Archive for the ‘Potty training’ Category

Potty training goes high-tech with new iPotty

Thursday, January 10, 2013 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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iPotty

The iPotty aims to keep kids entertained during toilet training.

Which product is stopping people in their tracks at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week?

The new iPotty, from CTA Digital. Who would have ever guessed?

“Everybody walking by the CTA Digital booth at CES 2013 does a double-take at a colorful plastic object on the ground,” writes Amanda Kooser in a story for CNET. “They stop and stare. They take pictures. One woman declares it the best thing she’s seen at CES.”

This toilet-training device with a special holder for an iPad allows kids to be entertained while learning to use the potty. At only $40, the iPad doesn’t come with this potty, but it does include a special splash guard for your iPad as well as a pee guard that’s placed at the tip of the pot so your fancy tech gadget doesn’t get wet.

Ridiculous? I certainly think so! The American Academy of Pediatrics has made it clear that young kids shouldn’t be in front of screens and as a mom, I’d recommend training kids the old-fashioned way: with a good picture book. But this crazy product, which will be available on Amazon next month, does win a few bonus points for cleverness.

Is the iPotty the craziest baby invention ever? Take a look at these other weird and wacky baby products and then decide.

Photo of mom potty-training kids at restaurant table sparks outrage

Friday, September 7, 2012 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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A Utah mom had people’s jaws dropping when she potty-trained her twins in the middle of a restaurant.

Kimberly Decker was one of those restaurant patrons who was shocked when she saw the incident take place at the Thanksgiving Point Deli in Utah. Decker snapped a photo and posted it on Facebook, according to KNTX-TV. The photo went viral and has appeared on television news stations across the country.

Decker says the mother in question lugged portable potties into the restaurant, placed them on chairs and sat her children down on them. At first Decker thought the potties were booster seats but when the mother stripped off her children’s clothes, she realized the twins were going to the bathroom—in the middle of the restaurant in front of other diners.

“She had to undo the jumpsuits, and take them all the way down so they were completely nude, with the jumpsuits down to their ankles just eating their chicken nuggets, sitting on little toddler potties,” Decker told KSL-TV.

Any parent knows that potty-training a toddler is tricky and tiresome. Moms and dads go to extremes to help their children give up diapers, often carrying portable potties in car trunks so they can easily pull over and let kids do their business on the roadside. Or when you’re at a playground without toilets, a portable potty comes in handy. But should portable potties be used in plain view in public places? Definitely not! You take your kid behind a tree or if you’re in a restaurant, you take your child to the bathroom. Or better yet, you keep your kid at home until he’s potty-trained.

Decker told KSL-TV that she had recently stayed at home for several days with her own child to help him learn to use the potty, and she was baffled that this other mother was bringing this private matter into a restaurant.

“The more you thought about it, the more unappetizing everything looked around me,” Decker said. “I was like this is not ok, we’re eating, there was a business meeting with about five or six businessmen going on right next to me. The place was packed.”

Thanksgiving Point Deli received complaints from customers. “I think state and local health codes were probably an issue, as well as just social norms,” Erica Brown, a spokeswoman for the deli, told KSL-TV.

The names of the mother and her twins are unknown, which is probably for the best. These poor children don’t need to be further humiliated and have their names attached to a naked photo of themselves going potty at a dining table. You have to question whether Decker made the right choice in posting the photo online.