Potty Training: The Gear

After potty training 2 kids, one girl and one boy…. you can imagine the various “potty gear” we have gone through. Here’s the round up:

Baby Bjorn Potty Chair – This was the first seat we got and with my daughter we started training with this. We still have it 2 yrs later and my son is now using it. Its lightweight, simple and easy to clean. No complaints about this chair with my daughter. With my son, however, there were several times where he peed over the front notch. So at first I had to take my finger and hold his Jr. down – but now, he knows to angle himself down for the most part. I’m still having to clean up piss outside of the seat sometimes though. *sigh*

Kalencom Potette Plus – When I potty trained my daughter, we alternated between the Bjorn chair and this one in the house. Primarily because I also wanted her to get used to this seat (which we would be using when we are outside of the home). She didn’t like using it actually flipped out on the adult toilet at first, so we just practiced using it with the bag liner as if we were needing to do an emergency pee stop somewhere. I also started to get lazy about lugging the Bjorn up and down the stairs, so it was nice just to have the Kalencom set up downstairs. I actually really love this seat. Its not as light-weight and small for keeping in your diaperbag, but we still took it everywhere with us for a while. I liked that it raised a child up more when over the adult seat – especially in yucky public bathrooms. But I especially loved the bag liners! We have definitely had to bust the potty in the SUV trunk move a couple of times! Once my daughter got the potty thing fully down, we didn’t lug the Kalencom in the “Kids Backpack (aka Toddler version of diaperbag)” and just left the seat in the car for those emergency trunk potty times.

Soft Potty with Handles – You see these ones everywhere, and with every character imagineable. Once we got over the smaller chairs on the ground, my daughter started to be more comfotable sitting on the larger toilet using the Soft Potty Seat. She was able to put this on the toilet herself and using a stool, get up and go pee. What I didn’t like about this – was the pee that would sometimes end up underneath the seat or betwen the soft pad and seat. Gross. Needless to say, we moved on to the built-in potty seat next.

Bemis Toilet Seat with Built-in Potty Seat – Pure genius. It may not be as comfy as the padded ones you put on top, but its space-saving and easy for child to flip down on their own. I seriously have no major complaints about this seat. BUT, I will tell you that my son (who was just potty trained about 6 weeks ago) does not yet like this seat. He actually prefers to spread wide open across the adult seat. In actually, this has worked better for us anyways, because it allows him to angle his Jr. down and not spray outside the toilet onto the floor. Go figure.

Little Looster Booster step stool – When I found this stool, it was thoroughly impressed with the reviews that I read on Amazon. Once we got it in home, I can see why. One of the major benefits I find with this stool is that it wraps around the shape of the toilet. So not only can it be space saving in that sense, but it also gives the child more stepping space to get on the toilet or push off of (if you know what I mean).

Folding Potty Seat – This is another one that is everywhere and comes in nearly every character. We got this when my daughter no longer relied on the Kalencom when we were out and about. It is extremely light-weight and portable, so we were able to easily tuck it in with us anywhere. We still use this one to this day (she’s now 4) when we are out and she needs to use the public restroom. I put it over a toilet seat cover though – of course. Public restrooms = germies. My son has yet to like using this seat. I’m still using the Kalencom with him in public restrooms. However, I predict that when he wants to start using this folding one, I’m definitely going to have to keep putting my finger on Jr. to keep the pee downward. Maybe he’ll be ready to pee standing up by then!?!?