My Carry Potty: for potty-trainers on the go

via www.parenting.com

Sasha at Parenting's Show & Tell asks: what do you think of the My Carry Potty: brilliant or gross?

No parent of a potty-training young-un has time to worry about the gross factor (didn't we get over that when they were newborns?). If you've experienced cleaning your kid up after a potty accident while shopping or traveling, you know all about gross, and would probably prefer THIS.

Carrying a potty when going out makes good sense, and this one seems well-designed, easy to handle, and quick to clean. I'm imagining that trips to the grocery store, the park, even the back yard, would be a lot less complicated. I say: brilliant.

But I defer to you, potty-training Parenthackers. Anyone have one of these and care to tell us about it?

At Amazon: My Carry Potty, $29.99

More: We've got tons of potty training tips at Parent Hacks!

Comments

[Marcy]

This one folds and you can use disposable bags:

http://www.amazon.com/Cool-Gear-Travel-Potty-Chair/dp/B0018ZC7H0

[Jessica]

This one is even more portable and also uses disposable bags:
http://amzn.to/dTUwO4

I kept it, some spare bags, and a pack of wipes in a small pack to take to the park and in the car. Easy peasy.

[Melissa Joffrion]

I agree wih Jessica- the Potette is great. It makes running errands a lot less of a worry around potty training time.

[Asha Dornfest]

Thanks for the heads-up on Potette! Will investigate.

[Amy]

I had a potty chair in the back of my van for emergencies when my kids were training. It was necessary for long road trips and trips to the park without a bathroom. We didn't use it often, but when we needed it I was glad to have it!

[Lisa R]

Yup, we had the Potette. Didn't use it too many times but when we needed it, we NEEDED IT.

[Lucie]

The Potette rocks! Also doubles as a toilet seat and can easy fit into a (spacious) handbag... We bought two and never looked back. The Baby Bjorn toilet trainer seat is also very good but not designed to be portable.

[Bev]

We used a folding seat for the big toilet.

http://www.amazon.com/Folding-Potty-Handles-White-granite/dp/B000BXHPEU/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1297269955&sr=1-1

It was very small to carry and meant there was nothing to dispose off.

[Jessie R]

We have this one, with the seat that takes 1 gallon ziplocs, easy to clean up/dsipose of the mess, just zip up the bag and tass it when you get where you are going!

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=361755&parentCategoryId=85180&categoryId=86184

[Carol]

Oooh! I want one of this for the car! I just hope I find one available locally.

[acm]

We had the Cool Gear one and, in those early days where every trip out of the house is freighted with worry, we even stuck it under the stroller so that it was available for sudden desperation at the playground! We still throw it in the trunk for road trip emergencies or whenever our nearly-3-year-old gets picky about large potties. Really works like a dream and pretty low ick factor too.

[Mike]

The Potette was indispensable. Our daughter starting the potty very early (<1 year) because she wouldn't go in her diaper -- only once the diaper was off. Since kids that young can't wait as long as a much older toddler, it was easy to pull out the Potette *anywhere*. If at the park, I could set it up in the back hatch of my car, tie up the bag afterward, and be done with it.

The seat you recommend has the "ick" factor of "what do you do with what's inside if you're not near somewhere you can dump it out?". That's not a problem with the Potette bags, which have the absorbent pad inside and which can be tied off and disposed of when/where possible.

That said, we carried a simple fold-up seat for use in places like public bathrooms (restaurants, airports, airplanes). The fold-up and the Potette took up a *very* small amount of space in the diaper bag -- about as much space as a half-dozen diapers would have taken.

[Aubrey]

I also used the Potette. Folds up really small and the gross factor is much less since you use bags.

[adrienne]

We have the Potette, but haven't really needed it (our oldest was mostly potty trained when we bought it).

The most suspicious thing about the Carry Potty is that it claims to be leakproof. When I think how many sloshy sippy cups have made the same claim, it makes me very uneasy. I may be willing to take my chances with milk and juice, but....

And if it made liquidy sounds while carried, blerg.

[Asha Dornfest]

Yeah. Blerg!

[Rebecca Ho]

I'd never heard about the Potette. I wonder if we can even get it in Canada - some things just don't make their way north.

It wasn't a perfect system, but we got one of those tiny, light potties from Ikea and kept one on hand whenever we went somewhere in the car, to friends' homes who don't have kid friendly bathrooms, to the park, out in the backyard. Again, since I'm in Canada, it works better in the summer than the winter months. I think this is why many Canadian parents potty train in the summer.

[Elizabeth]

I just want to make a quick mention that there are two versions of the Potette: One that is just a travel potty and the "2 in 1" that also works as a trainer seat. I got confused when I bought mine. It has been great for us.

[Becky C.]

Blerg is right. Just the thought of carrying around a plastic case full of waste is making me laugh so hard I'm crying, as well as gagging a little. I'm also not down with carrying something that actually says "Potty" on the outside.
We're Potette users too, and I like being able to put it away in a bag that makes it a little less obvious that I'm carrying a potty around with me.

[darlene]

we used a little potty from IKEA ($3) and liners...so easy and came in very handy!

[tiffany]

This is something I would love to try. I've definitely carried a baby bjorn potty into a mcdonald's bathroom before when we were traveling. It was pretty gross!

[Kelly]

I was just told a good tip for the potette. The bags are expensive but plain grocery bags leak. If you put a panty liner at the bottom of a grocery bag - problem solved at about a 1/3 the price.