Potette Plus Potty

Other moms recommended this seat to me and I'm forever grateful that they did. This little seat has saved us time and again. It has travelled through England and Wales. Attended festivals, fireworks, and parties. Done it's duty at the beach, in the car, on the plane, in public restrooms, in private restrooms, at the pool, at the playground, at the Botanical Gardens... you name it. The ease with which you can use it either as a stand alone potty or as a toddler seat on regular toilets is great. There have been countless times that we have had to use it pronto and pulled it out/set it up/packed it back up and got back rolling in record time. Our son is 3 years old and big for his age (42 lbs & 41 inches tall). It is a short little seat but he has no problems with it. He fits fine and it holds his weight easily. I wouldn't use it as his "at home" option because it wasn't built for that kind of use and it isn't as comfortable as the Bjorn, for instance, but it is great when we are on the go. He knows he has to hold himself down to avoid spills so we are not bothered by the fact that there is not a big cover for little boys. Our biggest challenge with the seat? We have tried using plastic grocery bags with outgrown extra diapers used as the absorbent instead of the Potette liners - we won't be doing that anymore. If you miss seeing the hole in the bag then everything leaks. We found out the hard way several times now so we are going back to the Potette liners. Otherwise it works like a charm. It is small enough that it fits in a backpack/diaper bag/large purse. I'm the mom that magically pulls the potty out of her purse at soccer in the public park when one of the kiddos needs to go right now, the public toilet is too far and people frown on just going in the grass. (Although most of the moms now have this seat too. We are all packing Potettes. Haha.) It has truly helped our little guy with his potty training and helps me avoid all of the extra wash associated with all of the accidents that would have happened if we didn't have this little wonder. Tips: 1. Lock the legs in place when using it as a stand alone seat or it won't be sturdy. When locked in properly the seat is very solid/sturdy. 2. Set the seat up in the car before you go on long drives/trips. It helps to have it already set up before you pull over to have the little ones use the seat. 3. We see the Summer Infant Keep Me Clean Disposable Potty covers for public toilets. They definitely help with the "ick" factor by protecting both your child and the Potette from coming in contact with any part of the public seat. 4. It is small enough to keep with you... so just take it with you. Easy peasey. My family has always teased me for grabbing it when we go out but they always are grateful I have it is the end!

I found this product while searching on Amazon for a portable potty seat. My 2 year old is pottying training, and while she does ok on "big potties," sometime public ones can be pretty gross (public parks, beaches, gas stations, etc) and sometimes the seats are way too big. I was initially looking for one of those little quad-folding plastic seats but after reading a lot of negative reviews of those (too flimsy, slippery, etc) , the Potette caught my eye. This review is of the Potette Plus, which I understand is different from the original Potette in that the seat is designed to do double-duty as both a self-contained portable potty (used with the accompanying plastic bag attachments) OR as a small potty seat (placed on top of a regular toilet). I'm not familiar with the original Potette seats but my understanding is that they don't have this secondary function. I was a little confused at how it worked, and it didn't look all that portable in the pictures but the price was right and I thought I would give it a try regardless.When I got the product in the mail I got a better feel for how it works. It consists of a small circular molded hard ring (the seat itself), with two half-moon shaped "legs" that fold either completely inward for storage, straight down to function as legs on a potty chair, or flanged out to function as a potty seat. When stored, it's certainly bulkier than a quad-folding potty seat but it's still actually surprisingly compact. It slips easily into all my diaper bags and it's certainly smaller than lugging along a separate small potty chair, which is what we had been doing before I got this. Figuring out how to put it on a big potty was a little awkward at first. It doesn't "fit" neatly on most potties so it felt a little slippy but I found that I was trying to place it too far forward and if I slid it back just a little bit it would nestle in between the two halfs of the toilet seat pretty nicely. The plastic seat itself is VERY sturdy. I think I could probably run over it with my car without even scratching it. It seems very comfortable for my daughter to sit on. It does occasionally slip a little side to side/back and forth since it doesn't anchor onto the seat like some home potty seats will, so you have to hold it and your child steady on some toilets (which is a good idea anyway). But I've never worried she's going to fall through or into the water.My daughter never blinked at sitting on this and in fact she'll tell me she wants to "go potty on the red (one)!" She is very comfortable with the product.I hadn't had a chance to use it as a self-contained potty chair until this past weekend when we went to the beach and she suddenly declared she needed to go. The nearest public bathrooms were really far away and I didn't trust we would make it. Thinking on my feet, I grabbed the Potette out of my backpack, set it up in the sand, opened up a diaper and set it underneath it and she immediately used it without any hesitation. (I would have used the accompanying plastic bag but I hadn't remember to bring any).I've read a couple criticisms of the size (i.e. the seat is too small) and the sturdyness. First, a disclaimer that my daughter is petite. She's barely two and she's on the small side, so size is not a concern for me. It's actually perfect for her, but but also I think that even a much larger toddler would be fine. It's a smallish ring (I'm guessing about 9" in diameter at the widest part) but they really don't need to have something that big if you think about it. Even if their bums hang over the edges it still serves the purpose fine (much as our grown up butts hang over the sides of adult toilet seats). Regarding the legs, to use them the potty chair position, you do have to push them in and click them into place. If you don't do that then this would be very unsturdy, true. But clicked into place they feel VERY sturdy and I would have zero concerns about my daughter falling. I suspect I could stand on it without it even wobbling, though I don't of course recommend that!It comes with a thick plastic bag that you slip it into that has been great for storage. I keep a bag of flushable wipes, and a spare bag insert in with the ring. These bag inserts, by the way, aren't that much to speak of. They are a big like a plastic grocery bag with a small very flat square of what I'm guessing is absorbent material like what you find inside a diaper glued in place in the middle. I haven't used one to see how much liquid it would hold but it doesn't seem like it would trap very much moisure. It looks like you could substitute a grocery bag in a pinch as others have suggested but I'd want one that doesn't have any holes!Bottom line is that I couldn't be more pleased with this purchase and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this heartily to anyone who is traveling with a child or who is looking for an easy-to-tote potty seat for being out and about in public places. This is going on the list of things I recommend to other moms (and dads)!