Potty Training in One Week - Gina Ford

Potty training is one of those inevitable events when you have children, sooner or later you have to do it. Christopher was my first child and I had no idea how to start potty training him. My mum was very old school in her approach and believed he should have started training at a year old, however he was a slow developer and wasn't even walking at that point, he certainly wasn't able to string together a sentence or tell me he needed to wee. So ...
...the control to be able potty train, their bladders just aren't strong enough, it also gives a list of signs to look out for such as the child being aware of when they need to go or are going, that their nappy is dry after the daytime nap, that they can identify parts of their body, that they are able to follow simple instructions and also be able to remove their own clothes. At 2 Christopher was able to do these things and so i knew the time was ... more

Potty training is one of those inevitable events when you have children, sooner or later you have to do it. Christopher was my first child and I had no idea how to start potty training him. My mum was very old school in her approach and believed he should have started training at a year old, however he was a slow developer and wasn't even walking at that point, he certainly wasn't able to string together a sentence or tell me he needed to wee. So I turned to my local bookshop in hopes of some inspiration, there are endless books out there on the subject but I was looking for something small and simple, Gina Fords "Potty training in one week" book looked like just the thing I needed, small and well laid out, it seemed perfect. So purchase made I started the task of preparing myself and Christopher for training.

Gina Ford "Potty training in one week"-

Gina Ford is a somewhat controversial parenting expert, despite being the leading expert in the country, her hard line tactics and strict routine are always cause for debate. She had no formal qualifications but a lifetimes experience in hands on childcare, her first book was published in 1999 "The contented little baby book" was a huge success and Gina has gone on to publish many more books on parenting.

"Potty training in one week" is a small square book made up of 159 pages. It contains both information on preparation for training, the actual training process, possible problems, case histories and a Q&A section from other parents. It advises on when is the best time to start training your youngster and has a set routine aimed at getting your child out of nappies within 7 days, an impossible task you might think but it actually worked for us.

Our experience-
Christopher had just passed his 2nd birthday when I decided to start training him, it was important to me that he was trained when he was ready and not before as I wanted to avoid any problems that might come from training too soon. The book advises that children younger than 18 months do not have the control to be able potty train, their bladders just aren't strong enough, it also gives a list of signs to look out for such as the child being aware of when they need to go or are going, that their nappy is dry after the daytime nap, that they can identify parts of their body, that they are able to follow simple instructions and also be able to remove their own clothes. At 2 Christopher was able to do these things and so i knew the time was right, he was always eager to participate so we had no need to try and encourage him, but the book does give advice on encouraging your little one.

The prepariton stage takes you through what you will need, potties, star charts, cloths/wipes, something to entertain your little one etc etc.. all things that will be needed during the training process. While there is a section on the correct way to introduce the potty Christopher was already aware of it so we had no need for this section. There is even info in this section for potty training when you have twins, a task I'm sure is quite a challenge!

Section 2 takes you through the training regime, it is clearly laid out in steps taking you through stage 1- introducing the potty and letting little one sit on it, Stage 2-where to train, hygiene and the "7 day programme"

Day one was the most demanding, we were required to draw up a chart and mark down every time Christopher used the potty and whether he went or not, he had to be sat on it every 15 minutes, so he ran around in little more then a t-shirt, once the nappy came off that morning it didn't go back on. Day 2 was along the same lines, by using the chart from the previous day you were meant to be able to see a pattern forming and remind your child to use the potty as it is important the learn to be responsible for remembering to go. While I didn't see a pattern in Christopher's potty use I did follow the instructions and reminded him less often as the day went on. Naturally we had a few accidents but that's to be expected and I gently told him he was meant to go in the potty and not on the floor.

Day 3, well I don't know if you've ever heard of marathon runners talking about "the wall" the point where it seems impossibly difficult for them to carry on? Well the third day was our wall! I spent more time that day cleaning up wee then ever before and I started to doubt the book. Despite the fact there was meant to be a real pattern now I just didn't see it, we were meant to plan our first outing for this day, just a short walk or similar but I didn't see how we could. Still I popped him in some loose shorts (along with his t-shirt of course) and potty in carrier bag, went for a walk up the road, amazingly he didn't need to go and I sat him on the potty as soon as we got back and he went, phew! the first one in the potty all day.

Day 4 came and it was like a miracle. Days 4-7 are meant to be the responsibility of the child, they now should not need reminding to use the potty and will happily go and use it alone, it actually worked, after the previous days activity I had braced myself for another day of mopping and cleaning but he had one accident all day. The nest few days followed the same and day 6 and 7 saw no accidents at all. As his nappies had been dry after naps for some weeks I had also taken him out of them for his afternoon nap and not once did we have a wet bed.

Once the 7 day training has started it was important not to put nappies back on because it can confuse them. For over night I switched to training pants and rather than call them nappies called them "night night pants" that way as far as he was concerned he was a big boy because he didn't use "nappies" any more. Going out was a bit of a worry in the first few weeks, certainly in the first few days and I took a lot of spare clothes along but he rarely had an accident in the first week while we were out, he would always ask for his potty allowing us to stop and let him relieve himself.

While the instructions and tips for coping are clear I found it helpful to refer back to the book, just to make sure I was getting it right. The case history's and Q&A sections were helpful for answering questions you might have about the process, advising you how to cope with certain problems that may arise and demonstrating how Gina herself employed the technique on children she cared for. The programme is well laid out with relevant case histories at the end of each section, I found the book very easy to follow and the results speak for themselves, in the case of a book like this it's not the "story" that count but the results.

Despite doubting the book and wondering how on earth you can train a child in a week I actually found it worked, and quite frankly was amazed and very proud of Christopher for picking it up so quickly. There were a few times, however, I was left asking questions for example on day 1 you put them on the potty every 15 minutes but it doesn't explain if that's every 15 on the dot or 15 minutes after they got off the potty last..........the "7 day programme" also doesn't take into account the possible preparation stage you may need for your child which can be up to 3 weeks if the child isn't dry during day time naps, can't identify when they need to go etc etc…. There are no illustrations or pictures in the book, all bar the occasional potty or loo roll illustration at the head of a page, but then you don't really need them, I'm sure we can all work out which way our baby has to sit on the potty without having to follow a diagram..

On the whole I would call the book a success, it worked for us and I would recommend it to other mums who are looking to train their little ones. I can't comment on other books by Gina Ford as this is the first parenting guide I ever followed, all I know is that this one promised to have Christopher trained in a week and it worked. As with all children over the following months there was the odd accident when he was engrossed in a game and didn't want to come away but that would happen with which ever method of training you chose, children are children and they love to have fun, who wants to stop a fun game to do something as boring as go to the potty?

I will certainly use the book again when the time come for Elsa to start potty training and will pass it on to my sisters when they have children too. The book was £5.99 and I got my copy from Waterstones, although I'm sure it will be available in most book stores and online. For more information on Gina Ford go to www.ginafordinfo.com. 

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