Potty Training Advice - Ladson, SC

Updated on January 22, 2009
A.R. asks from Ladson, SC
22 answers

We've been wondering which is best - the little seat that attaches to the big potty, or his own special little potty? Not quite ready to start potty training him yet, but we do want to start getting him used to the idea. He is 18 months old now. Appreciate any advice you can offer!

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J.

answers from Spartanburg on

My little girl has always used the potty insert. the one downside is I had to help her up initially. I have seen one in one step ahead that is attached to a stepstool with rails. I just couldn't deal with cleaning the little potty!

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B.F.

answers from Atlanta on

When my son FINALLY cooperated with potty traing he liked his little potty. He was almost 3 1/2. On the other hand, my daughter ALWAYS wanted the "big potty" and she was 2 1/2.

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J.F.

answers from Macon on

Either is ok, the main thing is to have encouragement. 18 months is not too late to start but start immediately. Have the dad take the son in with him most of the time. E Boys do take longer to train usually. As long as the youngster can reach the large one, it'll save you problems latter, use it and a step to reach it. Explain that it's grownup to use potty and not his own clothes, but don't fuss if he doesn't take to it right away. Praise the good "goings".

I had a boy first, then a girl. The boy was harder to train.

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F.R.

answers from Atlanta on

Hi A.,
I use the attachment because that is what Ive seen work best and it seems to be less work because no nasty clean up. My daughter is 22 months and i think she'll be fully day trianed by 2. We started sitting her on the potty probably around 11 months or so. Not to train her, just so she could hang out there and get acclaimated.

Also, I think it's convient because you can take the attachment where ever you go with ease.

Also, you dont have to transition the child, as you would from a potty chair to a real toilet.

The down side is that sometimes my daughter insists on sitting on the potty for up to 20 minutes. I really get bored waiting in the bathroom with her. If I had the potty chair, I could just put it in the room with me.

I hope this was helpful.

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K.W.

answers from Macon on

Most of them are both and I would try that. The one we used for our daughter is a 3 in one: starts as a little potty that has a seat and a removable cup, then the seat can easily snap onto a regular toilet, and the potty flips over and becomes a step stool. It was under $20 at Wal-Mart and my 3 year old still uses the seat on the big toilet and uses the step stool everyday.

Good luck!

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D.H.

answers from Charleston on

A.,

I bought both for my daughter, but she never really used the separte little potty (she would sit on it to hear Elmo talk!). She used the little toilet seat insert on the "big girl" potty. We kept a small foot stool right in front of the toilet so she could start going by herself. After a few months, she gave up the insert and started learning to balance on the adult potty seat. She was fully potty trained at 32 months old, but still has a few accidents. Best of luck! D. H.

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D.H.

answers from Atlanta on

What we did was both. We used the little potty on it's own for about a week and once they got the hang of it, we used the insert that you can find at Home Depot for the big potty. It worked great. (We taught our boys to sit down and go potty, then once comfortable...probably about a year or so later, they began to stand up...we've never had to clean up any messes. Good luck!

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S.T.

answers from Atlanta on

You cacn start with a toddle seat on the potty, reason I say this is because when they have a potty seat on the floor, they tend to get up at anytime which cause to much work to keep them on there. Well on the potty seat on the big toilet they may feel much bigger because they are using somethin bigger and they know that you as parents are using it also. Give them a book to look at while they are on the potty. I have a childcare and I have dealt with potty time for over 15 years. Hope everything goes well and be patience and it may take some time.

S.
Child Care Provider and mother of 3

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S.B.

answers from Savannah on

We started with the little special potty and then she decided she wanted to use the big potty like mommy...so we got her a seat for the toilet and a stool so she could get up on it. Now we have the special potty upstairs and the seat downstairs where we spend the majority of our time. She'll use either one...but I kindof like the one that goes on the toilet the best since you can just flush that mess away. The special potty you have to clean everytime...and when they poop...ugh...it's gross.

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M.A.

answers from Charleston on

We started with the seat for the toilet, then realized that our son was more comfortable when his feet were on the floor, so we now have both, one for each bathroom. The potty is in the bathroom with the tub, so both our boys got used to sitting on the potty before bath. Even if there was no peepee, they were rewarded for sitting naked on the potty at least once a day. It's a good way to get them used to the potty.
If you end up getting one of each, then your son will have a better choice -- potty or toilet (not potty or diaper!).
One more thing: if no potty or toilet seat is available, place your son sitting on the regular toilet facing the back/tank. He can hold onto the lid for stability as well as you keeping a grip on him.
Good luck!
M. (mom of 2 boys, 4 and 2.5)

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K.D.

answers from Atlanta on

I have four kids and I found that the insertable seat works best. There are many benefits to using the seat versus the separate potty. The first being that you don't have to clean a separate item and the second greatest one is that you eliminate the 2 step training move from little potty to the "big" potty.
Best of Luck to you and keep enjoying the "gift" of your little one!

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J.M.

answers from Savannah on

I got my son the safety 1st 3-in-1. You can use it either as a little potty or take out the insert and put on the regular toilet. It actually works out great for when we are going to someone else's house b/c he refuses to sit on anyone's potty but his!

