Diapers are a pain because they are stinky and kinda gross, but they are UBER convenient since our little ones who are wearing them can just potty on the go. Long car trip? on an airplane? No problem! Little one can poop or pee wherever they are. In spite of this slight convenience of diapers over being potty trained, surely we all hope our children will eventually transition from a pants pooper (aka a diaper wear-er) to a potty-pooper. 
In the dreams of a first time parent, potty training will be a quick and easy problem to solve, and once little one moves out of diapers it will be smooth sailing. However, those who have actually potty trained know that the reality is quite different than that. (If you are in need of what we found is the easiest way to potty train, check out this book!) Some kids are easy to toilet train and some are less easy, but almost every child still has accidents once in a while, especially when theyre out of their comfort zone. So whats a saavy travel-family to do? Stay home for months while our kids master the transition? Or venture out anyway…because nothing like a little potty training can stop this travel-team!
I bet you can guess that the second choice is the one we picked! For our first child, we knew we had to try and get the potty training rolling while she was in her 2’s because she was going to start preschool soon after turning 3 and they did not take diapered children. However, when looking at our travel schedule we realized there were very few opportunities to potty train that entirely missed travel. We decided to power through and we would figure it out! 
Did it work out? You bet! Was it easy? LOL, not really. But it did end up being worth it. How did we do it? Let’s just say that a little persistence and a few must-have items helped us through. Some of our tips include recommendations for items that helped us out, some of which contain affiliate links (paid link, #ad).
- Portable Potty Seat. Both our kids have potty trained (one successful and one in progress) using mostly what they call “the big potty” with a potty seat vs a child’s potty. This does make it easier when you transition to going in public since the “big potty” is everywhere and the kids potty is…no where. We love this Portable potty seat. Its an easy carry and easy fold out and we have had tons of success using it everywhere! Gas stations, grocery stores, airplane pottys, etc. 
- Potty Seat Cleaner (aka travel size lysol) and clorox wipes. If I am carrying a potty seat with me, isn’t that gross? The short answer is yes! We do our best to keep it clean by cleaning the public potty before use and cleaning the potty seat after use! It might be a pain and I haven’t done any studies to make sure that its actually clean, but I do try my best. Portable Lysol fits right into the potty seat carry bag and travel clorox wipes fit anywhere!
- Hand cleaning: There are some obvious tips here…like every bathroom should have soap and water to clean hands after toilet use…but just in case, we make sure to come prepared for this too! I carry hand wipes with me in the diaper bags we have, I have hand wipes in the driver and passenger side of both our vehicles, and we have portable purell in the car and hanging from all the bags, including the kids backpacks! 
- Plane tips: Our biggest takeaway from potty training in general is to take the child to the bathroom regularly. This can be a challenge on a flight since there are times that individuals cannot get out of their seats. Our best tips for that include: Potty before getting on the plane or on the plane before the boarding gate is closed and then again right before the flight crew advise that everyone will have to take their seats. This has helped avoid potty emergencies on the jetway. Also, even when the kids don’t wear pull ups, we keep them in pull ups during a flight or a long road trip just in case! This really helps with the angst of not being able to get to the potty right away!
Good luck on your potty training journey on the go! 
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