Helpful Books to Read Before Potty Training?

First child, we read up, did potty parties, used a potty doll, you name it. Took FOREVER to train him. Second child, did zip to promote training, let her bring it up and she was done in a month or two at 2 1/2 years old.

Lesson learned in the end: It all comes down to moving them to underwear, stocking up on cleaning supplies for all of the accidents, taking them to the potty regularly and praising. That's it. You don't need a system.

I agree 100% with Patty K. Keep it simple.

Never needed the books.

Best advice I EVER got, and could EVER give: do not potty train until your child is old enough to GET IT! That tends to be around age 3, no matter what anyone tells you. Prior to that, and here is what you get: You will train YOURSELF to take your child to the potty every 20-30 minutes; you will get frustrated with your LO for not staying dry; you will likely get lashback, regression, or resistance from your LO at some point in the first month; your LO will not be nighttime-dry until age 3.5-4 (so you still aren't out of diapers!). A child who is ready is REALLY ready; it can be done and overwith in a weekend- no joke. I've done it 4 times successfully. And, I've watched countless people try to start the potty training at 2 or so, only to end up with many of the problems listed above. Ask someone who "potty trained" their child at 2 the following questions: Did your child initiate? Did you move successfully to complete underwear within a week? Was your child night-trained at the same time? Is your child able to get on/off the potty by themselves? Did you have to stop the process at all, and begin again a few weeks later to reach success? If there is a no to the first 3, and a yes to the 4th, that child was not ready.

And please don't let it be a daycare-led process. I'm sure they'd rather not change your kid's diaper, but that's no reason to push potty-training on a baby who's not ready. JMHO...Good luck!

the potty training chapter in the what to expect book proved helpful. Also, we bought a potty monkey, which included "the potty trainer- The ultimate guide to potty training your child" by D. Preston Smith, MD, FAAP, FACS, FSPU.

both were helpful.

If your looking for a potty video for your kid, consider elmo's potty time.

Best,
F. B.

Early start potty training for you...and everybody poops.

Never felt the need for books. Underwear on, diapers gone. Take them every 30 minutes. Plan on being home bound for several days. Never felt I had to do reward chart etc etc. This is just what people do. We never made a big deal out of things. I believe less is more. Yes, when they were successful, we hoorayed. Said we were proud.

My kids enjoyed Once Upon a Potty. We had the book and the DVD. We also had Everybody Poops, and the Potty Book For Boys (there is also one for girls). We started with the books and video at about 2.5. As for books for the parents, I would just read everything Penny N wrote below. My friend trained her kids when they turned two and spent a good year training each of them. She spent a full year dealing with messes and taking the kids to the bathroom every 30 minutes and all that. I trained my kids when they turned three and spent a few days training them. They were fully trained day and night and they never had any accidents.

Everyone Poops by Tari Gomi. You don't need to read it in advance. You read it with your daughter while she sits on the potty. Actual training - we just put DS in big boy underwear and took him to the bathroom often. (Where we read 'Everyone Poops'). I do recommend NOT starting any longer books in the bathroom. DS wanted to sit on the toilet long enough to read the whole book whether or not he had already pooped.

ETA - My son potty trained at 25 months. He did not initiate the process. He had frequent accidents for 4 days, a few more over the next 3 days and two more accidents over the next 4 months. He was in underwear the first day we started training. He never regressed, we never had to try again. He could climb onto the toilet (with seat cover - never used a potty - ick) with the help of his step stool. We did not night train for several months because we (not DS) were concerned we would have to get up in the middle of the night to get him out of the crib. Once we did night train (~27 months), he had night time accidents maybe once a week for a month (4 accidents or so).

I so don't get the objections that kids who train early have their parents trained. Um, parents with children in diapers are 'trained'. We are trained to notice when the need to be changed, rush immediately to change them (we don't worry that they can't help with this by undressing or re-dressing) and disposing of the dirty diapers. I would rather remind my child to go to the bathroom every 2 hours (we never took him every 20-30 minutes) and know he is clean and dry the rest of the time then constantly be watching to see if he is dirty.

It was also VERY helpful that daycare took the kids to the bathroom after meals, nap and at 'potty time'. It just made it an expected part of the routine. I see no problem in enlisting the help of your care provider in training.

My dd loved The Bear in the big blue house video about potty training. It's old, but our library still has a copy. We would actually use the video as a reward.

for books, she liked, "once upon a potty" for girls. They also have a video

Once upon a Potty
Everyone Poops
The new potty