To Moms of Potty Trained Little Girls....

There is a fold up seat. I do not know who makes it. I got it from my mom and there is no telling where she got or how long she has had it bc she doesn't throw anything away. It covers the entire adult seat. It narrows to the middle small enough that little ones can sit comfortably. It folds in half and then wings down so it is 1/4 the size. It is cream colored hard plastic. I love mine and it has saved the day many times. I with I could tell you who makes it but it doesn't have any names on it.
Good Luck

Hi J.,

leaps and bounds carry some potty covers designed for toddlers that are large enough to cover public restrooms. dont remember the price but very affordable.

I carry the Wet Ones wipes for the potty seat and I used to carry a small can of Lysol....Worked for me! :-)

When she was littler, I would actually hold my daughter just above the toilet seat. I usually "hover", so I wanted my daughter to get used to the idea of not sitting down all the way. It's a good workout for the biceps too!! lol

Good luck finding a solution!

Edit: I was curious to see what advances in technology have appeared in the 6 years since my daughter was potty training, and I found these:

http://store.babycenter.com/product/safety+-+baby+care/po...

Kind of a neat idea, esp. since they stick to the seat.

We found a fold-up seat at Toys R Us that had Elmo & Cookie Monster, etc., on it. Was about $10. I created a "potty bag" which was a small backpack that holds the seat, a change of clothes in a plastic bag (in case of accident!) and a spray can of Lysol (for after using the fold-up seat). The bag goes everywhere, and it's easier for me to carry than a big giant diaper bag ... and sometimes I can get her to carry it too! My son is not quite to the potty-training stage but I got him a similar backpack with diapers & wipes, just so he could be like his big sister. :-) Hope that helps!

yes, there's a folding potty seat and they come with a plastic zippered case for you to carry it in! i bought mine off ebay for really cheap, but i'm pretty sure walmart and target have them too

Carry a pack of wipes and wipe her down after she uses it. That way you don't delay in getting her on the potty plus the germs are wiped off after. Have her wash her hands with soap (its a great habit to be in!) Sqatting over a toilet seat won't be possible for some time, but wipes are easily portable and they come in handy all the time.

I potty trained my daughter at 17.5 months. I got a fold up potty seat at Toys R Us. You can get them other places, too. I just carry it in the diaper bag. She is now 20 months and I still use it. Though just the other day I had her sit on the toilet and showed her how to hold on and she actually went without the seat. A big relief for me as I worry about not having it and her needing to go potty.

So, she may even be ready to not need a seat after just a bit, depends on her comfort level with percing and holding on and then still being able to release.

Good luck!

use toilet paper to line the seat.

Although toilet seats don't actually have as many germs as the doorknobs of the bathrooms, I went ahead and bought a fold-up potty seat from Babies R Us. I put my purse away and went back to the diaper bag so I could carry it around, until she decided she was too big for it. Now she and I just wipe the seat before she goes.

Something to keep in mind... when we were being potty trained, our parents didn't have fold-up potty seats, and the best they could do was put paper down on the seats. We all came out of it just fine. Bathrooms are no cleaner or dirtier than they were back then. Our kids hiney's are not going to shrivel up and fall off for putting them on public toilets. If you're honestly that worried get the travel size can of Lysol and spray down the seat. Honestly, we keep our kids too clean today, and they are sicker then ever because the are not able to build up resistance to anything.

Your girl sounds like mine--she was wearing panties by 20 mo. But she won't usually go on the big potty yet. At church or sometimes at a friend's house she'll go when I sit down and let her sit between my legs--but with a baby on the way, that won't work much longer!

