17 answers

A Potty for Potty Training?

My 18 month old son is already showing signs of being ready to start potty training (hides to poop, follows us to the bathroom, poops at regulr times during the day, etc.). I wanted to see if anyone had an opinion about the different options for what kind of potty to by for him. I know I could either get his own little potty that sits on the floor or a seat that sits on top of the toilet. Are there any preferences out there and why? I am new to this and could sure use any help available! Thank you!

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I potty-trained all my sons and Child Care children without the use of an actually potty chair. I had not problems with using the regular toilet. If there was an aiming issue with boys facing fowards, I would just face them backwards (towards the tank, legs over the seat) and it helps get the pee into the toilet! Keep books, stickers, potty-area-only toys nearby to help with the appeal of sitting there.
He may be too young to actually potty train, but every child is different, and there are boys that will potty-train that early. My oldest son was interested, but it took a long time to be fully potty-trained from when he first displayed interest (a year).

1 mom found this helpful

I tried the stand-alone floor potty and the little seats to put on top of the big potty, and neither really worked. What finally worked for my daughter (after over a year!) was taking her to the store and letting her pick her own potty. She weighed her options really carefully, then selected a floor potty that sings and talks. She's been a perfect little potty user ever since, and now uses the big potty too.

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I potty-trained all my sons and Child Care children without the use of an actually potty chair. I had not problems with using the regular toilet. If there was an aiming issue with boys facing fowards, I would just face them backwards (towards the tank, legs over the seat) and it helps get the pee into the toilet! Keep books, stickers, potty-area-only toys nearby to help with the appeal of sitting there.
He may be too young to actually potty train, but every child is different, and there are boys that will potty-train that early. My oldest son was interested, but it took a long time to be fully potty-trained from when he first displayed interest (a year).

1 mom found this helpful

Well, I was actually going to recommend the Fisher Price potty - it worked great for us! Maybe it's distracting for girls, more appealing for boys? (I have a son as well).

I say try the Fisher Price potty. You can always turn it off if you don't like the music. And we never found the sensor to be too sensitive at all.

Hello B.. I bought just the generic Walmart brand potty "Safety 1st" and its both a little potty chair that you can take the seat off and put it on your toilet and the base becomes a stepstool. It doesnt have any distracting gadgets or music... its just a potty chair that gives both options. My daughter loved having her own potty chair the first time potty training...we had a lot of struggles....the second time however she did not want the little potty she wanted to go in the big potty so we put the little seat on our seat and the stool up to the toilet and she loved it. We still use the stool cuz she's not quite tall enough to get on the toilet by herself. Now I dont know how it works for boys but I found with girls...when they use the little toilet seat on the big toilet their pee shoots over the seat to the floor and such... be sure to use the pee guard that comes with the seats for boys cuz Im sure they've got a longer range. lol

Good luck and remember to stay postive! :) J.

We also used the potty seat that fit on top of the regular toilet for my son, and he seemed to like it best. He had a little potty chair at his grandma's house and he always seemed to pee on the floor when using it.

What caught my attention about your question was that he hides to poop. My son did the same. We were able to get him to pee on the potty relatively easily. It was the whole "poop thing" that he didn't like. It was like he was scared to. I know this sounds strange, but our pediatrician said to try this. When he would start to hide, we would put him on the potty, with his diaper on. After a couple of days he was ready to try without the diaper.

We then told him that if he went poop and pee on the potty for a whole week, marking the days on a calendar, his daddy would buy him a new fishing pole and take him fishing. He has not pooped in his pants since.

I hope this helps you out!!

I tried the stand-alone floor potty and the little seats to put on top of the big potty, and neither really worked. What finally worked for my daughter (after over a year!) was taking her to the store and letting her pick her own potty. She weighed her options really carefully, then selected a floor potty that sings and talks. She's been a perfect little potty user ever since, and now uses the big potty too.

Its to early! He is showing interrest thats normal. Let him go when he wants. But in reality you have another year or more before he can realy do it. Dont push it. Its just fun right now, so just have fun!!!

Just DON'T buy the Fisher Price potty that sings and "senses" the pee or poo going into the potty. It is super cute but WAY too discracting. And the sensor doesn't work. In the middle of my daughter sitting on it, it will say YOU DID IT! And start singing. And she didn't! So she'll jump up and dance around. Or flush it just to hear it sing.
It's a cute idea but it doesn't work.
Go for something very simple!
Good Luck!

I like the kind that fits on your toilet, they have side handles for your lil'one to hold onto and the one we bought had a step that came with that my oldest got a kick out of using. The one we bought was interchangeable and could be a lil one that sits on the floor also.

I loved potty training,it is so exciting when they finally get it!!

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