Some things in life shouldn’t be complicated too much. The Carplife Bivvy Loo takes that mantra and applies it to one of life’s essential processes. The end result is a camping toilet which does its job well, can be folded away unobtrusively and renders the ‘end product’ biodegradable too – we love the simplicity of it. Keep the potty in the bathroom. If that's upstairs, keep another potty downstairs so your child can reach the potty easily wherever they are. The idea is to make sitting on the potty part of everyday life for your child.

Summer My Size Potty White | Smyths Toys UK Summer My Size Potty White | Smyths Toys UK

An Ancient Egyptian toilet bowl from the New Kingdom period (1600-1100 BC). Photograph: Science Photo Library

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One of our friends owns this colossus and I have to admit to occasional pangs of jealousy. Is it wrong to be jealous of a toilet? For your money you get a full electric flushing loo with level indicators and a 21 litre waste tank – it takes 4 AAA batteries and weighs around 6kg ‘unladen’. If you’re looking for an option for beginners, the Beaba training potty is a great place to start. It passed with flying colors in the stability and ease-of-cleaning tests. We like that the potty sits flush with the ground and feels stable thanks to anti-slip material on the bottom. It's also lightweight, so you can move it around easily if you want to, but it stays in place otherwise. The ergonomic design of the potty provides a comfy spot for tiny behinds to sit down on, while rounded corners and edges make cleanup simple. The center of the potty is removable, so it's easy to clean without carrying the entire potty to the sink or toilet.

Bowel movement: the push to change the way you poo

The popularity of the Squatty Potty, and the existence of its many rivals and imitators, is one of the clearest signs of an anxiety that’s been growing in the west for the past decade: that we have been “pooping all wrong”. In recent years, some version of that phrase has headlined articles from outlets as diverse as Men’s Health, Jezebel, the Cleveland Clinic medical centre and even Bon Appétit. By giving up the natural squatting posture bequeathed to us by evolution and taking up our berths on the porcelain throne, the proposition goes, we have summoned a plague of bowel trouble. Untold millions suffer from haemorrhoids – in the US alone, some estimates run to 125 million – and millions more have related conditions such as colonic inflammation. The unique, versatile design of the potty is a big reason we liked it so much during testing. Disposable bags with absorbent pads are included, but regular plastic bags (like the dozens of grocery store bags under your kitchen sink) also fit. That means there's not much clean up needed since everything goes right into the disposable bag. And it takes up little space since it comes with an included storage bag for convenient portability. The Summer Infant My Travel Potty Deluxe works in two ways: Potty chair and potty ring (a.k.a. toilet insert or trainer). We find the the potty is stable when used on a flat surface as a potty chair. The legs of the potty extend out and snap into place, so you know it's ready to go, but It is less stable when placed on top of an existing toilet seat. We'd be wary of using it for that purpose without careful adult supervision.Leave a potty where your child can see it and explain what it's for. Children learn by watching and copying. If you've got an older child, your younger child may see them using it, which will be a great help. It helps to let your child see you using the toilet and explain what you're doing. Using your child's toys to show what the potty is for can also help. For ease during transportation, both waste containers can be taken out and sealed – this includes a screw lid for the liquid container, and a lid and carry handle for the solids container. That doesn’t mean you need to hit the squat toilets that still exist along the French motorway or – to the horror of the Daily Mail – in Rochdale’s Exchange shopping mall. Dr Adil Bharucha, who is leading the Mayo clinic’s randomised controlled trial of the Squatty Potty, hopes that his study will establish more conclusively whether the Squatty Potty works, and why. But it’s the banal Squatty Potty that’s doing the most to change not just how people discuss poop, but how they actually do it. “It’s piercing that final veil around bodily use and bodily functions,” Barbara Penner, professor of architectural humanities at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture, and one of the preeminent scholars of the modern bathroom, told me. Perhaps it’s because this small, unlovely stool embodies a grand ambition: to upend two centuries of western orthodoxy about going to the loo.