When we moved (arrived at our destination yesterday), I put the potty in the car and every time we stopped at a gas station or a rest stop, I carried it with me into the bathroom. Got a few comments (all positive) from people (like, "Wow, she's potty trained already? That must be nice."), and it went well. I'd pee on the big potty, she'd pee on the little one, then I'd rinse out the little one and flush and out we'd go. In 5 days of traveling, she only leaked a little once! Until she gets big enough to not be scared of falling though the hole, that might be your best option. And yeah, it sure is better than diapers!!! :)

I too hate public potties. If you dont find what your looking for try actually holding her over the toliet. I have known other moms that do this. Also with your help let her put her feet on the seat and squat like she would out in the woods but hold her clothes so they dont get in/on the potty! or in her tinkle. good luck !

The Right Start one is one that friends of mine have. Tissue slips when you try to use it. Some stalls have those paper liners, but not all (plus, how about being environmentally friendly and carry your own reusable seat!).

I would definitely caution against the advice to spray the seat and hands with Lysol. I think that is a terrible use of chemicals. It's one thing if you use chemicals to clean your toilet, but at least it has time to dry and evaporate. I would much rather carry a seat than spray down the public toilet with harmful chemicals in a closed, unventilated bathroom stall with my children inhaling it. Just a thought.

First I taught my kids the difference between "public" potties and our potty or potties at friend's houses. I made sure to scrunch up my face when I said "public" and told them that public potties were really dirty.

I bought one of those fold up potty seats, but rarely used it...first of all, who wants to have to carry around the bulk of a toilet seat, second, as soon as it hits the public seat, it is dirty and now you are carrying a dirty toilet seat with you, and third, it pinches at the seams sometimes when your child sits on it!

I always just line the seat with toilet paper...two sheets for the sides and one across the front (or double that for really dirty ones), then I lift them up onto the paper. The other important thing I taught them was to put their hands on their knees and never on the seat. (this was a difficult thing since they are worried about balance and have a natural instinct to grab both sides of the seat in order to adjust) I just kept reminding them, "hands on your knees!"

As for the fact that she is little, you can hold her on both sides of her arms for balance, it won't be long that she will get the hang of it. Keep up the training, she is obviously ready, but some kids get bored or regress if parents are too blase about it. Good luck!

Hi, J.! My daughter is 3, and when she says she has to go, she has to go. I don't always have time to line the seats or anything. I agree with the other moms that teach their daughters not to touch anything in the stall and keep their hands on their laps, if possible. If the restroom is really dirty, I hold her on top of the toilet. The important thing is to teach her to wash her hands with soap and water after she goes to the bathroom. It's also good to carry hand sanitizer for the restrooms that don't have soap. Good luck with your little one! I can't wait until my 20 month old son wants to potty train!! :)

We had a fold up beige hard plastic toilet seat that was perfect- kept bottoms clean and made the seat appropriate size- when folded it fit easily into a larger purse or diaper bag. I don't remember where we got it; Toys R' Us or KMart- but it was a real lifesaver. You might also check Big Lots- but also teach her how to put toilet paper on the seat in case she isn't with you-

There are fold up ones up they are a pain and plus after you use it the germs are on it so then you fold it up? Sounds icky to me. I have one and only use it when we are on long road trips. For day to day I just use the paper toilet covers and tell my girls not to touch anything. Also wash their hands and use santizer after we come out of the bathroom.
GL

Babies R Us has a great little folding potty seat that comes with a Ziplock type bag to carry it around. It cost me about $10 and worked great. My daughter now wants to use the big potty, so I usually carry around a small spray bottle of sanitizer or just paper the seat before she sits down.

You can always hold her over the seat, but this is hard if she is heavy and it is easier for them to have a bm if they are sitting on the seat itself.

I bought the fold up potty seat for my daughter, but it didn't fit a single toilet I tried. It is designed to fit a round toilet and the public ones are oval. So then I bought the toilet seat covers at Toys R Us, they are thicker then the paper ones and they have tape one them to stick to the toilet seat. I will say tough, now that she is using the toilet more, I don't use them. It was too much work to take them out and put them on for her to sit there for 5 seconds and pee. But I still understand your concern. If I take my dd to a restroom that seems real dirty, I just hold her up and tell her to put her hands on my arms. Now this would have never worked a few months ago when we were just starting to train her, but now at 2 1/2 she can do it. I have also seen that there are disposable mittens to put on their hands so that they wont touch the seat. I'm not sure where I saw these, but you can search potty training stuff and I am sure you will find it. Check onestepahead.com and toys r us. Good luck with the training, and you will ease up a bit later, but for now do what makes you feel comfortable and keeps your daughter safe.

