Before you leave home, try to get your child to sit on the potty or toilet. Just suggest that your child sit on the potty, and tell her it's okay if nothing comes out. Then hope for the best. This helps to show your child that it's okay to use public restrooms. Once your child is fairly comfortable with using the potty at home, you can introduce her to using the toilet in a public restroom.
Many parents carry tissue and wipes to use in bathrooms that are short on supplies.
An adult should always accompany a toddler to a public restroom. Sometimes parents will need to be creative if using the facilities is awkward for a dad with a daughter, for instance. There isn't one perfect solution, although it helps to choose child-friendly destinations in the first place. A dad can ask a mother to take his daughter into the women's room or, better yet, look for a private family bathroom or a handicapped bathroom. Meg Zweiback is a nurse practitioner, family consultant, and associate clinical professor at the University of California at San Francisco.