potty chair
{{short description|Toilet for young children}}
File:Urinating boy with a story.jpg
File:Potty, 6th century BC, AGMA, 225265.jpg
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").{{cite news |last=Howard |first=Jacqueline |title=How the world potty trains |url=https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/31/health/potty-training-parenting-without-borders-explainer/index.html |access-date=15 July 2019 |publisher=CNN |date=8 November 2017 }}{{cite web |last=DiMaggio |first=Dina |title=How to Start Potty Training |url=https://parenting.nytimes.com/toddler/potty-training |website=The New York Times |access-date=16 July 2019 }} Potty chairs are a variant of the close stool, which were commonly used by adults before the widespread adoption of water flush toilets. 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. Potty chairs are typically used during the potty training, also known as toilet training, of toddlers.
Usage of potty chairs greatly varies across cultures.{{cite web |last=Gottlieb |first=Alma |title=Let These Globe-Trotting Lessons in Potty Training Flush Your Parental Worries Away |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/let-these-globe-trotting-lessons-in-potty-training-flush-your-parental-worries-away |website=PBS NewsHour |access-date=16 July 2019 |date=20 November 2017 }}
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, and potty chair images can be seen in red figure pottery iconography.{{cite book| author = Kris Bordessa | title = Tools of the Ancient Greeks: A Kid's Guide to the History & Science of Life in Ancient Greece| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ojL0BQAAQBAJ| publisher = Nomad Press| date=2006| isbn = 978-0974934464}}{{cite book| author = Dion Sommer, Maria Sommer | title = Care, Socialization and Play in Ancient Attica, A Developmental Childhood Archaeological Approach| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=atYKEAAAQBAJ| publisher = Aarhus University Press| date=2015| pages = 69–75|isbn = 9788771242980}}