Good Potty Training Books

Potty Training in One Day

My friend taught me this and it worked, even with my child with special needs. Granted it took two days instead of one (and longer follow up).

The big idea is that you potty train your child in one day. You can start with a 2 year old. It’s best to do it before they get in to the ‘no’s, when they still want to please you. But it still works perfectly when they are older. It is not an issue of waiting until ‘they are ready’. I am not a naturally cheerful person, but I put on a big act all day. Amazing how it works. One cannot get angry or show frustration (trust me I know – I’ve done it with three kids). Cheerful! Happy! Enthusiastic!

You and your child spend the entire day from after breakfast until dinner in the bathroom. You fill them with as much liquid as possible as early as possible for as long as possible so they have to pee a lot and get to practice feeling the sensation of needing to pee a lot and of running to the potty a lot. If they take an afternoon nap, stop the liquid 2 hours before nap time (I diaper for the nap time, but my friend did not).

The child wears a tshirt and panties (thick training ones or thin normal ones) that she can pull down on her own easily.

You two play games, sing songs, have a great time together.

Then you say, “Are your panties dry?”
She feels her panties. “Yes!”
“Good job. You kept your panties dry! You get a skittle! Let’s run to the potty! Isn’t this fun?” You sit on the potty to show how much fun it is to do. She sits on the potty. Have a big drink of chocolate milk

The point is not to go pee on the potty or to wait until she goes on the potty. The point is to keep the panties dry (the derivative is that she pees in the potty).

Every few minutes you stop your song/game/puzzle and say, “Are your panties dry?”
She feels her panties. “Yes!”
“Good job. You kept your panties dry! You get a skittle! Let’s run to the potty! Isn’t this fun?” You sit on the potty to show how much fun it is to do. She sits on the potty. ! Have a big drink of chocolate milk!

Repeat every five/ten minutes. Eventually she will have drunk so much that she will have to go. It doesn’t matter if she has an accident. Be cheerful. “That’s okay. Let’s clean it up! (Have her help you.) Sit on the potty. Yeah! Let’s get on dry panties.’ In a few minutes, ask her, “Are your panties dry?”
She feels her panties. “Yes!”
“Good job. You kept your panties dry! You get a skittle! Let’s run to the potty! Isn’t this fun?” You sit on the potty to show how much fun it is to do. She sits on the potty. Have a big drink of chocolate milk.

In the afternoon, practice running from another room to the potty, repeat everything.

They will get a lot of practice feeling dry (treats), sitting on the potty (balance, coordination, success being independent). And eventually even peeing on the potty. The focus is on keeping their panties dry!

Before the Big Day
Let them be in a diaper. Don’t worry about potty training and previous struggles with it. For a week ahead of time, talk about what fun mommy and child are going to have, a whole day together – no sister, no daddy, no etc. We are going to have fun! You get to keep your panties dry! We will play! We will run to the potty! We will go peepee on the potty! So exciting.

The Big Day
Do not: answer the phone, check the computer, make dinner, call about the roofer coming.

Do: Put on an apron with good pockets filled with little favorite treats (skittles, m and ms, goldfish – whatever she doesn’t usually get). Fill sippy cups (stoppers out so easy to drink more fast) with whatever she will down huge amounts of (I never gave my kids full strength juiee or chocolate milk, but they got as much as they wanted that day). Stock the bathroom with toys, books (not a movie player), music, little puzzles. (Don’t have them all out to see and be overwhelmed with – have them in the bathroom closet or under the changing table – bring out a few things at a time to play with.

She will get lots of experience and joy out of keeping her panties dry and lots of experience running to the potty and experience in peeing in the potty. You are well on your way to having her out of diapers.

For the night time, I kept her in diapers. The reward for keeping her diaper dry for three nights in a row was getting to wear her panties to bed. Stop liquids of any kind 2 hours before bed. If she regularly has a wet diaper at night, no big deal. Tons of kids have small bladders. Just let it be. Make it a big deal to get to wear panties, but not cajoling/punishing/teasing/stressing about it. One of my girls wore diapers to bed for quite a while after being fully potty trained during the day.

You’ll do a great job!

I have loved the book called "Toilet Training In Less Than a Day" by Foxx. I have 4 kids and trained 3 of the 4 with it. If you do it the way the book says, the child will be trained in less than a day. I recommend buying the book and reading it twice before you do it. You truly have to shut off the phone/computer and just do potty training. I then found it was wise to stay close to home for the next few days so the potty is very available. I have three kids that have all been done in less than a day. I didn't train my oldest that way and it took him forever to be accident free. Good luck :)

Hi,
I started out doing MMs as rewards. One for trying, two for pee, three for poop but decided that was too much sugar and switched to a potty chart on the bathroom wall with various cool stickers which my son could put on it for rewards. This worked great. keep everything positive it doesn't take much for them to get frustrated with the process and go on strike. You can make big kid undies the reward for a certain level of success on the potty chart. Also, I liked super nanny's stuff on potty training.

The Potty Train, available at www.toysofdiscovery.com

PS You must be in my 'hood if you go to Doodle Doos. Please find me online and let's chat about other good toys and books for your toddler.

I tried the Lora Jensen 3 day potty training book and the first day went excellent. My daughter enjoyed the potty and was so proud to wear panties-she had a lot of accidents but I never made a big deal out of them b/c it was expected. She actually went on the potty 2 or 3 times and I made a huge production about it clapping and cheering and we even made a little celebration song. The second day she didn't want anything to do with the potty. She REFUSED to go near it. I tried different ways of getting her to go but nothing worked so instead of getting frustrated I just let it go and decided to try again later. We waited maybe 2 months and she decided she wanted to go potty. She was basically trained overnight. She had several accidents the first week but after that they were few and far between and after a month she was accident free. I can not say whether the books work or not or whether you are "supposed" to wait until the child wants to do it but this was my experience. Perhaps it is a little of both...the child wanting to do it and having a good stradegy in place to teach him/her.

I definitely recommend the e-book by Lora Jensen: http://www.3daypottytraining.com/

It's a rough few days, but it really works! It's so much better than dragging the process on for months with pull-ups.

I really like "You Can Go to the Potty," by Dr. Sears. It has a few pages for parents, and is not too short. Some other books are very sparse on words (a little too babyish) and I found we'd be finished before my son had enough time for a good try on the toilet. I found a copy on Amazon for just a couple bucks but, I have seen it in a bookstore and I'd bet babies/toys 'r us carries it.