You want to start potty training with your child, they are approaching the right age, so you go to the store and pick up a potty... easy right?... Well no! not so easy... maybe 10 or 20 years ago but now the choice of potties can be overwhelming. To help you with your choice and to discover the best model for your child we present you with brief resume of some of the different models available.

Basic Potty:
This is the basic traditional design, normally a one piece coloured plastic potty that sits on the floor. They are cleaned by tipping the contents down the toilet and can be easily rinsed out. These are the cheapest option and as such some people have several in different rooms of the house in case of emergency.

Basic Potty Chair

The basic potty chairs are usual made of one piece of plastic and are designed to sit on the floor. It can be cleaned easily by dumping the contents into the toilet and rinsing the bottom which is convenient. Basic potty chairs are relatively cheap as well so it's easier to keep one in several rooms of the house. It's not fancy but it does its job.

Theme Potties

These are basically designed to help motivate the child to use the potty. They can be quite large and expensive. They include amongst others;
- Royal Thrones, a high backed seat with armrests and four legs and a potty bowl sunken into the seat of the chair.
- Full miniature copies of a regular toilet complete with seat, lid realistic flushing sounds.
- Musical potties that play a tune when something is deposited in the bowl.
- Potties shapes as trains, cars, animals and all manner of things including television and film characters.

Toilet Seat Hole Reducers

This does exactly what the name sounds. It is a mini toilet seat that sits inside the existing one effectively making the existing 'hole' smaller. These are very useful for the child as it can bypass the whole 'potty' stage letting the child sit on the proper toilet comfortably without fear of falling in. It also gets the child used to using the toilet and makes them feel more grown up as they are using the toilet just like the rest of the family. If the toilet seat reducer is used then it is very important to use a non slip step or box for the child to the actually get up onto the toilet on their own and also to rest their feet on once sitting down. This has the added advantage of not requiring special additional cleaning.

Hybrid Potties.

There are models which include all of the above models in one. A base with a potty bowl inserted that will probably play music that has a seat and a lid too. As the child progresses the seat can be removed and used on the toilet and the base upturned and used as a step.

This is an outline of just a few of the different models available today. You should choose the potty which will best suit the needs of your child. If you are having trouble deciding then you might want to take your child to the store with you to show you which one they like the most. This will also help in your efforts to get them to use it.