A potty chair, or simply a potty, is a proportionately small chair or enclosure with an opening for seating very young children in order for them to urinate and defecate ("go potty").[1][2] Potty chairs are a variant of the close stool, which were commonly used by adults before the widespread adoption of water flush toilets. There are a variety of potty chair designs. One type of potty chair, placed directly over the toilet, is called a "toilet training seat" and allows ejected fecal material from a young child to drop directly into the toilet bowl, therefore eliminating manual removal and disposal of the said waste from a receptacle beneath the hole, which is often a bag or receptacle similar to a chamber pot. Potty chairs are typically used during the potty training, also known as toilet training, of toddlers.
Usage of potty chairs greatly varies across cultures.[3]
Potty chairs have been used to toilet train toddlers as far back as sixth-century ancient Greece; a clay potty chair from that time period was once discovered in the Ancient Agora of Athens, and potty chair images can be seen in red figure pottery iconography.[4][5]
References
- Howard, Jacqueline (8 November 2017). "How the world potty trains". CNN. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- DiMaggio, Dina. "How to Start Potty Training". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- Gottlieb, Alma (20 November 2017). "Let These Globe-Trotting Lessons in Potty Training Flush Your Parental Worries Away". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- Kris Bordessa (2006). Tools of the Ancient Greeks: A Kid's Guide to the History & Science of Life in Ancient Greece. Nomad Press. ISBN 978-0974934464.
- Dion Sommer, Maria Sommer (2015). Care, Socialization and Play in Ancient Attica, A Developmental Childhood Archaeological Approach. Aarhus University Press. pp. 69–75. ISBN 9788771242980.