[.ca] Toilet Training in Less Than A Day (ISBN 0671693808)

Toilet Training in Less Than A Day:
The title was intriguing and we were about to start toilet training so, excitedly, I bought this book with great expectations. After reading about 1/3 of the book, I checked the publication date and everything fell in place. 30 years later, things have changed immensely and no attempt to update this book seems to have been made. This is probably the absolute worst book I've ever had the misfortune to read and I'm sorry I won't get the time I wasted reading it back again. From keeping 'sugary snacks' in my 'apron' to 'verbal rehearsals' - each piece of advice was more ridiculous than the last. I particularly enjoyed the the theory that changing diapers takes at least 10 minutes. Frankly, if it's taking anyone 10 minutes to change a diaper, they need more help than this book can provide. My other favourite part is the tip about having your child drink 8oz of liquids every hour to 'create interest' - this doesn't create interest, it creates panic about getting to the potty in time. No advice is given in cases where the steps don't work. To me, this book made the whole process more complicated than it needed to be. I'm glad for the success it gives to those who it works for but for me, it was nothing but a massive waste of time and money.

The worst book ever:
This book has taken being a mean parent to a new level. It says to force a child to pee and poop! Yeah as it is possible to drag a child to the toliet. I think this books should be banned and never allowed to be read again. The quack who wrote this book says to make your child eat and drink so they pee and poop no realistic at all. If you follow this book like I tried you will be potty training for 2 years since I got off to such a bad start.

Worked within hours:
This is a great little book and it really does work. I didn't even have to read the entire book. I showed our problem child (a boy of 3 years) the pictures in the book and it clicked instantly. Using the same type of pot as depicted in the book may have helped. Within hours our kid was toilet trained and never soiled his underwear again. Yes, we could stop using diapers and saved a bundle. The book paid for itself this way. Our thanks go to the author for a really good book.

Extremely helpful information inside this book!:
I have been trying to toilet train my three and a half year old son for over a year and a half without success. I had tried everything I could think of, and I read everything I could find on the subject - which wasn't much at the time. I wasn't able to find any information anywhere else that was very much help at all, and even asking around, nobody I spoke to had any helpful ideas either. The sticker charts and just having him sit on the potty at the right times helped in that he knew what to do in the bathroom, but I was at a loss for how to get him to stop going in his diaper. I had actually seen this book and others claiming to train children within a few days and thought they must be scams, because this title sounds too good to be true. Everyone had said that training typically takes 8 to 10 months. But then my husband was looking through the Dr. Spock childcare book, and it mentioned this book and said that it was a great book and really helpful, so we ordered it. The main reason I am giving this book only 4 stars and not 5, is that I had to read the book twice. It goes back and forth and all over the place, so the information isn't well organized, meaning that when I read through the book the first time, I understood the general idea, but not the order in which I was supposed to do everything, so I ended up reading through it a second time and making up some copies of the charts they ask you to use and some notes for myself so I would remember what to do. The book also didn't say how to handle a few situations, which I was a little confused about, but I managed to muddle through that part OK. My son did not get trained in one day as the title suggests, however, at the end of the second day - in which I actually didn't work on it quite as hard as the book suggests, but I did work on it and always did the 10 practice potty runs when he had accidents, and just before bedtime, I told my son we could go watch some TV for a little while but there was something we needed to do first, and I didn't even have to tell him what that was - he automatically ran into the bathroom, pulled down his DRY pants, peed in his potty chair, and then when he was all done, he said "I don't need diapers anymore", and then proceeded to wash his hands and brush his teeth. The information in this book is something that EVERY parent with a baby or toddler should know! It is the ONLY thing that has really worked for us. My son has made more progress in 2 days than he has in 18 months!!! The idea for using the potty training doll is FANTASTIC. He loved playing with the doll, feeding it and sitting it on the potty chair, and I think that got him excited about it. Without that part, I don't think the rest would have been possible. I also didn't realize that I needed COTTON training pants. Pull-Ups may say "training pants" on the package, but as the book taught me, you HAVE to use cotton training pants. To avoid having a lot of messes, I bought the kind with vinyl covers. He doesn't like them, but I let him try on some Mr. Incredible underwear and told him that he can start wearing those once he hasn't had any accidents for a while.

Disappointed....:
I bought this book with high hopes. Not that I expected to have my daughter trained in less than a day, but I expected for the method to at least work. All it did was stress ME out because I was so worried that I was going to forget one of the MANY MANY steps and ruin my daughter's chances of ever being potty trained. And it stressed HER out as well. By the end of the day we were both in tears. It was just way too intense for both of us. I am very pro potty training when the child is showing all the signs of readiness, which my 22 month old daughter is showing consistently. But a little less intense approach would be better for all involved. I would recommend "Mommy! I Have to Go Potty! A Parent's Guide to Toilet Training" By Jan Faull. I purchased this book when I gave up on the method used in Toilet Training in Less Than a Day. It is a much more reasonable, practical, and less intense approach to potty training. When we decide to give it another go, I'm sure this method will work much better. Truthfully I think that Toilet Training in Less Than a Day might work for an older child that has had many failed attempts at potty training. I just don't feel it's a good approach for a child just starting out. I think that it could actually hinder successful potty training instead of helping it along.