The Best Urinals for Potty Training

Many boys prefer to pee standing up. One problem. Your toilet is too tall for your little man to pee into without making one monster of a mess.

That’s where potty training urinals come in. Essentially a boy sized urinal, a training urinal will allow your little one to practice his aim at a comfortable height. Potty training just got exciting for young boys!

You may be wondering whether a training urinal is just another piece of baby gear that will end up in the junk pile with the rest. While some parents love training urinals, others think they are a complete waste of time.

Lets take a look at the arguments for using a training urinal

• checkPee like Daddy – Children learn by imitating their parents. If your little boy has seen Dad pee standing up then he will probably want to go to the toilet the same way. Your little boy will be much more enthusiastic about potty training if he can go to the toilet the same way that Dad does.
• checkHe has to learn sometime – Whether you like it or not, one day your little boy is going to pee standing up. He might as well learn how to aim while young. It is much less embarrassing to clean up after a boy who is potty training than one who is much older.
• checkMakes potty training easier – Everyone is different and some boys take to potty training a lot quicker if they are able to pee standing up.

While a urinal is a nice to have item it is not essential and you will still be able to potty train your little boy using a regular potty.

There are three different styles of potty training urinals available. Lets take a closer look at each.

The hanging potty training urinal attaches to the side of your toilet with a hook, located on the rear of the urinal. Generally made from a single piece of molded plastic, this is the most basic form of potty training urinal on the market.

Once your baby boy has finished fighting imaginary fires, you simply unhook the urinal and empty it in the toilet. It’s so easy that your little boy could even empty it himself!

AdvantageS

• Easy to empty
• Cheap

Disadvantages

• Need to be removed when adults use the toilet
• Can only be mounted at one height

Located on the rear of this style of urinal is a series of suction cups. These suction cups not only allow you to mount the training urinal at any height but also on many different surfaces, from tiles to wood.

Suction cup urinals will usually come with two separate pieces. A base station that connects to the wall and a plastic urinal that can detach for easy empting.

Now I don’t know about you but I dislike suction cup urinals. Have you ever placed something on the wall using suction cups only to have it fall down moments later? Well imagine that some object falling to the floor but this time it is filled with pee.

AdvantageS

• Can be mounted at any height
• Can attach to many different surfaces

Disadvantages

• Uses suction cups
• Harder to clean

If you want to give your toddler the most lifelike urinal experience while potty raining then you will want to go with a standing training urinal.

Because of their larger size, a standing training urinal has a larger pee catcher area than the other training urinals. If you want minimize the cleaning up then a larger area to catch pee is a huge bonus.

Some parents use standing training urinals outdoors. No worrying about spills and when the time comes to clean the potty, you simply spray it down with a hose.

AdvantageS

• Most stable out of the training urinals
• Larger area to aim
• plusCan even be used outdoors

Disadvantages

• Takes up more space due to bulky size
• More difficult to empty

lets take a look at some of the features to look for when choosing a training urinal for your child.

An aiming target is essentially a spot in the urinal for your little boy to aim his stream at. By giving your little one a point to focus on, he is less likely to sway his stream left and right; resulting in mess.

Aiming targets can be as simple as a sticker at the center of the urinal. Some aiming targets move when sprayed, further motivating your little boy to aim straight and steady.

If a urinal doesn’t have an aiming target you can always place a sticker at the center of the urinal.

If you look underneath your training urinal you may notice little feet. These feet allow your training urinal to stand on the ground without having to be attached to the toilet or a wall.

While this may seem like a great idea, it does not work so well in practice. Your little boy’s stream has further to fall when the urinal sits on the floor. Not only does this make it harder to aim but also results in pee splashing out of the urinal.

Take a look at the training urinal above. Notice anything funny about it? The sides of the urinal are flat and quite shallow. If your boy was to bounce his stream off the side; pee would go everywhere.

You want to choose a urinal with a rounded design. All walls should slope inwards which will help any wayward urine find its way into the bowl below.

The bowl itself should always have a rounded bottom. A flat bottom will result in pee bouncing and splashing out of the bowl when pee hits it.

Lets take a look at some of the more popular training urinals available.

Featured Image Source: Flickr

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