If you're searching for the perfect potty and bewildered by the options available, here's a toddler-on-the-street review of several current models. Want to know if yours is on the list, and if so, how it rates? Keep reading to find out.
Slate contributor Tom Bartlett and his wife brought four different potties into their home, and then kept track of which ones their three-year-old son used most often and which were easiest for him to operate. At the end of the experiment, they gave each model a score of up to 10 points in each of the following categories: kid friendliness, cleanup, design, and value.
The lowest score went to the Fisher Price Cheer for Me potty:
"The chirpy, over-the-top patter is transparently insincere. It's the same psychotically ebullient tone that certain adults adopt when in the presence of someone else's child—"What's YOUR name?!?" and so on."
And the winner? We were not surprised to learn that the highest score went to the Baby Björn potty:
"This is hands down, no-kidding-around the best potty chair I've ever seen. It's not as spectacular as Jack Potty, nor as nifty as the Boon, but the design is simple and elegant. It's lightweight, stable, super easy to clean, and the splash-guard is built-in and doubles as a handle for the reservoir. Emptying is a dream... There's no lid to get in the way, no batteries to go dead, no lights or buzzers. My son approves of the Björn, too, and insists on having it next to his bed. Also: cheap! Nineteen bucks. Honestly, just get this one."
Read the full review — which includes a couple of scores that surprised even us — here.
Related: Roundup: Potty Chairs
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Comments (21)
This is timely, thanks. Although, it doesn't look like the BabyBjorn is $19 anymore--the link he provides to Amazon has it as low as $22, depending on the color. They seem to be $30 at Target. That's probably the one I'll get anyway, though.
Thanks! I was just bemoaning my fate to wander the internet in search of a potty chair for our 2 year old, and you've pretty much solved it for me! Wahoo!
We have the Boon (pictured above). The side doors don't stay up, but otherwise it's good. My daughters pull out the bucket themselves and dump it into the toilet. (Too much information?). I also like that it doubles as a stool.
We have the Bjorn.
Bought it for our daughter, who never used potties -- she went straight for the toilet with a step-stool. Our son though, loves it, and uses it regularly. He likes having his feet on the ground, and even with a step-stool, the toilet is too high. (high toilets here in Switzerland!)
The Bjorn is really great --simple, sturdy, cleans up well.
We have the ultra simple Bjorn in white and it's working out great. It follows the same principle as the Ikea Antilop highchair - zero nooks and crannies. Amen.
I searched high and low for a "cute" potty chair for my daughter. Come to find out she prefers to sit on the big potty with her stupid Dora toilet seat thingy.
Also, Ikea has a super cheap plain potty that would serve just as well as the bjorn IMO.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30141225
We have the IKEA one, which is a slightly simpler version of the Baby Bjoern. And at $1.99 on sale, it couldn't be beat.
We have the Boon and LOVE it. Potty trained both our little lady, an recently our little man. We have no complaints. Though its footprint in our tiny bathroom is sizable...
The bjorn was our back up plan, if this one didn't do the trick.
I wonder, pennycarnival, do they stay up if you have the cover lid open -- bypassing the "lock feature" or are they still bum?
We used the Bjorn. It was wonderful. Super easy to use and clean. No crevices for dirt/pee to get in. Also, they make a small, travel version that we also used a lot. Kept it in the car at all times!
Good Lord--that Boon chair has waaaay too many bells and whistles! 2 and 3 yr olds just need a BASIC potty (like the Bjorn or Ikea) because, if given the chance, they will sit there and mess around with all that extra stuff instead of getting their business done. I knew someone who had an Elmo potty (please...) Her daughter thought it was a toy! Well why shouldn't she?! It's Elmo and it played songs! She dragged that thing around the house and used it for a chair to watch TV. Her parents let her do it too.
Take homepoint: Adult toilets are basic white and not very exciting. They also never leave the bathroom. Your child's potty should function the same way.
We tried various chairs but the hands-down best for us has been the Froggy Friend Potty (fisher price, Target), lovingly called "Froggie Potty" at our house.
