Potty chairs? Try-out and splash guard

My boys are starting to show signs of being ready for PT, so I thought Mommy better get ready too! I've been doing a lot of reading and thought I was prepared when I took my boys to get their potties today. We've decided on potty chairs. All the books say 'let them try them out to see what fits'. Went to three stores and the chairs are all in boxes! Hrmm. Did you all have your kids try out the potties or just hope they'd fit? My boys are fairly normal in size. Also, the books say to get a toilet that doesn't have a splash guard or at least one that's removable because kids will scrape themselves climbing over it. All the chairs I saw have built-in splash guards! Okay... What have other moms of boys done?

 

We tried lots of different ones, and the Baby Bjorn ones are the best for my boys. I also really like the Potette Plus, it folds up nicely and I always have it my backpack.

 

I bought these for my boys early on but the only time they really use them is when we go camping. My one DS insisted on sitting on the toilet to go and not on the potty chair. I had first bought one of those potty seats for the toilet and they prefer to use that even though at times they would "miss". Now, 99% of the time they pee standing up and that started about a month after they were PT.

I just came across this one and wish they sold it when I began PT.

 

I did not try out potty seats. My girlfriend got the potty seat that Judy linked her son and had success with it. For my DS, I got the talking Elmo 3 in 1 potty (it will change into a step stool) and it worked well for him. Good luck!

 

We never tried them out either. We got 2 of the froggy potties and had no issues with it not having a splash guard on it, it goes pretty high up in the front. As for the potty rings, I hated the splash guards bc they always seemed to be smashing their penises down into it. We just taught them to point it down and bought new toilet seats that have a toddler seat and the adult seat underneath...figured it would be more worth our $

 

We didn't try them out either... I figured there are many things in life that we as parents just get for them... or others and there aren't choices. yeah, kids are basically the same size and should fit any of the potties! haha!

anyway, we did the IKEA potties which are similar to the small Bjorn one and that cute froggie one. If you have an IKEA nearby, they are only $4 each!! otherwise those froggies are cute. the IKEA ones don't have a basin that comes out, but still works great, no extra parts to clean and they are stackable if you need to save room at some point.

as for the toddler seat and the adult seat all in one, we had one and then something got bent and the hinge didn't work well and it started slamming down... (not good)... by that time we noticed that both kids would just sit on the regular seat and hang on somehow so we didn't need it anyway, now I feel bad b/c my mom got one of those for their new house and they don't need it... ahhh...

good luck! and yes, the boys can learn to point their penis down, but more often than not, our boy just stands and pees. but you do need to tell him to point down when having a bm b/c he might pee at the same time!

 

We had two different kinds. One was the froggy potty (that was linked earlier) and one was a more expensive one that my SIL past down. I thought the one my SIL passed down would be great...had a nice cushy seat, built in splash guard, etc... Honestly, I hated it when DS used it! It was messy and way too many parts to clean. I ended up liking the cheap froggy the best (especially for a boy!).

 

Thanks for the suggestions and thoughts everyone! I decided to buy two froggie potties and hope for the best!

 

We have the baby bjorn ones (a bunch). But if I had to do it again I would definitely get the froggies for my boys. We have so many splash issues with the Bjorns. And when I've used the frog ones at friends' houses a few times, it's been soooooo much better on this front.

 

I got the First Years Training Seat when Jack had his hypospadias repair, and we were supposed to "catch" him peeing (long story, don't ask). I thought it would be easier to try in a potty, but it didn't work out. We did keep it, and it works pretty well. Honestly, I just can't see how they are supposed to pee in the tiny cup provided without either missing or splashing, so I took it out and let them pee into the main compartment. ardon: The nice thing about this seat is that it's just the right height (easy for them to get on and off themselves), and you can take the top off and put it on the big potty if you want. When you remove the little cup there's no splash guard to scrape them up, but that doesn't seem to be an issue with the small potty chairs anyway. They're standing up to get off, not scooting forward like on the big potty. And the splash guard isn't a huge benefit; it was MUCH easier than I thought to get them to point their penises down. :good:

The scraping with the splash guard is more likely with a potty ring (we have THIS one. My guys have had some owies while dismounting from the big potty.

I like them using the big potty WAY better than the potty chair, because I hate cleaning it out. :bad: We ended up getting one of THESE toilet seats for the downstairs toilet and I LOVE it! Easy for the boys to climb up on, easy to clean, and no adults sitting on a Thomas the Tank Engine potty ring by mistake! :lol:

 

I have the froggy one for my oldest that we just potty trained... never even considered having them try them out... lol I guess I didn't think about it much ahead of time. we kinda just did it without a lot of forethought and it worked out fine. He really wasn't even showing much signs of being ready before. I just decided to give it a try and if it hadn't worked we were going to stop. The froggy one is great.