You can use seat covers. You can also carry antimicrobial wipes in your purse and wipe down the seat before setting her on it. Otherwise, I would just lay down toilet paper if it looked bad. If it looked ok, I would lift her up making sure her private area hit nothing but air and only her legs touched anything. Make sure you lift her off as well.

Always make sure she tries to go before you leave your
house. Always.

HI J. P! I have potty trained 2 children my Son now 7 and My Daughter now 5. My daughter began potty training at a very early age and we had this problem too when in a public restroom... I was at Babies R Us one day and found these potty liners similar to the paper ones you sometimes find in public restrooms except better... I carried those in my purse and when she had to go I'd place a potty liner on the potty then set her up there and she would hang onto my leg so she didn't fall in & also to keep her from balancing herself by placing her hands on the potty seat (YUCK!)! Other than carrying a potty seat around that worked best for us.

Good Luck!

C.

My daughter is almost 3 1/2 and she knows that she cannot touch anything in public restrooms. I trained her to keep her hands by her sides at all times and she cannot touch the toilet. I put toilet paper all over the toilet seat and then i sit her down. She puts her hands on her lap while I hold her still and wipe her. This works for us and it's better than carrying a whole bunch of toilet seat covers (to me it is the same as putting TP down). :)

I bought a fold up potty seat at Toys R Us. I've also seen them at WalMart. I had a thin plastic one that was fine when she was very small, but if you don't mind the extra bulk, buy the padded one for more comfort. When my dd was a little older, I just made sure I had Lysol wipes along to wipe the seat first. I think there is some spray sanitizer you can buy at whole foods that I saw yesterday that claims to sanitize anything. I had a friend who put medical grade perioxide in a spray bottle and used that to disinfect everything.

http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/Cushie-Traveler-z.html

there are portable potty training seats that you can carry in your purse for around $10- You should be able to find them in Babies R' Us and online at OneStepAhead.com.

Good luck!

Yes, there are fold up potty seats. HEB Plus, Toys R Us, and Walmart carry it. I think they're about $10...and worth every penny!

We have a fold up potty seat that is cushioned. We tried another type that I bought at Target (not cushioned) and it pinched her. The cushioned one, IMO, has been much better.

There is a fold up seat that they sell at Right Start. It is white and pretty cushy. I used to carry it around with me, but lately, since I've had another baby, it's just too much. I just put toilet paper down on the seat and try to get over the germophobia. But, if you're looking for a seat, that's the one to get! Some of the other seats that they sell that fold up don't have much cushion and, they can pinch where the folds are. I recommend the one from Right Start.

Happy potty training!

Babies R Us sells a great little seat that comes in its own little travel bag the whole thing fits right into my diaper bag and my ds (who hasn't started to stand to pee) can sit on it, no problem. It fits comfortably and fine over all seat I have tried so far. We found it in a wierd place in our Babies R US, it was on an aisle near the diapers, but on the row with the baby food. It was under $15.

Use a wipie to wipe down the seat and then just hold them under the armpits while facing her. You can "tilt" her forward, to make sure that her stream stays in the toilet. You can also have her hold on to you (at your thighs)as she tilts forward. That is actually really helpful if she is constipated and the "number 2" is finally coming out.

I bought the toilet seat covers and the fold up seat. I hate nasty germs.

I too have the folding seat. But remember, that the cleanest thing in a public bathroom is the toilet seat...the dirtiest are the door and faucet handles. Think about it...20/20 had a whole thing on this. Also, the first stall is usually the least used stall in the bathroom.

