Toilet Training in Less Than A Day

THE CLASSIC GUIDE USED BY MILLIONS OF PARENTS!

MAKE TOILET TRAINING A TOTAL SUCCESS -- IN ONLY A FEW HOURS!

From two noted learning specialists, here is the amazing, scientifically proved Azrin-Foxx method that teaches toilet training quickly -- in less than four hours for the average child. And after that rewarding learning period, he or she will willingly use the toilet without assistance or a reminder!

Also inside is a wealth of information on related topics, including:

• Unexpected benefits -- your child's newfound pride and independence can increase eagerness to feed and dress him- or herself, and improve responsiveness to parental instruction

• Pre-training techniques every parent should know• Bed-wetting problems -- and how this method can help end them

• Happy children, happy parents -- how mastering toilet training benefits the whole family, increasing parents' personal time and deepening the parent-child connection.

With more than 2 million copies sold, TOILET TRAINING IN LESS THAN A DAY is the one guide you'll need to make this significant transition a rewarding and pleasurable experience -- for both you and your toddler!

It took a couple of months to gather up all the supplies, but even so, the night before training day, as I was reviewing the method, I realized that the Doll-that-Wets did not have two pairs of underpants, as needed, so that she could change into dry ones - so I did some late night sewing.

However all the preparation paid off. After 4 hours my 33-month old son (who had never sat on a potty before), could (and did) pull down his pants by himself, urinate, pull up his pants, dump the pot, flush, wash his hands, and dry his hands.

He was having such a great time with pottying, that that evening he kept excusing himself every 5 minutes to run to the potty, and was sometimes mildly disappointed when no pee came out.

After day three the novely wore off, and he is now (as of day 5) figuring out how long he can wait before going to the potty.
We have had one accident per day - but I think that this is because, after almost 3 years of disposable diapers, he is still learning how to recognize when he needs to go.

A few comments if you plan to try the method yourself.

1) Azrin and Foxx do say that if you child has a problem with general stubborness ("he understands what you have said, but he refuses to carry out your instructions") then "until this general stubbornness is overcome, you should not attempt to toilet train."

2) Azrin and Foxx also say "You may consider your child to be trained when he walks to the potty chair for the first time without a reminder and completes the entire toileting experience without the need for instructions or guidance." And that your child should continue to wear oversized training pants until "he has remained dry for several days". So realistically, even when this method works as advertized, you need to plan for not only one day for intense training, but a few days of staying at home or only going places where your child's potty will be readily available and where accidents will not be hard to handle. (We have visited friends, but have taken the potty with us.)

3) My son loves novelty and loves the idea of being grown up, so as additional motivators I waited until Training Day to (a) get out the potty (b) get out the dolly (c) remove the baby gate from the bathroom door to allow him access to the bathroom and(d) ever let him wash his own hands by himself in the bathroom

4) Azrin and Foxx's method neglects handwashing. By putting a stool at the bathroom sink, I made it possible for my son to wash his hands independently, and added this to the potty routine, right after toilet flushing.

5) I allerted Grandparents and a few good friends in advance, so that when we called them on Training Day, they were ready with lavish praise.

6) When my son's interest flagged partly through training, and I was running out of more positive things to say about pottying, I pulled out a potty book he had never seen before (he loves books) to give him a little break, while not really venturing off the subject of pottying.

7) I waited until after my son had trained the doll to take him out of diapers and put him in training pants, so that he would not have any accidents before he knew what to do.

8) It was very hard to find a simple doll-that-wets. I ended up buying a Potty Dotty. First I clipped the wires to the speaker to get rid of the annoying chatter. Then I put a magnet inside her leg so that she would pee on my son's potty, and not just on her own. With those modifications a fancy electronic doll has been reduced to one that can be filled with water with the switch in the off position, then with the switch in the on position, pees approx 10 seconds after you poke her bottle in her mouth.

HOWEVER: Don't feel you have to potty train this way if you don't want to. My sister-in-law took a look at the book, and her reaction can be summed up as "You gotta be kidding.". She has preferred a much more laid back gradualist approach that would have driven me bonkers.

CAVEAT: I realize even if a method is "guarranteed to work for all children" there will still be some for which it doesn't work. (For us, the issue was sleeping through the night - nothing we tried worked for that - and our son did not sleep through the night until age two.) So if this does not work for you then you have my sympathy, but unfortunately no helpful advice.


From an educator   June 21, 2000
Carolyn Bodkin
38 out of 38 found this review helpful

As an educator, I found this book very compelling. It is complete in that it addresses all the learning styles of children. Toileting oneself is a skill and the book teaches you how to be a skills trainer for your child.

My own 2 1/2 year old son was successful in being completely trained over a weekend. He had no urination accidents at all after the first 3 hours of training, and was successful with the rest over the course of the next few days. I will begin training my daughter when she is ready, based on the readiness assessment check list in the book.

It seems to me that the negative reviews of this book have not come from people who have read the entire book, nor from people who have employed this method. To use the book you MUST follow the instructions carefully, adjusting to your child's personality, of course, and you MUST have some persistence yourself. The first hour or two can be challenging but when your child is successful the first time, you'll know it was worth it.

The book recommends potty training in the kitchen, using a potty-training doll, providing many opportunities for practice with the use of salty snacks to promote fluid consumption, positive and negative reinforcement, recognition and reward, and more. Again, from an educator's standpoint, it is a terrific book in terms of addressing basic learning cycle models.

As an added benefit, there is basic parenting information about disciplining a small child to obey his/her parents, as part of the readiness assessment. My own observation as I see other children misbehaving everywhere I go is that that information is sorely needed.

I have bought and given this book away to friends 7 times. I am about to buy it one more time to prepare to train my 21-month old daughter.