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A.S.

answers from Atlanta on

Get both! The Baby Bjorn products are nice and not too expensive either (baby bjorn little potty and also the seat attachment which is portable). Your son may find he prefers one over the other (or you). I found that having a seat to put over the big potty was nice for being out and about. I just carried it in a regular backpack with a change of clothes and plastic bag when I was potty training. It worked great at stores, restaurants, and others' homes and cut down a little on the worry about germs.

I just read a great little book that I picked up at the library called "Early Start Potty Training" by Linda Sonna which has lots of great insight and tips, especially if you want to start getting him used to the idea on some level now.

Good luck!

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M.N.

answers from Charleston on

I would buy own special potty. I started traing my daughter by showing her what I was doing. She would follow me and sit on her special potty. Sometimes she would pee and sometimes not, but it was her potty. We now keep the potty in the car. And we will soon be using it to teach our other child.

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B.

answers from Augusta on

Go with the padded seat that goes on to the big potty. And , this is important, DON'T START UNTIL HE SHOWS INTEREST! If you start too early it will only take longer. Most boys are not day trained until they are 3-3.5yrs. If he's not ready and you push him it will become a battle that you will not win. The last thing you want is a battle over potty training.He will rebel HARD.

http://children.webmd.com/tc/toilet-training-topic-overview

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J.J.

answers from Augusta on

Hey A.,
I hear so many people say boys are hard but I found it to be really easy. Of course I did live in CA at the time and was able to let my little boy run around naked in the yard. He had just turned two years old and the pediatrician asked if we were potty training and my honest answer was no and she scolded us. So we started immediately and put him in pull-ups. We would let him pee outside on the fence... we had a privacy fenced in yard. Like a boy, he liked seeing the design his urine made on the fence. In the house, we put a stool with large standing area in front of the toilet for him to stand on and pee. We just told him how daddy does it and he wanted to do it like daddy. And yes, my husband did pee on the fence to show him, LOL! We did use the potty seat on the toilet for #2 and it did have the little guard in front because he sometimes would forget to push it down when he was going. The most important thing was to ask him every ten to fifteen minutes if he needed to go and creating a schedule. We made him go every morning right when he woke up and would have him try to go before he sat down for a meal. After looking for potty techniques for my daughter, I found something called a peter potty. It's a urinal for little boys. It supposedly flushes like a real one. You can find it on line a target. Some of the stores carry it. He was potty trained within that first month. He did have accidents a few times afterwards but that was because he wanted to stay out with all the other kids and tried to hold it in. Oh yeah, we also used temporary tattoos for when he went the right way in the house! Daddy has tattoos, LOL!

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S.K.

answers from Atlanta on

A.,
his own special potty serves two purposes 1) it is his
however long he needs to sit will be more comfortable
than the big potty (although there will be times he'll
show interest to us it if he sees dad or mom use it),
2) the small potty is good for travel so that he will
not regress, especially during the pull-ups stage in
this he learn controlling his tee-tee,( for poop keep
a gallon jug always in the car or van pour just enough
to cover bottom of potty so the poop doesn't stick use
doggy poop bags to discard dump in trash wipe with
clorox or lysol wipes potty is clean and you are ready
to roll. It seems like a lot of work but it is not I did
with twins and they were fully trained by 2 1/2 .
Good Luck

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V.E.

answers from Atlanta on

the potty chair worked best for my 4. I did not haave to worry about their falling getting up or down and they could easily learn to take themselves to potty. That is when they are truly toilet trained. Up to that point you have sorta just trained yourself. V.

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S.G.

answers from Savannah on

I got both for my son and when we really started on the training, I let him pick which he wanted to use. He would go back and forth but for the most part used the potty chair. For potty chairs, I had the 3 in 1 from First years or safety first (can't remember-it was a loaner from a friend) and it wasn't very boy friendly. The bowl is very round and my son seemed to either pee over the top or right at the side and it would splash all over. That would cause it to run down the side of the bowl and puddle on the inside of the base of the chair. Gross right!! Well when we were headed home for Christmas I wanted a simplier potty to take with us and I was looking at the Baby Bjorn (way expensive-best bet is Ebay!) and then I found that Ikea makes a 1 pice potty for 3.99!!! It is a great little potty and my son loved it! Very boy friendly too. A little bit of a pain to dump and rinse but he learned to poop on it a week after he potty trained for pee!! Unfortunatly it is a in store buy only so you can't order it online but you can get it off Ebay I found for about $5 plus shipping. Still cheaper than Baby Bjorn!!!

Now that my son is trained, I had to take the potty away because he was going in there and pooping and not telling me!! So now he uses the ring on the big potty. All I have to do is put him up there.

Good luck!!
S.

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J.S.

answers from Atlanta on

Boys and the little potty are tough because of the tee tee going forward. My son ended up banging himself more than anything on the little pop up piece. If you can get a potty that has a permanent rise in the front, that is much better. It should be smooth and require the legs to go in rather than just abusing a tender area. When I got the right potty, it was great, because there was no helping up and down, he could just run and sit whenever.
J

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K.M.

answers from Atlanta on

We had both types, but my boys (3 and 5 now) both used the ring exclusively. They had no interest whatsoever in using the little potty. For us, the training potty was a waste of money.

Good luck!

K. in GA

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M.Y.

answers from Atlanta on

I bought his own and the seat on the toilet, and they both, in my opinion, were a waste of money! My son did so much better w/ just the regular potty. He showed interest around 18 mos. He didnt like the thing I bought, nor did they fit him well, and he does great just sitting on the regular potty!

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