Toilet or Potty?

[Hunni Bee]

What do you all find easier to train kids to use, and what do you use?

I've potty trained (on my end) at least 20 kids. I find potties to be completely extraneous and never used one. I had one parent try to bring me a potty for her daughter to use at daycare and it was despicable - covered in pee, poo, crayon, dirt...(insert vomiting emoticon). That's my main beef with them...they can be unsanitary and require too much handling/cleaning...plus you have to at some point train the child to the toilet.

Some people swear that a toddler cannot learn to use the toilet first...like my mother. We were all trained to potties, and my nephew, 8 months after being pt'ed, is still exclusively using a plastic potty. He can barely sit down on it anymore

I plan to skip the potty with my little girl...although I'm sure one her grandmothers will have bought her a pretty pink potty by her first birthday and I'll be training her to it at gunpoint

Just curious at what you guys do...

[Familycare71]

Here is my thing... WHY would I use a bowl for a child to go in that I need to empty, clean, then sanitize when there is this amazing invention of indoor pluming located (generally) next to it!?! :confused:
I would not ever be willing to use one in my home. I have all children train sitting backwards on the toilet- it is sturdier(takes away the fear of falling in), boys naturally aim down and I flush when they are done!!
I have a family with a 3 yr old starting that uses a "seat" on the toilet- yeah- we will be done with that by the end of the week!

[TheGoodLife]

The ONLY reason I will use a potty chair with my DDs is, at first, they sometimes pee so little that I cannot tell when it's in the toilet. I have a musical princess potty chair. Didn't use it too much with my DD1, will probably have to use it more with DD2 since she is more stubborn and doesn't always tell the truth (she'll say she pottied when she didn't, ect) I will NOT use it with my DDKs, though. I state that in my contract- I have no desire to be cleaning THAT up for anyone but my own kids- even that is hard at times! ::

[Margarete]

I have been using both, and letting them choose. Sometimes they use the big toilet, sometimes the little potty. I have 3 girls that have all switched to undies 3 months or so ago the same week (one set of twins, and my own daughter). It's actually been pretty nice to have 2 be able to go at once while we were in the process. One would need to go to the bathroom, and they would all want to go, it went really smoothly, and they helped to encourage each other.

That said I am so ready to be done with the little potty, one usually chooses that if it's available, but they all have used and are generally comfortable with using the toilet (with a fold down seat... I have this http://www.amazon.com/Bemis-1583SLOW...+in+child+seat . When we are out, I help hold my dd on normal toilets.

I used a small potty with my daughter while she was younger for a long time for the introductory level of training... I would go to the bathroom, and set her on the potty and she would usually go morning and night (if I knew she needed to poo though I would hold her over the reg toilet.. she would grunt beforehand, and I could get her there). I always thought those baby potty trainers were crazy, but it worked really well for us on the introductory level. She night time trained early, but wasn't fully trained until a little after 2yrs old when the twins were ready for undies (not something we pushed).

not sure how to answer the survey... both for both

[Brooksie]

I use the potty for all training kids simply for the fact that my bathroom is upstairs and my DC room is downstairs. Considering potty trainers are asked to try to go potty every 30 minutes its really hard to grab the little ones (14 mo and 15 mo) and get both girls (2.5) upstairs to try to potty. We would probably do nothing but work on training all day. My dd does like to use the potty after hours but still prefers the toddler potty. And each training child has their own potty so everyone can go together

[Crazy8]

I just use the ring on the regular toilet. I bought a potty seat 13 years ago when my DD was getting ready to train and after a few days of cleaning it I decided we'd go straight to the toilet. I never used a potty seat again and I've assisted in potty training many kids!!!!

[LK5kids]

I use a potty chair, seat cover or just the toilet.......whatever works the best with each individual child. All I want is them trained!!

I am just not on the wait til honey is ready at 3 1/2 to 4 yrs. potty train!

[Meeko]

Toilet only.

Hate potty chairs!

[cheerfuldom]

I use a very basic, easy to clean potty mostly because i train my own bio. kids much younger than the daycare kids train. I start before or right around 2 where the daycare kids are almost all training at right around 3 or up to 4 years old. I find my 2 year olds much more receptive to potty training when the potty is small, easy to use and doesnt include a scary flush at the end. We then move to the ring on the toilet. I have to have that there. Two of my kids here are special need and while they are both 4 now, their body control is weak and they both will regularly fall IN the toilet if the ring is not there! All this to say is that my max number of kids here at a time is 7 and the most I have had training at one time was three. What I can deal with may be very different than what you providers with a dozen kids or more can deal with.

[Blackcat31]

I have both a potty seat that snaps onto the regular toilet and a potty chair.

I let training kids use whatever their parents start them on and whatever the child feels the most comfortable using.

I've had kids use all methods, including boys who take their bottoms completely off and sit on the toilet backwards.

Whatever works...

[blandino]

I used to have a potty chair, I moved it last week and am no longer using it. I have a DCB who was 7months past PT and still using it. I would try and take it out of the bathroom, and he would have accidents. The real reason it bothered me is sometimes he would have a BM and not tell me. Or because it was in the bathroom, I would walk in and find one of my other kids had used it. To me it's supposed to be a stepping stone, not a full-time use thing. So I have now gotten him used to the big toilet, and the small toilet will not be returning. I have a small seat that fits on top of the toilet and that works fine for my kids.