Potty Seats...which Is Best?

Hi there - The Baby Bjorn Little Potty Seat works really well for us, as well as the Baby Bjorn toilet insert. Great potty products! And for on the go, the pottette, the one that works both as a toilet insert as well as a stand alone, is great! Good luck!

Hi J..
I have three boys. My baby is going to be 20 months. We have just started potty training as well. I found that none of my boys like the stand along potty. They all perfered the potty seat that goes on the toilet itself. It is also a lot easier to clean. I did have a stand alone potty in the car because I did not like public restroom. Ikea sells these really inexpensive potty for about $4. It is very much like the Baby Bojorn potty. Great for the car or just testing to see if which he would like. I do cloth diapering and I monitored the patter when he would go and started with that. I now change only one diaper. Good luck.

I have girls, but my cousin has boys and we both used the Baby Bjorn potty chair AND potty seat. Easy to use and clean, basic and sturdy.

We did not use a separate potty, just a ring that fit over the regular toilet. BUT, I would WAIT to train him! Two in diapers is much easier than just sitting down to nurse and having to run with your son to the bathroom, or just getting the baby settled and you have a potty emergency! Kids don't know how to plan in advance when they have to go, and usually, once they realize it, they have to go right now!!!

Also, most boys train later than girls anyway, and it's not uncommon for children to regress and want the attention they are used to getting from mom, when a new baby comes and takes it away. Diaper time for your older child is a great way to continue with dedicated one-on-one time for your son that the baby can't interrupt.

Good luck with both children - enjoy the chaos.

Dear J.,
Congratulations on your soon to arrive baby!
My daughter and son both had their own potty chairs and neither one of them would use them. They dragged them around the house and hid toys in them, but that was about it. My dad made a wooden stool to keep in the bathroom so they could get up and down easily.
The big potty worked great for both of my kids.
Best of wishes!

When my daughter was 18 months I bought a great 3 in one (potty chair, snap on toilet seat thing and a stepping stool) the problem I have is if the lid falls down it locks. So I ended up getting a white Baby Bjorn potty which I love. It's totally basic and my daughter seems to really like to sit on it. There's a high back and the side is perfect for her to hold on to as she lifts off the pot. This probably sounds strange, but it's white so it looks like our grown up potty. I don't know if that makes a difference, but I thought it didn't hurt (I didn't have a choice of colors though).
I do recommend a potty you can move. That way, while you are working on potty training you can have the potty in the room you are playing in and it won't be a mad dash for the bathroom and you'll have more of a success rate. Also, you can travel with it to the parks and other places that may not have easy bathroom access. Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who hasn't even started potty training her daughter :O) but has listened to her friend potty train her 2 kids.
Best of luck,
C.

i agree with the advice just before mine. get both. we have the little potty in the living room and then he can make a pee while he's playing and not have to be removed completely from his scene. the toilet insert is great, especially for poo's. get yourself a mini stool and you can sit in there with him and read books while you're waiting. if you're smart, you're little stool will be sturdy enough to be a step up for him as he gets older (we didn't do this...)

I'm not sure how well it's going to work for my son, but I'm going to try with the seat on the toilet first. I did the potty chair for my daughter and it worked just fine, I just didn't like cleaning it out :). And she seemed to do just fine when she had to sit on a real toilet in public bathrooms (and where their wasn't a potty chair). So I'm going to try skipping it and see what happens. He won't be able to climb on by himself for a long time, but I didn't make my daughter go by herself without help until she was 3. I wanted to make sure she knew how to wipe REALLY well first. But by 2 1/2 she was able to get herself up there (stools are helpful with this, unless you want your toilet paper roller coming off the wall...haha!). But keep in mind potty training is a process and I've heard that boys take a bit longer to get it down than girls.

When we started potty trining our daughter, we bought 1 of each and she was able to choose which she wanted to use and which she was more comfortable with.

