Traveling with small children -bathroom

What ages?

You mean public facilities or the hotels?

I am specifically concerned about the lack of toilet seats on toilets in restaurants and public places
The kids are 7 and 3
Is there a travel seat I can buy?

This is a completely reasonable concern. I encountered a hole-in-the-floor toilet in the restroom at the train station in La Spezia 22 years ago. I wasn’t expecting that! No toilet at all. Just a hole and a place marked where your feet should go. And a man mopping up the woman’s restroom.

I never encountered that again, and I don’t recall any instances of no toilet seats in 3 trips to Italy. Stick with restrooms in restaurants, hotels, museums, etc. With small kids, I understand that you might need a toilet quickly! Italians are very kind to kids especially, so I’m sure if you have an urgent need and bring the kids into any of these places and say “Toilet?” (pointing at the youngest child), they will direct you.

Margie, there's NO way you'd want to try and sightsee carrying a toilet seat around. Really. Yes, you might run into biffies here and there sans seats (we have). Practice with the kids at home, and with a 3 year-old along, "go" every time the opportunity presents itself. You never know when that next opportunity will be. Those opportunities can usually be created if willing to spend a little bit at bars (which are not like ours in the US) for a coffee, bottle of water, Italian soda, etc. for the privilege of access to the facilities.

And yes, Italians generally like children and will likely be sympathetic to a need to go NOW.

Where will you be traveling in Italy? It appears from your posting history that this isn't your first trip?

We will be in Lake Como. I have told my grandchildren they they will have to “go” when we are in a place with a good restroom. We will see how it goes
In the meantime, my husband is exploring the possibility of fashioning a portable foldable light weight seat
Who know? This may be a million dollar idea

One hand against the wall behind the toilet, bent knees and lean back, no need to sit. J

When our then 3 year old grandson spent 2 weeks with us in Italy, he LOVED all the different toilets there --- different ways to flush (like buttons on the floor and handles to pull), sinks with foot pedals, and bathrooms in novel places (like out in the courtyard of a restaurant). And he was not (and still isn't) a kid who tends to like new situations.

I think his parents always had wipes ready and made sure he didn't wait to go until the last possible second. Luckily, all the toilets we encountered were very clean and it was not a big deal to him that some toilets did not have the lift-up seats we are used to.

Even though my husband and I have, uh, experienced more hole-in-the-floor toilets in Italy than many people on this forum have (at least half a dozen in the last 20 years), most were in some pretty out-of-the-way places. And only one was yucky.

You gave me a good chuckle, thanks
One of my grandchildren is a girl, so we will see how it goes
Having visited northern Italy many times, my most favorite bathroom story was in a concert hall in Bergamo where the facility was a very elaborately tiled hold in the floor
Let’s hope we don’t experience anything like that

Wow. Nancys8 makes it sound like a game --what will we see, how does it flush, does it flush, report back to everyone. What I pick up from this is that the adults can lead the way making it into a game. It wouldn't hurt to teach them how to squat, either. Love the attitude and will try it with my fussy granddaughter.

I love her approach also and will definitely use it
It will be part of the fun, and the experience which is why we are taking the kids

We want them to develop a,love of,travel at a young age

I just came back from Italy, and I saw the porcelain hole in the floor at a site across the lake from Stresa. And I saw plenty of toilets with no seats. Can’t you just line the top of the seatless toilet with some tp and have them use it?

And if they’re squeamish, avoid all train toilets, if possible. ; )

On a couple of occasions in France, I discovered that a multi-stall women's restroom had a mixture of standard and hole-in the-floor toilets. I don't know whether one might encounter that arrangement in Italy as well.

Found these on Amazon, at $7.95 "Rockland Guard - Disposable Toilet Seat Covers Flushable Paper Travel Pack (50-Count)".
Personally, I do not see the difference between sitting on the porcelain rim or sitting on a toilet seat. I would wipe either with toilet paper if I don't have my paper covers with me.

We have traveled with a folding seat that folds down to 1/4 of its size and is very small. You can find them on Amazon or Target. I’d place it in a ziploc bag with some cleaning wipes to clean the seat if needed. Good luck!

Sorry, but from the bottoms' (lower) point of view, what is the difference between the plastic seat and the porcelain?

Besides that the former material is more porous and therefore ten times less hygienic?

I mean, have you ever wondered why nobody uses those plastic seats to the point that shopkeepers quit replacing the broken ones?

Thanks for the Amazon tip, I will check it out
Regarding “seatless”toilets, for a 7 year old girl this can be challenging and downright icky. Hopefully she will listen to her grandmother before we leave our apartment for the day, or we will get lucky with the facilities when we stop for lunch
Either way she will become a seasoned traveler by the time she turns 8 , which is part of the point of taking the grandkids to Europe

Washrooms in North America are not alway the cleanest. Travelling by yourself, no other adult? Like a vanity licence plate I saw on a car with 4 small children in it as they got out to come into the restaurant we were eating in: PB4UGO in your hotel or before you leave the restaurant. You can check out the restroom before you eat to wash your hands and will know how to address the situation.
Also depending on where you are, you may be requested not to flush TP or any other items such as seat covers down as it may plug their system.

Dario, for one thing the porcelain is colder! It is also narrower. For us women, we have no choice but to always sit.

Or hover. Not everyone in the world sits.

That's why I said to teach them how to squat. The Turkish toilet would be easier. I used to find shoe marks on the seats entering some stalls used by women from Pakistan and India. No fuss, cleaner.

I'm in Italy now with my son (5 years old). Yes, generally he can stand, but well, sometimes we need to find a public toilet and he does need to sit. And we have encountered several (like, at least 10) hole-in-the-floor toilets. So they're definitely still a thing in parts of Italy.

I do understand your concern, because he's small and when he needs to sit, (whether it has a seat or not), he typically also needs to put his hands on the seat/porcelain bowl to hold himself steady. ICK ICK ICK. My biggest advice is to buy a pack of sanitizing wipes and keep them in your bag at all times so you can wipe hands or toilet seats down as necessary. They will also come in handy for cleaning hands and faces after gelato :)

Other than that, though, he's been fine and has handled the wide variety of toilets encountered here with interest, rather than distrust. Maybe you could find pictures of different types of toilets on the internet to show them beforehand? My son does a lot better with new things when he's at least seen/been told about them in advance. And it could be a fun internet search for y'all together haha!

Thanks so much for all the great advice, and chuckles
This should be an interesting part of the trip, and educational
We leave July 20, and return August 1. I’ll report back with the “results”

This summer we ran across Do and Don’t graphic signs in a few toilet stalls in Germany. Sit and don’t stand on the rim in one location. Sit for males and don’t stand to pee in another location. We’ve even seen this sticker sign in private homes, asking males to sit.

the porcelain is colder

That's a Merit, not a Fault. It's totally irrational, but The Cold gives the impression that it's been a while since somebody's else bottom was there.

It is also narrower.

You have a point here; I thought that women could and would seat close to the vertex of the ellipse, but it seems not.