Toilet v potty - help needed please!

[spursmummy]

DH and I are "discussing" whether it's best to train dd (2.2 years) on a potty or on a child's seat on our toilet. dd quite happily sits on her potty and on our toilet - doesn't do anything yet but she has dry nappies most mornings now so I'm thinking training time can't be far off. I think toilet training would be cleaner and want to keep encouraging her to sit on the toilet (I understand some children are scared of toilets whereas dd loves sitting on ours), dh has said that when we go out anywhere it'd be easier to have a potty with us so we're not caught short. What worked best for you? And did you have trouble making the switch from potties to toilets?

Get a cheap & cheerful version of both and see which she prefers? DS never took to the potty much. He did a few wees in there, but very quickly progressed to the toilet (in fact, didn't need a kid's seat - he liked straddling the 'big boy's seat', as long as I assured him that he wouldn't 'fall down the hole' ).

I never took a potty out and about, to be honest. Couldn't be faffed. He had a couple of accidents out of the house, but quickly learned to tell me when he needed to go in time and we'd find somewhere. We stayed close to home when toilet training (it was over the Xmas holidays) so we were usually in the park (would take him to wee behind some bushes) or on the high street (McDs always good for clean toilets that they don't mind parents with small children using).

Dd will use either. It was easier taking a potty with us at first - mainly because when we fist took her out she didn't seem to realise she was "allowed" to wee in the public loos...in the end I ended up sitting her on her potty in a disabled loo while I sat on the toilet and wee'd and she finally did one (she must have been holding it a while). Now that she's been out a lot more she likes using the toilet instead so we don't bother taking the potty out. It's still useful to us cos it means I don't have to struggle up and downstairs with her (I'm pg).

Hasn't caused her any confusion.

we are sort of half way between potty and toilet at the moment. sometimes DD (2.3) wants to go on the potty, sometimes on the toilet, as long as it isn't on the floor/in her pants i'm not bothered .
TBH i'm not that concerned about the switch to toilet only, and think it will gradually come.
for out and about we are finding a 'pottete' invaluable, as it can be used as both a seat for the toilet or a standalone potty, and it's very portable.

I potty trained DD1, which was all fine of course, but cleaning out pooey potties is really pretty unpleasant, so with DD2 we trained her straight to the loo (she was about 22 months so still quite small but was absolutely fine with this). I have a child's loo seat for her which she will use at home, but she is quite happy for me to hold her on a big loo when we are out - much much easier than dragging a potty around, you can always find a loo somewhere. I also have a 'toodle-loo' fold up child's loo seat which is easy to carry around to use on loos when out, but in practice I don't use it that much as she's happy for me just to hold her on the big seat.

So having done both, I'd say I found getting DD2 to use the loo straight off was much more convenient than using a potty.