We have the Baby Bjorn toilet seat. Our son was thrilled to be able to sit on the toilet just like mommy and daddy when we got the seat for him at 18 months. Of course, he didn't actually want to use it instead of diapers. He's 37 months now and we just did away with daytime diapers.
The toilet seat made sense to me since that is the end goal, but maybe for a smaller child a stand alone potty would be good. We have an extra high step stool from Ikea that we put in front of the toilet, so climbing up is not a problem. The Bjorn seat is nice because it fits very snugly on the toilet and feels secure.

Hi J.,

Congratulations on your growing family :O)

For my son, I used the potty seat that fit on top of the potty. I just removed the "peepee guard". I did this originally for easier cleaning. I was even able to travel with it to Auntie's house, a tailgate, etc.... and be abel to remain consistent because it traveled well.

I did have to have a small step-stool for my son to get on/off eaiser. I was trying to teach him to NOT need my help at all.

I remember a friend of mine long ago (before motherhood), and she had her sons sit on the potty facing backwards. They never used a potty seat. I can see why she did it, because it does work.

Anyway, I hope that helps you :O)

~N. :O)

I have a girl, but am also doing the potty training sooner rather than later for the same reason, except my littles are 17 months apart. My daughter has used the potty occasionally since birth, but we've gotten serious about training in the past couple of weeks, 'cause she learned to take all her clothes off in 10 seconds or less (she'll be 2 next month). What we're liking is to have a few very simple potties--they kind that are just one piece, like the Baby Bjorn Little Potty--cheaper ones are sold in dollar stores around here, too. We have one BBLP, one that looks like a pig, and one that looks like a frog, both of which came from thrift stores. I just make sure there is always a potty close to where my daughter is--including outside--so that she can go when she needs to. So far, so good. At home, I'm letting her run around "au naturel" indoors, which makes life easier (& I figure this way she'll get the desire to do so out of her system), but she does have to wear clothes outside, usually with panties. Pull-ups for bed & for going places.

J.,

Hi,

I am in favor of the ones you put on the toilet- less transition to the potty because they start on the big toilet to begin with. I got a little seat to begin with, but my son was afraid of it so we went straight to the big potty with a seat insert and that is working really well.

Good luck~

Molly

I want to try the fisher price stand up urinal for the peeing. It looks cute.

Hi J.,

I say go with the one that you put on top of the toilet seat. I brought the potty chair and then switched over to the one that you just put on the toilet seat. My daughter didn't like the potty chair, she thought it was more like a toy...never even sat on it. So we switched and use the one that is over the toilet seat. She seems to like it more.

No potty chairs with washable bowls! I agree, those are disgusting!!! The potty seats with handles are awesome. Helps the little guy get up and stay up. Put a small step stool in the bathroom. He will need it to wash his hands in the sink also. Here's a sample of one with handles:
http://www.amazon.com/Kandoo-Soft-Contour-Potty-Handles/d...

Also, the pee-pee guards for boys are useless. They bump their little wee wees on them while they try to get in and out of the seat. Get one with a detachable pee pee guard and throw the stupid thing away. You'll have to teach him to tuck instead.

Once he goes to standing to pee, get rid of your fabric showner curtains if your tub is anywhere near your toilet!! A few words of wisdom from another mom! Learning to stand and aim is a whole different ball game!!! :-)

I love the Baby Bjorn potty chair. It's got a ton of great features. It's really easy to clean and to empty. It's stable, and the bowl is shaped in a way the boys rarely pee on the floor while sitting on it (not the case with many others I've tried). I also keep one in the back of my SUV so my son can pee in it if we're at the playground or wherever. You'll get used to cleaning a potty just like changing diapers. I also like that unlike the potty seats on a toilet, my son can go by himself (he needs pants with a stretchy elastic versus buttons/snaps and zippers). For the toilet potty seat, I have to help him up and down -- he's not super coordinated. The Baby Bjorn comes in lots of colors and you can move it where it's most convenient. For instance -- put it in his room during naptime. In the livingroom for initial potty training (or the back yard when outside). Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Bjorn-055115US-BabyBjörn-Potty...