Thoughts on Diapering and Pottying During Travel

Recently we got back from a holiday car trip to see family.  I normally cloth diaper and am in the process of potty training my 16-month-old.  During the vacation, we used disposables and brought along the potty.  Here are some observations from the trip:

1. You can continue on with your potty training during a car trip -- just bring your little potty with you.  It's also great to have an additional cheap-y potty, like IKEA's, in the car all the time.
2. Disposable diapers S-T-I-N-K.  I mean that literally.  I can't believe how bad my baby's bottom smelled while she was wearing these.  Like rotting pee.  And I used 3 different brands of disposables while traveling, so it wasn't just an issue of a certain brand's chemical formulation. No wonder we bathed our first baby (who wore disposables until 1-year-old) every night!
3. Velcro closures would never work with my toddler.  She was undoing the Velcro on the disposable diapers a fraction of a second after I did it up.  Good thing she was wearing onesies the entire vacation.  And good thing I converted all my Velcro cloth diapers to snaps using Convert My Diapers.  Some day I'll post about the whole Velcro vs. snaps with cloth diapers dilemma.
4. Nighttime disposable diapers frequently leak at night, especially with a night-nursing toddler.

In short, potty training went better than expected (no poops in diapers) and I was pleased to get back to cloth diapering upon our return. P.S.  Nevertheless, I hate traveling with small children.



For more tips, tricks, and tales from early potty training, visit my Early Potty Training page.

How do you handle potty training during vacations?