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We used a ring that sat on top of the toliet. My personal opinion is this...if I am going to potty train my child & no longer change diapers then why would I want to bother cleaning out a potty seat? Yuck! Also, wouldn't you just have to train them again to sit on the "big" toliet?
We really liked using the potty ring, the one disadvantage was that my daughter was afraid of public restrooms because they didn't have the ring. I had to lug it around in a bag for about 9 months. With my youngest daughter I'm going to "try" training her with nothing, but we'll use the ring again if we must.

totally agreed w/ absurdlittlebird, based on conversations i've recently had w/ friends who are working on potty learning with their children. i cringe to think of cleaning out a little potty seat with all of its nooks and crannies...

also, when i went to add the Boon potty seat to my Amazon wishlist, all of the reviews that I read said that the little hole was not big enough for most kidlets, and that the er, penis guard (?) was actually painful for some of them. i was bummed because i thought it was a really cool one (has storage, doubles as a bench that you can sit on by the tub for bath time).

but yeah, now i think we'll just stick him on the toilet when the time comes for potty learning, and skip the little potty seat. plus if i try to cram one more thing into our tiny bathroom we might go insane.

I was of the same mind as the previous posters, but I've found that my son likes to have his feet firmly planted when going about his business. I too hate the idea of cleaning out a separate potty, but it's either get the kid potty-trained earlier and wash a separate potty, or keep changing diapers and potty-train slooowly on the regular toilet.

You can buy a portable potty ring--it folds into a flat bag that's easier to house in a diaper bag. I double bagged mine and kept it in the sleeve reserved for the changing pad, because, um, EWWW! It wasn't as secure as the big ring, so my guy wasn't as comfortable using it, but it was a nice short-term solution.

I would like to potty train "early" and since my son isn't so stable I don't see him being able to climb a step to get up to the potty seat on a toilet. So I think the potty on the floor (I've been eyeing the Bjorn Little Potty) would give him more independence. Of course I'll help him in the beginning, but I'd like to see him eventually go on his own.

I wonder about that Ikea potty though. Can't beat the price.

The Ikea potty looks the easiest to clean. After potty training one child with standard small potty with lots of nooks, I am looking for something a little more streamlined. Also, there is no way my 20 month old is going to be able to get onto the large toilet by herself.

I also wanted to avoid the potty but found my daughter is terrified of the regular toilet.

We love the Boon potty. I have 2 toddlers and the first taught herself to go on the big toilet. But she learned to hold herself up. My youngest has a tendency to fall in so we bought the Boon. We store some small books on the side (to occupy him if its taking too long and he can't sit still) and I love the toilet paper on the other side. It's so easy to clean that my 10 yr old does it often...dumps it in the regular toilet, rinses, squirts some dishwasher soap and swishes. It doesn't ever get that gross or dirty because we pour water in half of it. This dilutes the pee and also makes poo float so it's less likely to make skid marks. Our only bathroom is upstairs and very tiny so I leave the Boon dowstairs. When the lid is closed it just looks like a bench and not a toilet. Hides very well. My kids love it.

Oops, I forgot to mention about the guard. My son just turned 2 and it seems to fit fine. He doesn't mind that it covers and I'm glad I have something there to hold it straight down so he doesn't squirt all over the place.

No potties for us. We have a toilet trainer that has a ladder which acts as a step. The sides of the seat have handles so the toddler can support himself. My advice for anyone thinking of buying something similar is to ensure that the seat and ladder are stable on your toilet seat. If it's wobbly, it'll just irritate you and your child.

So if you have a toilet trainer with a step and handles, how do YOU go peepee? Do you have to remove the rig? And how feasible would this setup be for upstairs and downstairs?

We have an ensuite, which we use, so the toddler effectively uses the guest bathroom. House guests have to remove the toilet trainer, or we remove it when we know guests are coming. It stays pretty clean and just hooks under the toilet seat, so you can just grab it by the (clean) handles and put it aside. Mind you, at this stage, the toilet trainer merely allows the toddler to be self-sufficient (in the beginning, it was to help him feel comfortable). At a pinch, he can go in a normal toilet, but someone has to support him and make sure he doesn't fall in. :-)

our Montessori (which was an infant program Montessori) did the potty training, and they didn't use potties or rings -- they got the children used to using a regular toilet, just sitting sideways.

When the little ones saw the bigger ones using it, they emulated them (they had regular pee-times when everyone lined up to see what they could do in the toilet -- and when someone peed or pooed in the toilet, everyone would clap and cheer -- got everyone excited about using the toilet).

It was great, as when we were travelling, our daughter had no trouble using a different toilet, and we did not cart around rings.