On Becoming Potty Wise for Toddlers: A Developmental Readiness Approach to Potty Training

I implemented this method with my 23.5 month old son after he had started using the potty on his own. He used it mostly for #2, but still urinated in his diaper most of the time and showed no initiative to go on his own. I thought it was time so I blocked 3 days where I planned to stay home. I knew he was familiar with the potty, comfortable with it and I felt he was ready (he had been using it here and there for about 3 weeks). We had shopped for underwear earlier in the week and I had snacks in hand. Saturday morning we got up and we made a big deal about the underwear and the "friend" he would train with (doll). I admit I wasn't sold on the idea of the doll but it was key because it removed so much pressure from my son. Day 1 we had a 50% success rate and I started to doubt the method, but I thought if I'm going to try it I will try it for at least 3 days. My son didn't seem to get the concept of "are you dry?" and he seemed annoyed at my constant questioning. He couldn't even be lured with treats. He would ignore me or say "no!" even though he actually was dry... Day 2 was a new day so with renewed motivation I did the same thing - doll, sippy, is your "friend" dry?, does your "friend" need to pee? etc... I offered incentives for being dry and offered incentives for actually going in the potty. By the end of day 2 he was showing initiative and asking to sit on the potty. He had a dry diaper at nap and only had one accident all day right before bedtime. Day 3 was it... Woke up, same routine again but now when I asked him why he got treats he would tell me it's because he was dry and he would "pat" himself to show me. The emphasis was no longer on actually going in the potty, but on staying dry in between (the why behind the how). He had only one accident that day when he first woke up in the morning but again had a dry diaper at naptime. The rest of the day was perfect and by day 4 he was accustomed to asking every time he had to go and we haven't looked back since. I believe night training will be soon too, since he's already waking up on his own to use the potty. I can't recommend this book enough but it does take discipline from the parents to stick with it for a few days in a row!!!

I liked that this book broke potty training down into steps and that it was positive. I would recommend it to my friends with toddlers.

While I did find some of the methods in this book helpful - it is blatantly directed towards a very traditional family structure that includes a working father and a stay at home Mom, something which has become much much less common. I found it difficult to read this book without thinking that the author himself may have a distorted viewpoint of what the typical American family looks like now days. I wish the author would include a bit more advice towards parents that both work and have a toddler in daycare, but if you find a way to apply these concepts on your own and adapt them to your own scenario, it can still be helpful.

We started out with the Baby Wise book recommended by our pediatrician because our 8 month old was not sleeping through the night. We had great success using the information from the book and our daughter is now sleeping 10-12 hours without nursing or waking us up. So, I decided to buy the other books by this author. Potty Wise is helping me potty train my 3 year old that regressed when we brought our baby home from the hospital and Baby Wise II and PreToddler Wise are helping me not only with my growing baby but also with some things I missed along the journey with my 3 year old. These are great books for basic guidelines and applicable principals.

An excellent resource for potty training, from start to finish. The idea of rewarding "dry and clean" was new to me, but it makes perfect sense. Who cares how much potty goes in the toilet if there are leaks that need to be cleaned up between each successful visit to the bathroom? My toddler responded very well to the idea of staying dry and clean, and he was daytime trained within just a few days. (He isn't ready for nighttime training just yet, but I'm planning to continue with these principles when his body is ready for staying dry and clean overnight!)

I absolutely loved Ezzo's Baby Wise book... have used the method with both my boys with wonderful results. So when it came to potty training, I naturally gravitated to this book. However I have come away severely dissapointed.The book appeared to me to be filled with a lot of fluff and repeating the same things over and over again. It appears to me that this book was just kind of thrown together and put out there to capitalize on the success of Baby Wise.For example, a full 1/3rd of the book (starting on page 99 and following) has nothing what-so-ever to do with potty training. A large section of it is all about getting your household on a schedule. Which I'm sure is wonderful information, if that's what you're trying to do -- but I bought this book for potty training. Then the rest is about other products in the Ezzo line... followed by blank pages. It appears to me that this whole section has been added in an effort to "plump up" the book to make it look like it has more to say.Only page 43-61 is actually about the how-to of potty training. They start by mentioning three potential methods... and then follow up by giving you the specifics of only one of those three. The method they state basically appears to be copying the "potty training in one day method using a doll" (such as the Potty Scotty method that's gained such recognition on the Dr. Phil show). If I had skimmed this book in an actual store, I would have quickly been able to see that it didn't have very much useful information at all.(I do want to clarify that they don't mention the actual Potty Scotty doll... they suggest you can use a bear or Raggity Ann doll or a generic drink and wet doll.)Again, I do highly recommend Baby Wise... just not this one.

It’s a great book! I’m so happy that I bought it! It teaches you how to potty train your child AND how to structure your day with a toddler! It explains different morning, day, and night activities, boundaries, and people involved. You won’t find in online. This information is very precious for me.

Not going to lie, I was dreading potty training.My little one is 3… super hyperactive, like, sitting for two minutes is dreadful and is torturous and if anyone walked up to our door and heard my little one having to sit still for a minute they would wonder what on earth was happening… like my child Scored high for ADHD when he got evaluated type of kid…we don’t do dyes, he still jumps from wall to wall, doesn’t have an off button, doesn’t slow down, on the go, go, go even if he walked 5 miles… so, I wasn’t sure how well this was going to go.I didn’t want to buy some potty training books as I didn’t want to be looked at as a lazy parent for waiting till my kid was 3 ~ ‘ready’…. I just needed some tools to know how to do this. I mostly cloth diaper, and having a 3 and a 1 year old I just got too overwhelmed washing everything. (And playing with poop is, well, it’s not exactly fun)I took the lighter approach… the first couple days we potty trained for an hour, then we did half the day for a week or two and then we did a full day. It’s been 2 months since we bit the bullet and he’s been pretty much clean and dry since we started. We sometimes will give him a diaper during nap time, but that’s usually because he is still figuring out the mechanics of going number 2 on the potty. He has gone #2 especially in the beginning but now its a bit of a process and I’ll have to go back read what else I can do. We’re just rewarding the behaviour we want and praising him when he tries.We made it exciting, made it fun… also if anyone else has a little person who has beans in his jeans, or ants on his pants and sitting still is torture…if you want some pointers…-Warm Water and bubbles help with a toy car, that helped him wee and ‘I spy’ books have been a hit to help him stay put a little longer. Also a visual timer to help him see how much time he had left helped a lot. He no longer needs a timer though, he just goes when he has to go. :)I love all the books I’ve read so far by these guys… I love that they have a lot of core values we have in our home as well… I’m excited to read more of their books.I bought used and I thought it was so neat to see someone else’s highlighted parts of the book… it somehow kind of made me feel like I wasn’t alone in this… and helped see that some parents worries or concerns weren’t my own either, it blessed my heart.Thanks for coming to my Ted Talks