Warning - contents of this review are of a toilet nature! (Mothercare Winnie the Pooh Potty Chair)

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	Mothercare Winnie the Pooh Potty Chair
Date:	28/03/07 (165 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to use, motivational

Disadvantages: none

In my mind, one of the biggest hurdles when bringing up small children, is getting them through potty training! We are soon to start upon this process with my younger daughter who has just turned two and will be using the Winnie the Pooh Potty Chair, which we bought when we were trying to toilet train my older daughter.

We had actually had a couple of false starts with Rachel, even though we'd bought lots of books and had a potty all ready. She just didn't seem ready though, as she would sit happily on the potty and do nothing, and then as soon as she got up would wee all over the carpet and apparently not even notice!

As a consequence, we put all thoughts of toilet training to the back of our minds for a couple of months, and when she was about two and a half we went for a fresh start! A friend of mine had suggested that in order to involve her more we should let her choose her own potty. So we all trooped off to Mothercare where, in the toilet training section, we were faced with an array of potties - all different colours and shapes, and some even played a tune! However, being a big fan of Winnie the Pooh, Rachel's eyes were immediately drawn to this one!

The first thing to say about this potty is that it does actually look like a chair. It has a high curved back with arm rests which will give an extra degree of support and security for a little one who might be sitting on it for quite a while - which is often the case in the early days when you are waiting for that magical wee! Also, because it is a chair, the child does not have to crouch down as low as she would on a normal style potty. The second thing to say is that inside the chair frame, it has a bowl which can be easily removed. This is very useful as to take the entire chair to empty down the toilet each time would be rather cumbersome! Instead, you carefully take out just this central bit which is then quite easy to empty into the toilet! WARNING! Your chid may attempt to copy this! The third thing to say is that it has a large sticker of Winnie the Pooh on the back of the seat, and I suspect it was this that really attracted my daughter to it!

The whole thing is made of rather sturdy plastic - blue for the main chair part and blue for the bowl. Because the bowl is removeable, not only is it easy to empty but also incredibly easy to clean thoroughly, which is obviously a must. It also has a splashguard which apparently makes it possible to be used by both girls and boys (I wouldn't know about boys only having girls!)

So overall, it seems strong and fairly comfortable - well as comfortable as any potty can be. Rachel did get quite prominent ring marks when she had been sitting on it a while! And did it work for her? Well, yes it did! She loved sitting on her new potty and surprisingly it didn't take too long for that wonderful first wee - which of course was praised up to the hilt and rewarded with a lovely sticker! We won't ever really know how much was down to the potty itself, but I'm convinced it did help! Now we only have to go through it all one more time!

Once Rachel did not have a need for the potty as she started to use the toilet, both girls did look on it as a toy for a while. It was either another chair, or a hat or visor for the head! Obviously now it's starting to be used again we have to stop all that!

It is not a cheap potty compared to what you might pay just for your basic model - in fact at the moment it is selling in Mothercare for £14.99. However, if anything is going to help in the tricky business of toilet training - then it has to be money well spent!

Summary: A good little potty to encourage toilet training!