Potty training and flying

[frogernoff]

Hello, I've never posted before so I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place! :) my son is nearly 3 and a half and we've been potty training for a week. Noah on average has had about 1-2 accidents a day, but is either weeing in the potty, or on the floor the rest of the time.

My concern is that we fly long haul in 4 weeks and he won't use the big toilet. I'm not pushing him as I know it can be daunting for them. At the minute he'll only use a particular potty but I'm trying to get him used to different ones as I don't really want to be carrying a large ikea potty on the flight with me.

I really don't want him wearing nappies or pull ups as he will regress.

We haven't been out yet and trialled a small trip, but we are planning on going into town tomorrow but I know he won't use the toilet.

Has anyone been in this situation that could offer advice?

If he's not fully trained as yet, then he will need pull-ups on the plane. You can't have a potty for him if he refuses to use the toilet! What if you have turbulence and have to stay strapped in for hours? What if he needs a wee when the plane is getting ready to land? You say he wees on the floor or in his potty, what if he thinks its fine to wee on the floor in the plane? Just use pull ups for everybody's peace of mind. He will be fine and won't regress.

Don't start potty training a few weeks before you know you're going on a long haul trip? Of course you're going to have to put him in nappies on the flight.

It isn't ideal to start potty training yes, but it just happened and he decided he was ready. Thanks for the advice Re pull ups. I hadn't considered about the seat belt sign etc.

You cannot fly, long haul or otherwise, mid potty training without pull ups. You have times of unpredictable length when it is impossible to use the toilet at short notice. Having a public accident would be far more upsetting for DC and likely to set them back more than wearing something.

What worked for us was buying the more expensive pull ups (meant for night time) that look more like pants than nappies (with cartoon characters on) We then only referred to them as 'adventure pants', never nappies, and DC only wore them for long journeys only - plane/train/car. We still did the usual toilet stops which mostly worked as normal but they gave us all peace of mind and didn't have any impact on day to day toilet training.

If it was me, nappies for the flight probably not pull ups as he might fall asleep and the pull up might not be able to hold much compared to a proper tab nappy. Then take lots of pants and even a portable potty (if you have space) for the holiday. He wont regress from a few times. Have a nice holiday!!

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated!