Good Choice if Your Child is "Scared" of Real Toilets
Written: Feb 29 '08 (Updated Feb 29 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It's very cute. My son enjoys using it.
Cons: The sensor for when your child "goes" senses other things too. Very chatty.
The Bottom Line: I won't claim that this potty is for everyone, but it was just what my youngest needed.
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| mizgnomer's Full Review: Fisher-Price Fun to Learn Potty |
At around 2½ years of age my little guy started telling us before he needed to go, but was afraid of our big (normal sized) toilets. I think he was accustomed to the little potties at day care, which are more kid-sized. He was even interested in watching big brother use the regular toilet, but refused to use it himself.
Having gotten rid of my older son's potty chair after he refused to ever use it (he always preferred the big toilets), I decided that my little guy would probably prefer a little one so we purchased the Fisher Price Fun to Learn potty, which matches a few of the other fun to learn toys he has. Luckily for us, the Fisher Price Fun to Learn Potty encouraged my son's interest in using the potty (without terrifying him).
Product Description:
The Fisher-Price Fun to Learn Potty is a child-sized potty chair for use in potty-training your toddler. Its style fits in with the other products in Fisher-Price's "Fun to Learn" line of toddler toys. It is made of a hard plastic (which is easy to clean, thank goodness) and has a variety of interactive features.
The Fisher-Price Fun to Learn Potty boasts 3 stages of usability to better suit your child's needs. They are:
1) The potty seat on the floor for a beginner
2) The back and seat (and electronics) can be detached from the base and attached to a conventional toilet
3) The seat alone (including the lid but without the electronics) can be attached to a conventional toilet
This potty seat comes with a number of fun, interactive features. There are various sensors so the seat can respond when your child does things such as lift the lid and sit on the seat, as well as a "reward song" when your child actually uses the potty. There's also a "flush handle" on the back of the seat so your child can mimic flushing (although the seat itself doesn't "flush" like a conventional toilet), and a roll of fake "toilet paper" -- each of which play sounds/a song/phrases when moved.
The voice used is a cheerful, childlike woman's voice. The words are spoken quite clearly and we have no trouble understanding the recordings. There are a variety of phrases, songs, and sound effects used for many of the functions -- so you don't get too terribly sick of hearing the same thing over and over again. The sound effects tend to match the motion or action -- such as a xylophone running down the scale when the toilet if "flushed", or a swooping "upward" sound accompanied by the voice saying "up" when the seat is lifted.
The seat and its sensors will automatically go into "sleep mode" if it doesn't pick up any movement for 5 minutes.
There are also a number of convenience features that make this seat easy to use. For parents, the "bowl" lifts out and is quite easy to clean. The hard plastic of the seat itself is also quite easy to clean when the need arises. For kids, built-in handles on the sides of the seat give your child something to hold onto when sitting on the seat or when being used on a full-sized toilet. A detachable, hard plastic "splash guard" is also included for use with little boys.
The manufacturer recommends this product for children starting at age 9 months. 3 "AA" batteries are required (not included).
Our Thoughts and Experiences:
As I said above, at 2½ my son was interested in going to the potty but was somewhat afraid of the full-sized toilets in our house. He was absolutely thrilled when we put together his Fisher Price Fun to Learn Potty and was excited that it was "just for me!" The interactive features kept him entertained and encouraged him to continue using the potty.
The "sensor" is a bit over sensitive -- or perhaps it's because I have a little boy whose "bits" get in the way of the sensors. The chair will announce, "You did it! You used the potty!" when in fact all he did was wiggle around a bit to adjust himself. While I like positive reinforcement, all too often the chair compliments him on something he hasn't done yet.
The potty is very lightweight. We haven't had any trouble with it tipping over, but it will scoot with a fairly light bump. We have it backed up against the edge of the tub in our bathroom so it doesn't scoot away from our little guy when he tries sitting down on it.
As with many baby items, your child may or may not react like mine did to this potty chair. My eldest child had a potty chair (without all of the bells and whistles) but he played with it like a toy rather than ever using it for what it was intended for -- and it didn't even have the interactive features that this chair does! My eldest refused to actually "go potty" in anything but a "real" toilet like what Mom & Dad used. My younger son was the polar opposite.
One thing that irks me about this potty seat is the fake toilet paper. The seat will actually tell your child, "Now get the toilet paper", but the roll of paper it's referring to isn't real (it is a plastic roll with a sticker to represent toilet paper), nor is there a place to attach real toilet paper to the seat (so we leave a roll near his potty chair). It is as though this seat is teaching my son to turn the fake paper roll after he uses the bathroom, not to go get real toilet paper. I suppose this aspect of the seat will work better if we go to "phase two" and attach the potty seat & back to the real toilet, where the real toilet paper roll will be nearby, but for now it's just weird.
This potty seat is rather loud and at times overly cheerful. I'm by no means a morning person, so as I'm getting ready in our bathroom in the morning and my little guy decides to use this potty, it has been known to make my morning bad mood just a bit worse. This is a very "happy" chair too -- with a smiley face on the flush-handle and a smile on each square of the fake "toilet paper". While there is no volume control, mercifully there is an on/off switch for the electronic features (although my little guy is used to them and knows that something is wrong if the sounds don't play -- he'll come tell us that the batteries need to be changed when really I've switched the chair off for a bit).
The splash guard is a bit large and obtrusive. While it would have been useful (we did find ourselves cleaning up the floor a time or two due to someone's bad aim), my son didn't like getting over the splash guard to sit on the seat, so we removed it. The splash guard is made of the same hard plastic as the rest of the chair, so bumping into it with sensitive private parts would not be a good thing.
There is some minor assembly required after you remove the product from its box. We assembled this potty a long, long time ago but I don't recall it being difficult to do. The instructions were easy to understand, consisting of both pictures and text to show you how to hook everything up properly.
Quickie Summary:
Pros:
+) 3 different modes of use - can detach pieces to use with conventional toilets
+) Bowl comes out easily for cleaning (and is quite easy to clean too)
+) Music/sensor feature can be turned off (for when the talking, songs, and sound effects get on your nerves)
+) Cute, cheerful songs and voices provide positive reinforcement
+) Variety to the songs/phrases, so you don't get sick of hearing the same thing over and over as quickly
+) Side-handles are built into the seat
+) Removable splash-guard
Cons:
-) It is rather lightweight - may scoot
-) No volume control
-) Seat is rather hard - not soft & cushy
-) The sensors are a bit too sensitive
Final Thoughts:
While I don't think this particular potty seat is for everyone (for example, my eldest wouldn't have used it at all or would have played with it like a toy), it was just what my younger son needed to get him over his fear of using "big" toilets. He liked having a potty that was just his size, and it was the only way we could get him potty trained in our house. The songs and interactive features made him smile and made him want to use the toilet at a time when he had been perfectly happy to continue going in his diaper/pull-ups. He just turned 3 last weekend and is finally now willing to stand up at the full-sized toilets to go potty (although if he needs to sit he'll still only use his potty chair). Having the option to use various portions of this seat on our full-sized toilet is a nice option that we may use in the near future.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 29.99
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Epinions.com ID:
mizgnomer
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Location: Tennessee
Reviews written: 306
Trusted by: 202 members
About Me:
Don't meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you're crunchy and taste good with ketchup
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