Potty Training Hacks: The Travel Potty

My children’s ages are currently in a little cluster right now so that we have been potty-training a child every summer for going on three years. You can read about the insanity that was our experience with our son here.

And judging from posts written by Laurel, Kendra, and Carlie, obviously it is one of those milestones you await with eager anticipation (no diapers! can I get an AMEN!!), but with utter dread.

One of the scariest parts for me is potty training in public, and especially during road trips.

I HATE public bathrooms. They stink. They are nasty. They don’t have all the luxuries we are used to at home #flushablewipes.

They usually look a little something like this  NASTY

Also, my kids like to scream “I NEED TO POTTY RIGHT NOW!” when we are somewhere over the basin bridge in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE with no stops in sight.

So, on our car trips, I improvise. I made my own travel potty, and my 6 and 7 year old will even still use it on long trips.

You will need:

  • garbage bags OR grocery bags (I have had some spillage, but I’m dealing with my 6 year olds massive bladder, so you do you)
  • puppy pads aka incontinence pads
  • large diapers (I think size 6 is the largest)
  • training potty

Here’s the set up:

Place one puppy pad on the floor of your vehicle and place training potty on top. The puppy pad is for catching any errant urine (aim issues) or spray or leakage from the cracks/crevices of the potty.

Line the training potty with the garbage bag.

Place an additional puppy pad inside the garbage bag.

Place diaper on top of said puppy pad.

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After your kiddo is finished, just lift up the edges of the bag and tie it up. And voila! If this seems like an excess of absorbency, it likely is. It is honestly set up to absorb my son’s entire bladder’s worth of urine, and that ain’t no small number. It’s also been modified due to less than ideal circumstances in the past.

It isn’t a small set up. It likely won’t work in a car (although with that pad underneath you could honestly just set it up on an unused seat in your car and it should work). We have a large vehicle #4kids and it fits inside just fine.

It has withstood ALL types of defecation and urination and came out like a champ.

Best of luck to all my other potty training parents out there. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Sarah Keating
Sarah is a 30-something mom of four children under six and wife to her high-school sweetheart. She returned to Acadiana two years ago following her husband’s completion of medical school and residency in Shreveport. After the move, Sarah switched gears from full-time pediatric speech-language pathologist and working mom to full-time stay-at-home mom to her brood. Her current hobbies include “speech-therapizing” her children, re-reading the Outlander series, catching up on her Netflix queue after the kids go to bed, completing XHIT videos at naptime, and taking her medication every morning. She loves and respects the sacredness of motherhood, but sometimes you just have to let go and laugh it out. Motherhood has been the most humbling, and empowering journey she has experienced.

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