Potty chair

A young child sits on a potty chair.
Ancient Greek potty chair.

A potty chair, or simply a potty, is a proportionately small chair or enclosure with an opening for seating very young children to urinate and defecate ("go potty").[1][2] It is a variant of the close stool which was used by adults before the widespread adoption of water flushed toilets. There are a variety of designs, some placed directly over the toilet called "Toilet Training Seats" so the egested fecal material drops directly into the toilet bowl thereby 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 used during potty training, a.k.a. toilet training. These are very useful for young babies.

Usage of the potty chair greatly varies across cultures.[3]

Toddlers in ancient Greece used potty seats. A sixth-century BC clay potty chair was discovered in the Athens Ancient Agora, and potty chair images can be seen in red figure pottery iconography.[4][5]

References

  1. ^ Howard, Jacqueline (8 November 2017). "How the world potty trains". CNN. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  2. ^ DiMaggio, Dina. "How to Start Potty Training". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  3. ^ Gottlieb, Alma (20 November 2017). "Let These Globe-Trotting Lessons in Potty Training Flush Your Parental Worries Away". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ 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.