Potty train before holiday?

[Liloh]

First time mum to a toddler and feeling a bit clueless so would appreciate some advice

DD is 2 yrs 4 months. She has been showing some signs of being ready for potty training for a while. End of last year we bought a potty and placed in the front room for her to get used to. We explained what it was, read books about potty training and let her have her nappy off, explaining that she should use it when she needs to wee or poo. She sat on it a couple of times for a wee but also had as many accidents on the floor. We didn't actively try to potty train her and persevere as we decided to go and stay with family for Christmas and thought it wasn't the right time.

We are now thinking about retrying properly but have a holiday coming up end of March which involves a long haul flight (12+). Do you think we have enough time for her to get used to using the toilet with minimal accidents? I'm thinking travelling will be a lot easier if she is still in nappies. I'm not in any rush to train her and don't mind waiting until we get back from holiday but have read that the longer it's left the harder the process is.

Any advice welcome

I would get on and do it.

I wouldn't do it till after you get back.
If your toddler hasn't got the hang of this before you go, you'll have murder while you're away, and on the plane.

Don't give yourself the stress.

...........but have read that the longer it's left the harder the process is

No. I'm not sure where you read this, but the longer it's left, the easier it is.

I trained my DD when she was 2years 8months and she was pretty much done in 2 days! We couldn't believe how quickly she got the hang of it, but I actually think if we'd tried when she was younger it would've taken longer. She just suddenly seemed more aware of herself around that time and it just clicked. So I wouldn't worry about waiting a few months if that's your preference!
Re the long haul flight, the thing that would stress me out about that is the toilets and how tricky it might be to help a quite newly trained toddler to go in there, given the space is very small. Also the various bits of waiting in airports / transfers might be tricky for her since if there are no toilets "on demand".
General advice would be get knickers that she's really excited to wear as we found this to be a massive motivator (thank you H&M Disney range!). And carry potty's are great for the early days/weeks (but apparently they can seal shut on planes because of the cabin pressure so maybe not one for the holiday).

Agree, start soon. We put down plastic sheets over carpets and had multiple potties around the house. Planned for a week where we didn't go anywhere and after 3-4 days, daytime was mostly sorted. All kids are different, some take to it quickly and some it is a longer process. But I then carried a folding potty with me wherever we went, even to the shops until they were able to tell me earlier they needed to go and were able to hold it longer.
For long flights, and we only did 7.5 hrs, I used nappies. Nighttime training took much longer and required regularly getting up in the middle of the night to change nappy or put them on the potty.

No earlier is easier, within reason. It’s left too late these days.

But I’d leave it until after holiday @Liloh

We put long time trained DD pack in nappy pants for a short haul flight as she was terrified of the plane loos. That was fine as she wasn’t set back by it but I wouldn’t do that this close.

There is a school of thought which says that an older child can be trained in two days.

I tried this with DS because he seemed not to be able to understand. I was told by someone to leave it till he was much older.

So we waited till he was nearly four, and lo and behold. It did take two days.

FWIW my other three children just got the hang of it much more easily and were trained when they were two - three.

I did this although granted he was a bit younger. It was a completely stupid idea. Please learn from my mistakes 🤣 He wasn’t reliable enough to go through the flight without pull ups, especially as it extended past bedtime so unknown when he’d fall asleep, and you really can’t risk an accident as their seat would be covered in wee for hours. Then he was jet lagged, out of routine, couldn’t predict his nap schedule, didn’t want to use the loo in strange places, we didn’t have easy access to laundry to deal with accidents, then it was return flight. So inevitably he spent most of the holiday in pull ups and we had to start completely from scratch when we got back. Just wait until April. Yes it can take longer with older kids because they can dig their heels in and be stubborn but that’s usually nothing a little bribery can’t solve. It’s definitely preferable to sending confusing messages about the potty being optional because realistically they’ll have to go into pull ups for some if not all of the holiday!

Leave it till after the holiday. A newly potty trained child is WAY more hassle than one in nappies.

It is recommended that small children and those newly toilet trained wear a pull up on airplanes. This is because you can't always get to the toilet quickly - there may be a long queue, if there's turbulence and the seat belt sign is on, nobody is allowed to use the toilet no matter how desperate. Sometimes the toilet becomes unusable or is out of order.

If have always put my under fives in a nappy on the plane and it has never caused confusion or caused us to go backwards in toilet training. In fact both of mine still asked to use the toilet and kept their pull up for the whole journey.

I'd agree with this! Especially if you are going somewhere unfamiliar and may not know where the toilets are at short notice. Plus even just the bit on the aeroplane after the fasten seatbelt sign comes on and before you can use the loos can be loooooong.

And I agree with @Pineapplewaves , even once trained, still use a nappy for planes. It doesn't cause confusion, you just explain nappies are for night time and aeroplanes.

I'd leave it till you come back. Even if they get the hang of it quickly, they still need it fairly urgently when they do need to go at the start in my experience. Can be hard work when you're in unfamiliar places or if you can't physically get to the toilet easily (like when you're stood in a lengthy passport control queue).

