Potty Training in 3 Days: The Step-by-Step Plan for a Clean Break from Dirty Diapers Paperback – November 15, 2016

We felt our toddler was showing signs he was ready to do potty training but our attempts failed. I got this book as help and my husband read it cover to cover twice and we picked the weekend after his 3rd birthday to really focus. Husband even took the day off. First day was rough, second day he only has two accidents that were more our fault than his, third day no accidents. It’s been 5 days he is using the potty at daycare, no accidents and even has gone in and used the potty without prompting. I am sure he will have an accident at some point and I know we will have to cross the nighttime bridge at some point but a three year old potty trained in 3 days, I say that’s a success.The directions and advice are great but what really helped was the signs and different types of kids. Our son fell into the, “he will never do it on his own you just have to start and not look back.” That was what convinced us the time was right.

Really glad I found this book. An easy read and guide to positive outcomes for a happy home.I had an issue on Day 1 so I emailed the author and she responded, as promised.I said to author in email: We started potty training today. She essentially wants to go to the bathroom every 1 minute. When she tells me she has pee, we go into the bathroom together. She takes off underwear, goes on potty and pees a few drops. We get off , wipe, pull up underwear, wash hands, dry hands, treat, sticker. We leave the bathroom and within 1 min or less she tells me she has to pee, and we are back in the bathroom, repeating the process. I was conflicted what to do. I didn’t want to tell her she doesn’t need to pee. But at same time I’m not sure how productive this was, as she was just peeing drops, it seemed, to get a treat.The author responded (I have permission to repost her direct quote): “I would continue letting her do that… this mostly tells me she is figuring things out. She’s only been doing this for a couple of hours. A lot of times the first day of potty training is one of the first times a child realizes they can control something new with their body. Sometimes they figure out that if they squeeze out a few drops they get a reward, and that’s all part of the learning process too.All of this sounds pretty normal from the info you provided. If you feel like she fully emptied her bladder and definitely doesn’t need to go again, there are times I tell the kids that we have to wait for their body to make more pee, so we should go play while we wait, and we can come right back when we need to.”As far as everything else goes, believe the author when she says, you will get nothing done. If you follow this to the T, you will be successful. Well, we are on day 4 and so far so good.I did do this with a 6 mo old at home as well, as a SAHM with no help for the 3 days. It ended up being fine but obviously would have been better with help. Just know, the days are hard but they go quick. Keep your patience and positivity. You will be so full of pride and joy watching the process and your little one learning. I know I was.I had a similar experience as others with pushing juice, choc. Milk, water and the addition of candy, my daughter did throw up. She was fine, but just not used to so much sugar. So just beware of that, as others have mentioned.Thank you again to the author for responding and for taking the time to write all the expertise to potty training!

This is overall a good book. Easy to read and has good tips.However... I'm only 2 days in and I can already tell this method isn't going to work 100% for us. Or at least, I'm not in a position to make it work at this time. So there is a factor of user error in this.Cons:I think the title is deceptive. It's really should be 3 to 10 days. The book says you need to commit at least 10 days before taking a break and trying again. That's over a week of: no going outside, no grocery shopping, no naps, no appointments, no visiting family or friends, no working, no tv, and lots and lots of washing soiled underpants and scrubbing messy floors. I'm sure my electricity bill has skyrocketed from the last two days of me using my washer and dryer constantly. Not everyone can just put their lives on hold for 10 days straight. I certainly can't.I think this method relies on kids being bothered by having wet or poopy underpants. My daughter does not care. She's aware when they are soiled (she has been saying, "Need diaper change?" for weeks now which tells me she is ready to potty train which is why I got this book). However, she isn't bothered enough to stop. Granted, this is how she has been pottying for over 2 years now so it was probably setting expectations too high to change in just 3 days.This method relies on you watching your kid like a hawk and the moment they are showing signs or actually peeing or pooping to sit them on the potty. I have done this for 2 days now. My daughter will STOP PEEING OR POOPING and hold it while she is on the toilet then wait until she is back in her underwear to go. It doesn't matter how long I make her sit. Her bottom has literally been red from me making her sit for long periods of time waiting for her to pee. Only for her to pee within minutes if not seconds of having her underwear on. In order for this method to work in three days, I should have been able to catch her pee or poop in the toilet on day one.By the end of both days, she was literally falling asleep on the toilet by 3 or 4 pm because she was so exhausted by this method and so was I.Another issue is: my daughter is so good at following directions. She is. The only direction she WILL NOT follow: when she is being told to say something. Until now, that has not been an issue. However, I'll tell her, "Tell me when you have to pee," and she'll just stare at me. She knows what I'm telling her; I recognize the look on her face. She's just straight up refusing. She will NOT tell me, even when I catch her on the verge of peeing. She will not say the words.So. Not sure how to navigate that.To be fair, I didn't pick the best time to commit to this method. I haven't had a free consecutive 10 days to. I'm also caring for an infant. It's hard to chuck my son into his bassinet mid nursing session to try to rush her to the toilet when I see she's showing signs of pottying. I also know for a fact she is waiting until I'm nursing to go to the bathroom. What am I supposed to do? Stop nursing my son for 10 days straight in order to commit to potty training?So. There's that.If I didn't run into those hiccups and challenges above, I think this method would probably work. And for some people, it's worked. It does have good tips, like not giving your kid a chance to say no and what language to use and to give them plenty of fluids so they keep going to the bathroom. And it's incredibly easy to read.But I think I'm just going to have to accept that it's going to take us longer than three days, and probably longer than 10. So we'll just keep practicing for the next couple weeks until a free consecutive 10 days comes up that we can try recommiting to. Or just apply the things that do work and not put pressure on us to get it done in a certain time frame.I would still recommend this book to potty training parents; just be ready to commit, yet keep expectations realistic for yourself and your kid.

So detailed, so logical, and aligned perfectly with how my child’s brain works. He had one accident the first morning and we followed these instructions to the letter—he never had another accident again! He even stopped wetting his “nighttime underwear” (pull up) after the third day, which was completely unexpected. The dreaded potty training process was amazingly easy because of this method!I would recommend reading this book way before you’re considering starting potty training. There were things that we were just lucky we had been doing (not using pull-ups before starting training, how we talked about the potty) that really set us up for success.