Potty recommendations please

Pisces

Our little boy is coming up to 18 months, so we thought we'd start introducing him to a potty. Appreciate he is still quite young, but we thought introducing him to it slowly and early might make our lives dryer in the long run!

Anyways, I've been looking for a potty, and they seem to cost anything from a £2 right up to about £25! Is there any benefit of the really expensive ones? Anything I should/shouldn't look out for?

Any help really appreciated. I bought our Ikea high chair based on recommendations from this forum, and we've been really pleased with it. Any potty training tips also much appreciated!

daveyjp

Cheapest you can find. Our daughter used hers about three times, probably because she was at nursery and they only take them to the toilet.. She quickly associated going to the toilet with sitting on a loo and that's what she wanted to do at home.

[Deleted User]

didn't want to read and run, but can't type for long. a basic one is fine my daughter and son use it, but we also have a potty chair, which i think they find more comfy as it has handles to support them getting up and down.

tips wise, go at their pace, watch for signs of knowing when they have wee'd or poo'd and tell you, which will then move to telling you seconds before they do it,then leading to time to get to potty. its all to do with nerve endings joining up and the brain and child listening to body signals. if they can't do this they are not ready.

finaly praise praise the slightest thing,even sitting fully clothed on the toilet. take him with you when you go so he can see what your doing, talk and explain to him, even if you think its going in one ear and out the other.

lastly, never scold an accident, make light and say never mind maybe next time.

good luck, i'm still trying to get my 2 and 3 yr olds 100% dry, hoping this summer, they konw the theory but the distraction of toys still lures them.

angelicmary85

Hiya,

I've never really been a fan of potty's so I bought a little toilet seat (it sits inside the regular toilet seat) and a wee step for my DD a few weeks ago.

They only got a couple pound each out of Tesco and she caught on really quickly to what she was supposed to be doing.

City_Girl_2

Hi,

We bought a couple of cheap ones for our boys from around 18 months and left them around for the boys to get used to them. We then invested in some slightly more expensive/comfy ones;) One of our boys has been trained since Oct 09 and it only took him a few days to get the hang of it, at 2 years 5 months, and our other son other is just showing signs of interest in the potty now at 2 years 9 months.

Good luck, you will know when he is ready but there is no rush at 18 months.

CITY

mumOf2wonderfulkids

ok i can speak from experience, i bought the fisher price potty, cost £30 at the time (not money saving at all!)
we got it because ds refused to sit down on a potty (or in the bath??) i thought it might encourage him to use it a bit more.
anyway it has a pretend flush with makes flushing sound and sings songs etc, it also senses when they have gone toilet and plays another tune,
and in my opinion, it was a complete waste of money!!! yes its fun and supposed to be encouraging but i dont think it had any more effect than the £2 ones.

to be honest if i were to do it again i would just buy a cheapo one and get a cheapo footstool, that worked fine for dd who was clean in a week, it didnt really make ds want to go on it more than a plastic one.
but now we have brought in the potty training chart where he gets a star each time, now THAT works wonders


oh and just edit to add, i second the previous poster about no rush at 18months, whilst DD was completely clean through the night at that age, ds is 3 in april and has only just become ready for training.

[Deleted User]

they will all get there in their own time, i tried to get my son done last summer about 2 and half+, he did it when he remembered, but was far happier weeing where he was and moving on, it wasn't his priority. however his sister watching in the wings decided to join in on the act at 17m knew what to do and was dry for several months until a few months ago, when it all went to pot. the novelty wore off or she got too distracted. so upon HV recommendation and against friends comments, i put her back in pull ups, and now 5 weeks on, she's nearly back to that point again and tomorrow we are going to try nappy free again.

my boy, well i've given up, decided to let him wear them until he turns round one day and says i don't want to wear a nappy anymore. every day i say nappies or pants, he always opts for nappys.

and yes i do feel social pressure, but its not my peers that have to cope with the washing and mess.

Nadstar

Bailey, after getting much stick from all and sundry about how lae my daughter was in getting potty trained (33 months) one day, she just asked to wear her pants and that has been the end of it all.... No messy transition phase whatsoever! I know she was late getting there, but it was certainly worth the wait in the long run lol xx

fernliebee

We just have a 99p potty from wilko, and got a trainer seat and step off freecycle. We are potty training DD at the minute (20 months) She was showing all the signs of readiness off her own back, and was asking to have her nappy off to use the toilet. We have had the potty around from when she was about 6 months old, as she had a lot of nappy free time, so if she started to go I would hold her over the potty just to save cleaning up as much mess. Not sure that this has made much of a difference to how soon she was ready, but definitely helps her associate the potty with where the wee wee goes iyswim. She uses potty and the toilet in equal measure, as only toilet is upstairs I am happy with this at the minute.

[Deleted User]

Thanks, its hard isn't it. He's now 39m going on 40, so it does frustrate me, as he will wee on the potty or toilet when i ASK him to, but he never decides to do it by himself, if i let him get on with it, its dribble through pants and trousers every time and with holding poo, which is more serious. Its still not his priority, playing tractors, cars and trains is. If he needs a poo he'll go and hide or do it in his nappy than tell me. Once discovered we do go to the bathroom for a clean up and put him on toilet to finish it off, so he does know.

Inside i'm extremely frustrated by it, but outside to him i'm cool and collect (most of the time).

Js_Other_Half

We got ours from Ikea - only a few pounds each. They were very stable and easily cleaned. We also got a training seat for our toilet.