Yes this is definitely a good idea for all little ones but you’d also expect that they’ll still try to use the airplane toilet and that the pull up is there just in case they fall asleep, the fasten seatbelt sign is on for ages or there’s a long queue.

You can’t really use a potty on a plane (loos are too small), nor do you ideally want to lug one on holiday with you and if you have a very newly trained child who refuses the airplane loos and instead purposefully goes in their pull up, finding toilets they’ll use whilst away is going to be an issue, they can’t yet hold it for any length of time or you can’t really do laundry in your accommodation then realistically you’re going to end up relying on the pull ups most of the trip. And that will likely cause a regression in a way that a ‘just in case’ pull up on the plane won’t. Easier just to wait I think. But yes if OP goes away next year with a reliably trained child then pull ups on the plane would still be a very good idea!

I’d leave it till after the holiday, for one thing she’ll still need pull ups when sleeping and it will be a nightmare to try and get her changed in the tiny toilet cubicle. Also if you have turbulence or anything she won’t be allowed to use the loo.

My just turned 2 year old also took 2 days. She got it immediately really. The main differentiator is understanding not biological age. But when they are older there is a greater likelihood of resistance- tiny ones are much more compliant. And cloth nappy children also much easier as they have more awareness of wet.

There’s only a risk of confusion if you add nappies back in very close to the initial training. The feeling of wearing a nappy can undo the training if done too soon. We still occasionally add them back for DD at over 4 who has been trained for years - we had to do a long road journey recently where stopping might be tricky so added nappy pants just in case as that was better than a car seat accident. But we waited a good few months to do that.

But I still wouldn’t want a very newly trained child in an airport either. You can guarantee they will need to go when you are in the security queue or similar. It’s not worth the aggravation as they struggle to hold on long enough to start with.

We did something similar to this. Our son (then two and in cloth nappies) potty trained last Easter and our holiday was in early June. Thankfully he took to it very quickly and we had no issues on the plane or at all whilst we were away. We took him to the toilet every two hours throughout the day which helped I think.

I was a bit stressed about it before we went but I needn't have been as it really wasn't a big deal.

You could well be able to get it all over with before you travel.

My second DC potty trained herself having just arrived on holiday in Florida. She was 2 years 5 months and just announced to us "no nappy on". She went and used the toilet in the hotel room and never used a nappy again. She had no accidents at all despite all the trailing around sightseeing and the long flight home.

I had held off attempting to potty train before our holiday as it hadn't been as straightforward with our first.

If she's ready to train she should crack it within a week or two. You've got loads of time before your holiday. If you start now, you'll be able to tell within a week whether she's going to get it, if she isn't quite ready, go back to the nappies and try after the holiday.
I've potty trained 12 children as a nanny and I'm a great believer in just going for it if they are showing signs of readiness - there will never be a perfect time to do it, there's always a reason why you think you should put it off for a couple of weeks, when in reality, what happens is that you miss the window of them being ready and its much harder later on.

We potty trained before we went on holiday. We had done a very gradual approach so we started about 4months before we went but she had been only full-time for about 5 weeks when we went.
We put her into pull ups for the travel days. The drive to the airport was from 4 am so we left her in nappy and PJ's. Dressed and new nappy at the airport. Told we can go to the toilet whenever you need a wee bit it might be a long walk so it's ok if you have an accident. On the way out she used her nappy twice and on the way back it was a much smaller airport and the toilets were no further away from us than in our local tesco and she was in the same nappy from 8 am until 8pm and didn't use it until 7.30pm as we were waiting for the bus back to the car.

We did some long car journeys over Christmas and for those we put her in the toddler training padded knickers we have. I think I will travel with her in these when we go away on holiday in the summer. They don't hold a full wee but if she has a little dribble between asking us and us being able to find her a toilet she doesn't get that same I've wet my knickers feeling and it doesn't soak into the clothes or the seat in the same way. We don't use them very often but they are handy sometimes when you are traveling and don't have a map of all the nearby toilets in your head!

I think it is easier younger (we did the Oh Crap method which recommends starting from 18 months, as did our health visitor) Our under two year old cracked potty training in 3 days. We have a long haul flight coming up and although he's been reliable, he will be wearing pull ups on the flight. He still does for bed, so I think it'll be fine and not confusing.

Would crack on and get it done! There's plenty of time before March

DS was showing signs of being ready to potty train when he ŵas 2yrs3 months.We were due to go on a UK short break so delayed potty training until we got back home.When we did do the training DS was dry during the day within a couple of days.
I would wait.

I would give it a go now tbh. If you have success just figure out the plane as you go, but if she's ready now then I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity. If it doesn't work out right now, then no drama just put it aside until after the holiday. If you start in the next couple of weeks then that's 2 months to adapt the the new normal before your holiday.

Fwiw my 2 y 3 m was toilet trained after 3 days.

@InTheRainOnATrain This sounds like a nightmare and definitely what I'm worried about

Thanks everyone for your advice. Lots to think about