Potty Training Boys the Easy Way

I was only used to potty training my daughter - easy but not a breeze. Have found that my 3 year old grandson does about the same as she did except he started close to a year later than she did. It really is up to him how it goes - when he decided he was ready (especially pooping in the potty), he started doing it. I think it was more about pre-school pressure (and a few fruit snacks) that motivated him more than anything we said or did. I do highly recommend old school Gerber plastic pants over the cotton training pants - the pee can shoot straight through the underwear. This book had some good ideas but nothing particularly different or more helpful than what I did with my daughter 27 years ago. I found talking to another mom with sons and grandsons to be the best help. This book is good if you have no one around you with boys.

We are trying to potty train our son because he has exhibited a lot of interest lately. We needed a book to help us along with fresh ideas because we were only getting so far on our own. The idea of a guide tailored to a boy's needs appealed to our household, but in the end, we would have been better off getting a different handbook for the money.ProsI did rather appreciate the author's idea of potty training in sessions rather than inundating my toddler all day long with bathroom routines. He has a short attention span and low frustration tolerance if he doesn't catch onto a new task right away, so putting "big boy underwear" on him for a few hours a day and training (while gradually upping the amount of time we work on it over a series of weeks) seems to me to be an entirely reasonable and manageable approach. It takes some of the pressure off the parent and the child. I don't see that this technique is boy specific. I think I'll use on it on my daughter as well.ConsLike some reviewers, I did find the author to be sexist when she writes that boys lack common sense that girls are born with. I do not disagree that there are innate, fundamental differences between the sexes but found the authors word choices to be rude and short-sighted. It did cause me to doubt the strength of the rest of the book.The author did seem to have an inclination to stay at home mostly through potty training. She did mention that public restrooms are dirty and did offer alternate suggestions for going out including that some parents take a portable potty with them or carry spare sets of clothing for just in case. I can't imagine how my family would suffer if I dropped all responsibility just to potty train. There is no convenient way to potty train, I realize, but I can't just neglect everything.I found there was a ton of reiteration. The book could have been condensed into a pamphlet and I would have walked away with the same amount of information. I realize potty training is a unique process to be tailored to the needs of the individual child and it can't be published in a foolproof guide. However, this book strikes me as a waste of money.

My son was 3 years and 2 months when I ordered this book. He was on a waiting list to be diagnosed at Texas Children's Hospital for a behavior disorder and I was dreading potty training. I spent a couple days reading this book so I could "show" my husband we were actually "potty training" since Mr. Helpful wanted no part and always went to the bathroom behind a locked door. I followed the advice of letting boys run naked in the yard so they can observe, ahem, where the liquid is coming from. A girlfriend sugested I put underwear on my son so he recognized the wet feeling sooner. She also suggested I have him rinse out his own underwear in the sink, take them to the laundry room, return to his room, get another pair and put them on by himself with as little assistance as needed. 4 days - I kid you not - FOUR DAYS LATER my son was going on the toilet by himself. (Keep in mind he was 3 and 2 months, had been waking up dry at night and asking for diaper changes after poops. He was ready, I was the one who was anticipating a fight and delaying it!) He had a couple night-time accidents and the usual tiny oops dribbles for a couple months but everything I learned in this book about staying calm, positive and being laid-back and "boyish" about the whole thing really helped. (I also was wildly, incredibly and impossibly lucky and I very much want for every woman reading this to have the same easy time I did!) I have since passed this book on to two or three (I've lost count) girlfriends and all of their boys (also 3+) have had fairly easy potty training too. I think age 3 & good advice about being calm - almost like you don't CARE if they ever learn to use the toilet - really helps boys be potty trained! Because let's face it, they have pretty cool equipment and they want to use it...so long as mom doesn't make a huge deal and the whole thing loses it's appeal, they should have it down pretty quick!

This book is helpful. I like some of the suggestions in it. My son still isn't potty trained, but it's him.... Not the book. This book is full of solutions for different personalities. It goes by a slower strategy which I like. There is also lots of trouble shooting tips for difficult kiddos. I'm pretty happy with it.

I found this book to be rather basic, short, and lacking in various approaches to help get my kid to stop crapping his diapers.