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"). Potty chairs are a variant of the

close stool A close stool was an early type of portable toilet, made in the shape of a cabinet or box at sitting height with an opening in the top. The external structure contained a pewter or earthenware chamberpot to receive the user's excrement and urine ...

, which were commonly used by adults before the widespread adoption of water flush

toilets A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human waste (urine and Human feces, feces) and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry toilet, dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be desi ...

. There are a variety of potty chair designs. One type of potty chair, placed directly over the toilet, is called a "toilet training deat" 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 A chamber pot is a portable toilet, meant for nocturnal use in the bedroom. It was common in many cultures before the advent of indoor plumbing and flushing toilets. Names and etymology "Chamber" is an older term for bedroom. The chamber pot ...

. Potty chairs are typically used during the potty training, also known as

toilet training Toilet training (also potty training or toilet learning) is the process of training someone, particularly a toddler or infant, to use the toilet for urination and defecation. Attitudes toward training in recent history have fluctuated substantial ...

, of

toddlers A toddler is a child approximately 1 to 3 years old, though definitions vary. The toddler years are a time of great cognitive, emotional and social development. The word is derived from "toddle", which means to walk unsteadily, as children at thi ...

. Usage of potty chairs greatly varies across cultures. 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 The ancient Agora of Athens (also called the Classical Agora) is an ancient Greek agora. It is located to the northwest of the Acropolis, and bounded on the south by the hill of the Areopagus and on the west by the hill known as the Agoraios ...

, and potty chair images can be seen in red figure pottery iconography.

References

{{Authority control Toilet training