if you are toilet training do you really have to stay in the house/garden the whole time?

[nailpolish]

what do you do if you go for a walk to the park etc? take clean clothes for accidents?

cant stay in the whole time surely?

take a backpack of clean clothes, some wipes and plastic bag/nappy sack for the wet clothes

what if it happens in the street? just grin and bear it? (dont want dd to be crying and ashamed)

No you don't have to stay in! Make sure she has a wee before you go out, take a change of clothes, be aware where every public toilet in your town is, and - if it comes to it - there's always a grid to wee in. I'm lucky, I have boys so it's marginally easier when they need a wee and there's no loo - but friends do a kind of cradle lift over grids with their girls!

Take the potty with you.

Other people who know nothing about children or potty training may find it strange, but then, other people find a lot of things parents do strange. Taking the potty with you is an awful lot less hassle than having to change clothes pants etc. (But you still have to take the spare clothes/ pants just in case!)

pull up nappies -im in same situation and ive just got some for days out i do the other things too

take the potty, two changes of clothes and a few pairs of pants and use every public loo you can get to. also restrict drinks (i know hard in this weather)

Encourage your little one to use the loo in different places (friends, grandparents etc). So they get the idea it's not just an "at home thing".

I put nappies on my DS when going out, but ask often if he needs the toilet. At first he always said no. Now at 2yrs2months he asks for toilet 95% of the time, even when we are out (sometimes at the most inconvenient times!). Also just this week I had to say, "sorry, there are no toilets here, you need to either hold it in until we got home, or wee in your nappy". Could not believe it when I got home 20 minutes later, and first thing he did was ask for the toilet - he had held it in!

As well as asking them often if they want to go, listen carefully when they give a hint (mine usually only says "toilet" at home, but in company or out and about might say things like "potty, wet, wee, poo" or other variations.

Don't avoid going out, though. It'll drive you nuts!

Good luck

I've just potty trained dd. I stayed in for a day and it drove me up the wall! When I go out I take the potty with me, kitchen roll for mopping up accidents, some wipes and a change of clothes (took 3 lots to the local farm park just in case). I've found a towel in the car seat helps too.

If you can't bear the accidents then pull ups over the top of pants help as they get the wet sensation and you get none of the mess to deal with!

In the very early stages, when an accident would have been a disaster we used a pull up over big girl pants. But very quickly I'd insist she use the toilet if we were out and would just ask every time we passed one ! She was 2yrs 9 months and capable of asking when she needed it.

Despite variable progress at home for first few weeks ,she rarely had an accident out, then it all clicked about a month later. You could take a small potty along for those places where there would be no toilet readily accessible and she may get caught short, but somehow we managed to go to places where there was one within running distance in the early days so never did that for either of mine .

love the pull up over pants idea -never thouhgt of that -thanks !

loads of great ideas girls - thanks ever so much. im not confined to the house at all then (thank goodness)

also put an old towel on the pushchair seat, just in case.

Nailpolish, wherever I went with dd I took a drawstring bag with a couple of pairs of trousers, pants, socks, a Tommee-Tippee travel potty, wipes and nappy bags.
then we just did our normal things every day and all was peachy

I bought a portable potty for DS1 - basically a frame with a plastic bag and a sanitary towel-type thing in it to soak anything up! It all folded up into its own little bag. never had to use it but it meant we could go out with a little more peace of mind.

I remember we were on holiday in Cornwall half way through the potty training process - yeah, great timing, I know - and we took him on a train trip from St Ives to Penzance. I was paranoid the whole time that I would have to get the portapotty out!

I have one of \link{http://www.buppy.co.uk/these} which is more expensive than a towel on a seat but looks more grown up IYKWIM.

Agree about taking the potty with you although it doesn't have to be a special one, just a cheap one. Once, in Next I was slightly surprised about seeing a mum come out of a lift with a potty full, but would rather that than get in a lift where someone had had an accident. That's when i realised it was a good idea!

these

Nope!

I didnt and we only had 2 accidents 1 in woolies and 1 in a charity shop. I did my best with wet wipes, luckily only wee and snuck out sharpish!

I hadn't realised her socks and shoes would get soaked too, so the first time she had an accident while out she had to come home barefoot (luckily had the buggy with me).

i dont have a car, and she doesnt go in a buggy (dd2 is in that!) she has a buggy board but never uses it

anyway,

ive made a couple of short trips, to the swings and to the shop, both have had accidents and she is MORTIFIED. we have to do in the nearest little bush or something (swingpark no prob as it was empty)

she refuses to just wee her pants, dances around til i come up with a solution, and you should see her face when i say 'that bush there'!

we are having a major family outing tomorrow, its the local gala day, so well be out all day. havent had the chance to get a portable potty, but have quite a small one (which she has never used, shes always just used the loo)

so ill just have to stick that under dd2's buggy

what do you think of that, with little bags for liners of the potty and a sanitary towel or tissues in the bottom of it? then i could just pop the bag in a bin?