Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day: Proven Secrets of the Potty Pro [toilet training] Paperback – June 6, 2006

I had been on a very bumpy 5 month stretch trying to work on potty training with my 2 1/2 year old son. Some weeks he would use the potty daily, other weeks he would completely refuse to go near it. We had tried making potty training as fun for him as possible with praise and treats when he sat on the potty or used the potty successfully. I was desperate and did not know what else I could do so basically just stopped everything and read this book. A friend of mine had used this method successfully with her 2-year old son so I had hope that it would work for us as well.The entire focus on this book is spending one day focused on potty training with your toddler and basically making it a big party. I was a little surprised at how much planning went into the potty party I planned for my son using this book but I also tend to get very involved with stuff like this so it may not be that way for others. I spent about a month planning my son's "Mickey Mouse at the Farm" potty party, which gave me a chance to get everything together needed for the big day and also gave my son a break from the potty.I was a little nervous that this method may not work either but I was pleasantly surprised when my son began to go along with almost everything and went pee-pee in the potty twice before his final bash at the end of the day. The potty party was nearly two months ago and my son goes #1 in the potty almost every time (with a few accidents a week). We are still working on getting him to go #2 in the potty but hopefully that will come soon. He also urinates much less during the night-time now and has woken up with completely dry pull-ups a lot recently.I am so grateful for this book and recommend it to any other parents who are at their wits end with potty training. It has a little quiz to help you know if your kiddo is ready for potty training or not, and if they are- all the steps to follow to get them excited about using the potty! It is also great if you have not started potty training at all yet- having this as your child's first exposure would give great results I bet. Good luck!

My 2-year-old daughter had been sitting on the potty chair for 4 or 5 months, liked to talk about using the potty, like to flush the toilet saying "bye bye pee pee", and was fascinated by big girl panties, so I bought this book looking for good ideas to introduce the concept. The book has some very great info. I like having a clear picture of what being potty trained means - a child can identify the need to go, goes to the bathroom on their own, can pull their pants down, get on the potty, go, wipe, wash their hands and get dressed again. I also loved the idea of making a big deal out of the big day with presents and treats, a party and a celebration at the end. I spent about a month getting everything together - the potty doll, the training panties, panties for the doll, the treats, the decorations (which I kept to a bare minimum as my daughters party experience was so limited as to be completely unaware). We had the grandparents at the ready to answer the phone to hear the big news, and daddy was coming home early for the celebratory dinner. The morning went great. My daughter loved taking "baby doll" to the bathroom, loved reading the potty books and watching the one potty video Potty Power over and over. She was amazing that baby doll pooped chocolate frosting, and peed in the potty. She did not notice or mind when baby doll had an accident on the couch - that part went right over her head - she did not feel badly when baby doll "got in trouble".We had lunch and then brought out the panties. She squealed with delight and put them right on. She had had plenty of pretzels, marshmallows and juice boxes (all never-before-seen treats) and she was able to pee and poop in the potty right away! We called daddy, and she peed on the floor while we got him on the phone. We sat on the potty and had another success. We called grandma and peed on the floor while telling her the news. We had another success and called the other grandma, and then pooped in the panties while on the phone. Few things are less fun than cleaning up poopy panties. There were six more puddles on the floor, the carpet, the chair. It was now nap time and I was so exhausted, disheartened, crabby I did not know how I was going to go on. After nap time, we put plastic pants on over the panties, which kept the mess off the floor but also created a perfectly comfortable situation for her, she could not feel she was wet, or did not mind. I knew this was counter to the training process but I had gone as far as I was able. Daddy did not make it home in time for the celebratory dinner. I vowed to try again in the morning and posted my dismay on Facebook where friends laughed and laughed at the idea that this could be done from start to finish in a day.I did not get the sense that she had even an inkling of when she needed to go. I can't help but wonder if I had left the plastic pants off during that first week if she would have got it after a few days. Instead, for about 2 months we have been wearing the panties in the morning, practicing getting them up and down, practicing getting on and off the big potty with a potty seat, practicing everything except peeing in the potty. She did not even accidentally go, ever, even once. We continued to use the potty doll, and offering the potty to all dolls and bears. I also continued to offer 2 m&ms every time she sat on the potty, and I promised a really wonderful present if she told me she needed to pee, sat on the potty and then peed. She often asked for the present after telling me she needed to pee and then peeding in her undies. I reminded her she needed to pee in the potty to get the present.And then, like magic, one day she peed in the potty. And did it again, and again, and again. She was clean and dry for the entire morning. Now we pee in the potty several times a day. And sometimes outside the potty, for which she is very matter-a-fact, and always says "oh well, that happens". Indeed it does! We are not potty trained yet. She has the routine down, though, and is developing the "feeling" of having to go. It takes patience, a lot of paper towels, consistency, and enthusiasm. We are both up for the challenge on this modified schedule.I do not know how in the world this book could work in a single day. For us, the process has taken months, but if you had done a lot of the "having the feeling" work ahead of time, you might pull it off. That was not the case in our house. And there are more milestones to come, pooping, "getting it" while wearing a pull-up, using a public potty without a potty seat, and on and on. I am confident though we will be ready when preschool starts in 7 months. It would have been a LOT easier just to wait until she figured it out on her own, though I realize when months lead to years that can be discouraging for parents too :-)

Helped me stay focused and not give up, good guide.

Good concept and it works! Don't expect you child to be 100% trained afterwards, but it is amazing how much they progress in just the one day.

Potty train in a day, who wouldn't like to acheive that? According to Terri Crane, your toddler should even be cleaning themselves up afterwards. Terri Crane's narrative is very encouraging and enthusiastic but her methods seem very OTT and, to be honest, a bit daft. If you have nothing better to do than host Potty Parties, cut out templates of your child's backside then this book is for you. It is a huge bestseller in the States so I am sure there is much to merit it but I gave up long before finishing this book. Fortunately my son got the hang of the potty within a few days with hardly any effort on my part. I lent this book to a friend along with another batch of mostly unread parenting books. She thought it was hilarious and swiftly dropped it into the nearest bin.

Excellent book

If your idea of potty training your child is by having a party for them then this is the book for you. If however, you would like sound advice, good tips on how to actually get started, how often to take your child to the potty to begin with, etc., this is not the book for you. This book was a complete waste of money and the time I invested reading the first few chapters is time I will never get back.