Flying and Potty Training...

married102708 · February 2013

Need some advice - we are 3 weeks into Potty Training and may be we can consider ourself almost trained at this point. However we are going on a vacation via plane in March. It will be about a 3 hour flight. I don't really want to have him in a pull up but I also don't know if I want to hassel with airplane bathrooms. What do you reccomend? Should I just keep him in underwear and see how it goes or put him in pull ups as a preventative thing?

stgn01 · February 2013

if it were my kid, she would flat out refuse the diaper/pull ups. I would do underwear and bring along 2 changes of clothes. Can you bring a portable potty seat that goes over the potty like a Potty Potette? Just remember though, the potty on the plan is scary. Even for me! Very loud and fast suction. GL!

Meeshe · February 2013

For a while during long car rides or flying, I would do pullups. When they first PT, they're not good at giving notice or holding it. What if he needs to go and it's during a time you're not allowed to get up from your seat? Then you're dealing with a mess....on a plane. I know they say pullups confuse kids but I never found it to be an issue with my DD. The harder part can be convincing them to go in the pullup. To me, just not worth the mess if there is a problem. Also, even the best recently trained kiddos can get thrown off by schedule changes, excitement, etc.

JenniCollins · February 2013

I just flew with Chloe, and had her in panties for the flight out (2 hours). She had two accidents, first she had to go #2 while we were boarding the plane, we couldn't get off or get to the bathroom at the back of the plane. The second was when she had to pee and we were landing and couldn't get to the bathroom.

None of these were her fault, we simply couldn't get to the bathroom when she needed it. For the flight home we did pull-ups, we had no accidents (stayed dry) the entire trip, go figure. If we fly again anytime soon we'll do pull-ups again, she hasn't had enough practice holding it for extended periods of time yet.

Oh, and we just called them training panties and told her she still needed to tell us when she had to go, she had no problems with this.

brettsmama · February 2013

I put DS in a pull up but treated it as underwear. I never instructed him that it was ok to go in the pull up, I didn't want to confuse him. We used the potty right before boarding, once mid flight and as soon as we landed. This prevented him needing to go during times when the fasten belt sign was on take off, landing. He stayed dry and had no problems. The pull up just made me feel better "just in case".

lujain · February 2013

We just got back from vacation with our 3-year-old. She is great with the potty, but we did put her in pullups on the airplane in case we had to stay in our seats. On the flight, we had to stay in our seats for the last half hour right before we landed. After we landed, we had to stay in our seats for another hour while we waited for a gate to be cleared for the plane to park. She had to urinate, and there was no way she could hold it for an hour and a half. We told the flight attendants that our toddler needed to urinate, and they were snippy with us and told us to sit down. So she peed in her pull-up. We will use pullups on our next trip as well.

sucredee · February 2013

We flew to Europe about 2 months after DD PT. I kept her in underwear. I brought a couple of diapers just in case but didn't want to use them unless it turned into a disaster. I also brought the 2 in 1 Potette Plus travel potty which can be used as a stand alone potty or ring. On our first flight she was fine and didn't need to use the potty (it was a 3 hour flight) . Flight from DC to Paris was 8 hours and she peed only once.....we had several trips to the potty without any luck and then as soon as we needed to be seated she had to go badly. So I just used the potty on the floor and let her pee. Put some paper in the plastic bag to absorb the pee, tied the baggy and chucked as soon as we could move around. She was seated in between DH and myself in a row of 3 so people couldn't see anything. No optimal but better than having her pee on the seat.

On the way back she actually got over her fear and went potty in the airplane. Then we went on a train trip in December and those bathrooms (we had a sleeper car ) are even more obnoxious than the plane so she just used her own potty. Then on our next flight she was scared of the plane bathrooms and wouldn't go either coming or going (not even with a cookie or piece of chocolate bribe which usually works) so she just used her own potty on the floor (same deal as on our other flight).

We will be flying a gain next week so we will see how she does. She does fine everywhere else as far as public bathrooms are concerned. I'm hoping she will be over her fear this time because as much as I love the travel potty it would be nice not to have to carry it around in my carry-on. It has been very useful though since we are on the go a lot (including when we are at home)

I guess I don't have any real advice. A 3 hour flight isn't too bad and he could potentially hold it that long (barring any delays) especially if he will pee on command prior to boarding. My MO was to have extra clothes and a couple of diapers just in case and she ended up not needing it. Had we not had the travel potty however we would have probably had to go with the diapers. Maybe stick him in a pull up and treat it like undies, have him tell you when he needs to go. If he hates the plane bathroom he at least will have the pull up. The scariest thing about the plane bathroom is the flushing so if you can avoid it maybe just don't flush. One of the flight attendants said she'd rather have someone not flush than freak out a kid. My kid gets scared pretty easily though so you may not have the problem. If you are worried about cleanliness I would recommended the travel potty

mexicolombiana · February 2013

Interesting question. My toddler is terrified of the hand dryers/blowers in bathrooms and would straight up freak out with the toilets in the airplane. They are scary and loud! I would do the pull ups I think and just "pretend" they're underwear.

Or what I do at home is put underwear over the pull ups if we need to go out and I'm afraid she'll pee her underwear.

valigrl21 · February 2013

I just flew across country with DD. She's mostly potty trained. But I would suggest using a pull up. DD told me twice she had to go when we were landing or taking off. I could be wrong but I think the change in altitude can make people have to go. Anyways, I told her to hold it because I obviously couldn't take her to the bathroom then, she tried but just couldn't hold it for that long. She was so upset. It was hard enough to clean up a poopy pull up in the bathroom of an airplane, I can't imagine dealing with dirty underwear.

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