometimes I can't go 30 mins!

To be clear, if the child is telling their parents they want a wee and not doing it in their pants, regardless of how long they've left the house, a min or an hour... THEY ARE TOILET TRAINED!!! However please note the OP said TRAINING not trained! So wind your necks in about him not being ready. Grrrre! Rant over, as you were!

To be clear, if the child is telling their parents they want a wee and not doing it in their pants, regardless of how long they've left the house, a min or an hour... THEY ARE TOILET TRAINED!!!

Well, it really isn’t that ‘clear.’ To me, a child isn’t toilet trained until they can say they need the toilet, wait a short time until they get to one, then handle most of the toileting by themselves with only a little help.

Anything else to me isn’t trained. If a child needs an adult to yank their pants down and quickly hover them over a potty a short period after leaving the house that child isn’t trained in my opinion.

So there’s really no use shouting ‘to be clear this child is toilet trained if they can do xyz.’ It’s subjective.

@alisonsattic

Never used a travel potty, or took one with us. We picked a week to do potty training that was planned in advance that we knew we didn't have to be anywhere. By the end of the week they had almost got it. When we did go out we make sure they went before we left and they managed to hold it in during the short excursion.

If you are going through all the faff of bringing a potty with you on an excursion, well honestly? Your child isn't ready to be toilet trained.

Rubbish. If you’re only doing incredibly short journeys to places with toilets perhaps.

If we go on a walk to our local park with no toilets and she suddenly needed a poo, what would be your suggested course of action? Stay in the house and don’t leave? Some children might be able to hold it long enough but many many others are just learning to recognise the warning signs and can’t hold it as long as would be necessary.

I hate this potty shaking “In my day we dedicated a week and then just never went anywhere”’crap.

Put a disposable nappy in the potty to absorb the wee. Put the wet nappy in a nappy bag and dispose of, as you normally would.

I never whip a potty out in a really public place, like in the middle of a housing estate or in a restaurant.

In my example of the school run, I meant I'd keep the travel potty in the boot, seal it then take it home and chuck it. If he needs a wee on the walk back to the car, we can rush back to the car, do a wee, then seal it up. He's probably be able to hold himself until we got to the car, but not until we got home.

Maybe I'll try the potty, loo roll, bag idea.

Yeah any bush / tree / drain….

And if she does a wee on it in the boot of the car I would literally just dump into on the road as long as it’s just a wee.

I’ve also never whipped out a potty in the middle of a restaurant (I have taken them to restaurants but always carried to the toilets) or in the middle of a gallery or anything, but DD has used one in public loads when on the school run on a patch of grass or behind a tree, I just dumped the wee back onto the grass.

We kept a potty in the boot and DD went in the boot of the car. Sometimes very public places but with me stood in the way it wasn't very visible to others tbf. I just tipped it in the drain by the car tyres, then gave the cheapo b&m £1 potty a baby wipe down and chucked them in a nappy sack/dog poo bag til I got home or found a nearby bin. No one batted an eyelid, other parents did it too.

If we were on a walk we found a bush or public toilet. Never kept the pee, that's quite grim in case it spills.

A friend of mine had boys so used to make them hold a reusable nappy liner up to their bits and pee into that, then shoved it in the bag she still had from her reusable nappies and washed as she normally would for those, or they would pee in a bush which is easier for boys as I would have to lift DD into a flying squat position and try to make her aim away from our feet, until we mastered her holding my hand and leaning back away from me kind of hovering.
I'm glad those days are over now but it wasn't difficult to manage really, you just do what you have to and notice loads of people doing the same. It's like when you keep seeing versions of your own car.

@Kanaloa

To be clear, if the child is telling their parents they want a wee and not doing it in their pants, regardless of how long they've left the house, a min or an hour... THEY ARE TOILET TRAINED!!!

Well, it really isn’t that ‘clear.’ To me, a child isn’t toilet trained until they can say they need the toilet, wait a short time until they get to one, then handle most of the toileting by themselves with only a little help.

Anything else to me isn’t trained. If a child needs an adult to yank their pants down and quickly hover them over a potty a short period after leaving the house that child isn’t trained in my opinion.

So there’s really no use shouting ‘to be clear this child is toilet trained if they can do xyz.’ It’s subjective.

