How/when do you transition from diapers to underwear for car rides?

[Dazedstella]

DD is actively potty-learning at the moment. She varies between wanting diapers, undies or naked when home and we are not pushing anything. At this point she is naked/undies about 75% of the time at home and slowly getting really good at telling me she needs to potty so we can get her on the pot. She is pooping and peeing in the potty. When we are out we are doing diapers and naptime and bedtime as well.

She is 27 months. We live about 30 minutes from "town" and go there approx 5 days a week for various activities. I am trying to figure out how to transition to undies in the car and when out and about. At this point she wants to wear diapers when we are out so I am waiting for some desire from her to wear her undies outside of the house but beyond that I am not sure how to make this transition. I don't want to push her or make her upset and she gets REALLY upset when she pees on her clothes/floor/couch etc so I think she would be incredibly upset if/when she pees in her car seat. She also gives very little warning at this point.

Thoughts?

[pranava]

I'd wait till she was comfortable going potty in public restrooms.  When she seems to have that down pat, then two pairs of padded training undies and a dappi cover will give her the undies feel without soaking her clothes or car seat.  If she can hold it for an hour at minimum, then you should be able to get her to a public restroom in time.  We've had good luck with this system and taking hourly trips to potties when out of the house.

[Thing1Thing2]

We kept him in pull ups in the car until he was able to keep them dry for a few weeks. We keep a potty in the car for him for emergencies and we ask him to use the potty before we leave to go anywhere.

[CherryBombMama]

 i was worried about car rides as well, but i put a portable baby potty (since thats what he was using at home) in the car and let him play in the car an hour or two before we left. he commented many times on how his potty was in the car, and i basically had a toddler conversation of "oh, is that where youre going to pee when we go bye bye?" or "gil is gonna pee in our car potty!!" for a while. i have him pee in the car or bathroom potty, whichever is closer, minutes before we leave, and at first, i would potty him right when we got to our destination, and then when we would leave that place, etc, etc... now he goes about every two hours and he never tells me when he needs to go. i just take him

i did not want to do trainer pants or pull ups so we went straight to undies. lots of accidents :D

editing to add that he doesnt play in the car for every car ride. just the very first time to get used to his potty being there

[lifeguard]

When we dropped diapers we dropped them 100%. At first I did find car trips & trips out really unnerving, carried lots of changes of clothes with us. What worked was to always bring him to the bathroom right before we left & then as soon as we arrived somewhere. He rarely had to go again when we arrived somewhere but I found this also showed him that there was a bathroom everywhere we went & quickly found that seemed to make him more comfortable. Then I would do the reverse for going home.

I did carry a potty seat for a couple of months which was a bit cumbersome but worth it as it made going in strange bathrooms more comfortable for him.

As for the carseat, if we were going on a longer trip I would put a couple prefolds under him just in case, otherwise I just carried the prefolds in the car so if he did wet I could put something between him & the wet. We honestly only ever had 2 or 3 accidents in the car & 1 of those was on a 2 day trip (6-8 hours each day) & the seat cover washed really well.

[~cassie]

I did pull ups in the car until he was able to hold his pee and was able to tell me he needed to potty and wait until we were able to get to it.

[Vegan Princess]

We did it right away too. No pull ups. I bought a Piddle Pad for $15 so I had piece of mind in case she did pee. And we keep a little potty in the car (I love my Potette - folds up tiny and can easily be brought anywhere). She's only had 2 emergency, need to pull over situations and thankfully, no accidents in the car yet (and she's been trained since around mother's day). I just asked her frequently in the beginning if she needed to go and also kept reminding her that she didn't have a diaper on so not to pee. make sure to go potty before leaving the house too.

Cindy

[Dazedstella]

OP here.

You mama's are awesome! We started carrying a potty-seat in the car and have worked up to pottying on "big white scary" potties in public restrooms. We have been in undies for two weeks- almost- and are already starting to wake up at night to ask to pee (still diapers at night) and are doing a good job of holding it until we get somewhere. No accidents of any sort yet- except for the other day- she peed on the couch but she was getting sick with a yucky fever and I didn't know it yet and she was watching Kipper- so sick-zoned-out etc.

We will keep bringing a potty in the car just-in-case, thankfully we have a mini-van and a wagon so both cars have plenty of room for potty-stops! Now if I could just get her comfortable with peeing in the grass.... lol

Also- just ordered a potette plus, those look awesome! Now we own (between our house, car and my parents) 4 toddler-potties.... we're potty-tastic!

[lifeguard]

For peeing outside what my Mom always did with me (& I did with ds until he mastered peeing standing up) was to stand behind the child, squat down & then pick up the child under the knees with their back to your chest. You can rest your arms on your own legs & their bum should be lowest point of their body. Works like a charm - they're comfortable & it's pretty much impossible for them to pee on their own clothing (watch your own feet though!).