Tried one like Bjorn but it was way too narrow for our "solidly built" son and he'd complain that it hurt his legs. The Frog is wider - and for him being a boy it was great that the front of the potty was higher w/o having to use an extra little piece to snap up or whatever.
It's possible to skip the potty chair altogether. We did, and it worked out great! Starting on the grown-up potty makes it easier to be potty-trained when you're out and about in the world -- potties at Target and Grandma's house and restaurants and preschool look just like your potty at home, and you don't have anyone getting in a huff about not having his/her "special potty chair."
We did buy one of those smaller seat rings to set on top of the regular potty (not permanent -- just sets on there when the kiddo needs to go), but we never used it. It was much easier to start on the real deal.
(FWIW: I have a boy, and we potty-trained him at 34 months in less than a week. If you're training younger kids or older kids or girls, YMMV.)
We never needed any sort of potty item, we reckoned if our kids were old enough to be trained they needed to get their clothes on and off easily and they needed to be comfortable using a real toilet. There is no way I would be marching through a shopping center, or on any outing, with a special potty chair... the real thing or they aren't ready. Works for us.
We had the bjorn little potty, the boon potty, and the bjorn ring that fit on the toilet. The boon was way to big for our small bathroom and because we have higher than "standard" sinks, it wasn't useful as a step-stool. Both the little potty and the ring got used a great deal. My son had bowel issues and the little potty provided better positioning (more like squatting). He never had trouble going in a real toilet when we were out and about, but he definitely preferred his little potty. It finally had to disappear from the house while we were on vacation because he was so attached to it.
We've been using the Baby Bjorn "Little Potty" since my son was about six weeks old. We just hold him on it for a minute during diaper changes and if he goes then it keeps his diaper cleaner longer. He'll probably just keep using the little potty until he's able to use the regular commode. We love it.
we have the bjorn and the ikea ones....both work just the same but the ikea one is like $2. can't go wrong!
my daughter is very slim...and couldn't sit on the ikea potty for more than 30 seconds because it hurt her bum! it's a very hard squared off plastic.
once we switched to the 4-in-1 soft seat potty/step stool her potty training progessed quickly. now that she's big enough, she uses just the soft seat topper portion on the big potty...with an ikea step stool. while the 4-in-1 was great as a potty, the step stool portion was just too massive for our tiny bathroom.
We have the bjorn - it's awesome, no complaints. We also have the bjorn toilet potty seat cover thing that is great once they're ready to go in the actual toilet. We have the IKEA potty chair, which is very similar in concept at least, in our minivan for potty emergencies. It's TINY and not very comfortable so I don't think I'd use it for everyday but it's great for the car and the price is unbeatable.
I had the boon and it was horrible! For a boy at least...
The little flap didn't really catch what was inside, he didn't like sitting on it, it was huge, and the hole (at the time) was way too small. They sent us a new seat with a larger hole but it was still just not good. Cute design though!
But, as far as potty training goes, good design shouldn't trump usability. Just get the Bjorn seat that goes on TOP of the real toilet. No mess to clean up and totally sturdy!
We have the Bjorn and among all the great reasons already listed, one more big plus for us is that it's perfect for small babies if you're interested in potty training early. It's the only potty I found that actually props up and supports a 5-month old baby who is still wobbly sitting on her own. I started potty training my first at 7 months and my second at 5 months and they were absolutely comfortable sitting on this potty. The high back offers great support for such little ones.
Until they were able to sit very well on their own, we were unable to use any other potties that our friends had in their homes, they simply could not balance themselves on the other ones, even while I held them on it. Babies just "fit into" the Bjorn potty, it's perfectly contoured for their chubby shape!
As for travel, I always carry a folding travel potty ring in my diaper bag. It folds up really small and has worked out great for us. Though my 2-year old can use a regular toilet without a potty ring at this point, I don't really like her sitting directly on and touching the toilet seats in public places, since she has to use her hands to balance herself on it.
Maybe it's not as cute but my son insisted on the Fisher Price potty because he wanted one that looked like a real potty. I didn't put any batteries so he has no idea that it makes sound. It's easy for him to empty without help and the lid easily converts into a potty ring. Sure it doesn't exactly go with our bathroom decor but if he's willing to go in it that's all that matters.