But the school run is often quite a long time? Even if you’re driving it’s drive there, park, drop at school, walk back to car, drive back.. adds up to a long time to a toddler.

For us it’s twenty minutes walk there, a few minutes faffing dropping oldest at his classroom with book bag etc, leave school premises and twenty minutes back - unless by that time the 2 year old wants to wander home slowly or go look at the ducks or something. Total it’s closer to an hour than anything else and no, I don’t expect a newly potty trained child to wait that long. We’ve used school toilets before, which teachers seemed to be fine with, or had to find a bush or whatnot on the way home.
I’d agree if a child can’t wait a few minutes they’re not fully potty trained but needing to go within say 20+ minutes is not a problem. DD can wait an hour now but she has a bladder of steel.

Also what is the option if you’re in that quasi potty trained / can’t wait more than 5 minutes zone? To put nappies on would be completely counter productive and set you way back. It’s usually a few weeks or a month or two with the child being able to tell you they need to go but not being able to wait and you just need to get through it somehow without the child losing their confidence. I don’t think potty in the back of the car or stored underneath the pram is that controversial. It’s just a stage in potty training.

DD was potty trained at 24 months and I probably carried the potty around for about 4 months (most days not used but it was there for when it needed to be). It wasn’t a big deal.

If God forbid we have another lockdown I’ll probably have to go back to taking the potty out and about with us again…

My children are much older now but I used to have a portable potty and you put a liner on it and the liner had an absorbent pad in the middle, so it soaked the wee up. You just chucked the liner thing away and then you could put another one on.
Worked for us.

I used to carry an empty drinks bottle with a screw lid for my DS. Then he could go standing up, Tango was the bottle of choice as it was solid black

@thewhatsit

If it’s a long time and you feel the need to bring a potty that’s your business. I wouldn’t say it’s ‘just a stage of potty training’ since many don’t do it but if it works for someone then that’s fine.

I was responding to a poster who had informed us in all caps that if a child can say they need a wee then THEY ARE TOILET TRAINED. I was simply saying if that was my child I wouldn’t consider them toilet trained as I think a pretty important part of toilet training is being able to wait short periods to reach an appropriate place to toilet, not being whipped out of the car seat to the boot of the car to pee in public. If it helps in your toilet training process that’s one thing but I know so many parents who love to brag that little Emily was toilet trained so early at 18 months but actually they simply sat her on a potty every ten minutes wherever they happened to be. To me that’s not toilet trained.

And to answer your questions about what I’d do if the child was in the ‘can’t wait 5 minutes zone’ I’d either stay home or reevaluate my child’s readiness. If they genuinely can’t wait for five minutes I’d say they’re a bit off being ready.

I also found it helpful when mine were first training to consider where we were going/where the toilets were.

Travel potty here, We’ve had 3-4 wees in it easily but I empty it as soon as possible in to a toilet. It’s rare we are out all day somewhere without a toilet though and she uses a toilet mostly.
Unless I’m out in the countryside, or at the stables-then it goes on the muck heap.

We he a potette that had bags with absorbing gel in them like a nappy.

I tried not to use them though, and when the potette went so did half the bag of liners after two kids.

I bought the silicone liner for when at houses, I tried to stand it on a grate when we were out or it was just poured in the bushes.

The problem I had was it took mine ages to differentiate between the urges, so quite often a wee would turn into a number 2!

I use these. DS wees standing up and once the lid is locked they really don’t leak. Once at home I just rinse and disinfect ready to go again.I bought 3 tron potties for poo but we’ve only used 1. They are cardboard disposable potties.

@mayblossominapril

I use these. DS wees standing up and once the lid is locked they really don’t leak. Once at home I just rinse and disinfect ready to go again.I bought 3 tron potties for poo but we’ve only used 1. They are cardboard disposable potties.

I would be worried about splashback

I trained two children with no potty - you just get them to go before you head out and then they can hold it for an hour or so while you’re out unless they’re constantly drinking. Never had any issues at all finding a loo out and about if necessary.
Only time we came close to an accident was once when we or stuck in traffic and my 2 year old was in tears as he was so desperate but eventually we found a cafe.

Nearly all children can wait, it’s just that some don’t tell you until they’re ready to go then, so the “training” is actually getting them to tell you with some time to spare - not waiting until the final moment.

Absolutely fine to pour wee down a drain. Wee is sterile and toddler wee doesn’t smell