I line the seat with the toilet paper. I like the idea of the of having the disinfecting wipe with you to wipe it down.

O.K., this is going to sound a little weird....have you ever watched shows such as Dateline, 20/20, Oprah...etc, etc., when they "do a show" on germs? They find, time and time again, that its not the toilet seat you have to worry about....its the bathroom doorknob (from people not washing their hands) Its the floor and the sink knobs. I know that it is hard to think about placing your precious lil' angel on a public seat. According to the experts, its actually pretty clean. You are more likely to ingest bacteria from an ice machine in a restaurant than off a toilet seat. When I get to the point of my daughter using public facilities, I am just going to wipe with a Lysol wipe, and hope for the best. After all, eventually in life, they simply HAVE to be exposed to germs.
Its probably not what you want to hear...but it is what it is....

Margaret :)

P.S. And you want to talk about filthy...look at the results of fecal and bodily fluids they pull off of movie theater seats!!!! Just an example of how you cant possibly control it!!!! YUCK!!!!

We wipe the seat with a wet paper towel. Then dry it with another paper towel.

Hi J.,

I sell travel accessories for children and one of the items I carry is the On The Go Potty. It isn't a seat that you put on a toilet, because sometimes the whole bathroom is to dirty to go into.

You can see it on my site at http://childtogo.com/catalog.htm?item=45.

I hope this helps.

A.

You can carry around some of the toilet covers but you will need to help hold her up so she doesn't fall in. She'll eventually learn how to hold herself up but in public you can always help her out a little.
M.

Don't be so paranoid. You really can't catch diseses like everyone thinks. Just make sure she washes her hands afterwards.

There is a fold up seat that you can carry with you in your purse or diaper bag, I got one for my daughter and it is a lot easier for us, especially since she is scared of falling in the toilet! I purchased mine at Wal Mart, I hope this helps!

I've seen the fold up seat, but my thought is why would you want to carry the germs around with you? Yuck. Lysol makes a purse size can. I spray it down and wipe it down and then we wash our hands when we are done. The hand sanatizer will do the job too. I've also made the toilet seat cover out of toilet paper, but it is pretty slippery for little ones.
Pretty much whatever you would do for yourself, you can do for your daughter, short of hovering.

I agree with the other poster who said you just have to get over some things. I am a complete germophobe...but...with a little girl who is potty training...you have to go when she needs to go. We just started wearing big girl panties about 2 months ago...so I know what you are going through. I just wipe the toliet down...tell her not to touch anything. Put a little extra toliet paper down as a "cover" on one of the sides...and then sit her down on it. Just like one of the other moms does...I have her hold on to my legs so she doesn't touch anything...and so I don't have to bend over to hold her the whole time (I am 5.5 months pregnant right now so I can't really bend over and hold her with ease). Afterwards I take her off...I flush...I open the door...wash my hands...and then hold her up to wash her hands. It really isn't a big deal. I did buy one of those fold up potties...but like someone said...they can pinch little ones...and then they don't want to sit on the potty anymore. Plus...you do end up carrying the germs with you...how gross. We used it once and that was too much for me. I also bought the fold-up potty...but I only take that with us on road trips because it is too big to just carry around with you in stores or places to eat. And...again...it is pretty gross to think about carrying around the germs with you. Just make sure you wash-up afterwards...and use a papertowel to open the door...and you will be fine. Besides...kids need to be exposed to SOME germs...that is the only way to build immunity...as hard as that is to accept. :)

I bought a travel potty that folds up like a little briefcase from "One-Step Ahead". You just use large ziploc bags and dispose easily.

I have little boys (only one is potty trained), but I completely understand the ickiness factor of the public bathrooms. When he does need to sit down, the travel potty is a great help. There have been many a times that he has sat by the car in the parking lot or in the back of the SUV doing his business and feels fine about it. Plus, the public seats are too big. At home he uses an insert because he "doesn't want to fall in".

Hope this helps.