This book saved my sanity!! (Potty Training In One Week - Gina Ford)

Member Name: mossy51

Product:	Potty Training In One Week - Gina Ford
Date:	23/01/09 (192 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A thorough book including a simple to follow plan that really works!!

Disadvantages: A couple of the steps didn't work for my child but there were alternatives suggested.

Words cannot express how much this book saved my sanity and made life a lot easier and happier for my daughter and me during our second attempt at potty training.

We were the first in our group of friends to have children and so since using it myself I always recommend this book and lots of our friends have also had great success with the book!

Our Experience:

I first attempted to potty train my daughter when she was almost 2 years old, after three very stressful and wet days I was ready to pull my hair out when my mother in law said why stress yourself out put her back in nappies for a while....minutes later my daughter was back in her pampers and calmness was restored.

I couldn't bare the thought of going through that experience again and so decided I needed a little help. I found Gina Ford's potty training in one week. I picked it because the title gave me hope, it wasn't a huge book and importantly it was reasonably priced. I'm so glad I did.

By the first afternoon of 'potty training the Gina way' my daughter was sitting on the potty herself and doing a wee without me having to ask her if she needed to go. Now don't get me wrong we had accidents and the odd wet patch along the way BUT I couldn't believe how easily she took to using the potty and how well the plan worked.

In the book Gina Ford sets out a simple and easy to follow programme which works quickly and helps avoid many common pitfalls that parents experience, wish I'd read it the first time!!

The book:

Gina's unique approach to potty training is firstly to prepare your child in advance as well as telling you what signs to look out for to show you that you child is ready to start potty training.

Signs to look out for are:
The ability to understand and follow simple instructions
Interest in dressing and undressing themselves and the ability to pull pants up and down
Ability to point to different parts of their body when asked
Ability to sit still and concentrate on a toy, book or video for 5-10 minutes

The second part is a seven day programme which leads parents step by step through the potty training process providing lots of useful guidelines and tips along the way such as:

How to deal with accidents
How to make potty training fun for your child
How to reward
What to do when you go out
What to do at sleep times.

The book was well laid out and easy to understand. It also contains really helpful case studies and a question and answer section.

I found the plan easy to follow and adapt to my child. Personally there was no way my daughter would sit on a potty for more than 15 seconds let alone 15 minutes during the preparation stage so I went straight to the bribes on that one. We also found that it was worth buying two potties and having one upstairs and one down.

If you are reading this because you are stressed out from trying to potty train or your reading because you want to avoid the trauma that everyone talks about when you mention the words 'we are about to potty train....' Then I thoroughly recommend THIS BOOK!!

Summary: A fantastic book that helps to take the stress out of potty training!!