Customer Reviews

Pottywise for Toddlers: A Developmental Readiness Approach to Potty Training

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I absolutely loved Ezzo's Baby Wise book... have used the method with both my boys with wonderful results. So when it came to potty training, I naturally gravitated to this book. However I have come away severely dissapointed.

The book appeared to me to be filled with a lot of fluff and repeating the same things over and over again. It appears to me that this book was just kind of thrown together and put out there to capitalize on the success of Baby Wise.

For example, a full 1/3rd of the book (starting on page 99 and following) has nothing what-so-ever to do with potty training. A large section of it is all about getting your household on a schedule. Which I'm sure is wonderful information, if that's what you're trying to do -- but I bought this book for potty training. Then the rest is about other products in the Ezzo line... followed by blank pages. It appears to me that this whole section has been added in an effort to "plump up" the book to make it look like it has more to say.

Only page 43-61 is actually about the how-to of potty training. They start by mentioning three potential methods... and then follow up by giving you the specifics of only one of those three. The method they state basically appears to be copying the "potty training in one day method using a doll" (such as the Potty Scotty method that's gained such recognition on the Dr. Phil show). If I had skimmed this book in an actual store, I would have quickly been able to see that it didn't have very much useful information at all.

(I do want to clarify that they don't mention the actual Potty Scotty doll... they suggest you can use a bear or Raggity Ann doll or a generic drink and wet doll.)

Again, I do highly recommend Baby Wise... just not this one.

I read this book a few months ago, and my son was not ready for potty-training. I skimmed it last night and realized that he was now showing signs of readiness. I decided that today was the day...we were going to potty train!

I love the EZZO series, and was thankful for the advice and guidance that Babywise provided when my son was a newborn. Now as a toddler, he is potty trained thanks to this book. I appreciate the author's suggestions and guidance - it all made sense to me. My son was thrilled to have his toy doll (my cabbage patch doll from my childhood) use the potty, get his reward, have a clean and dry diaper...etc..etc..etc...

It was a very long day ~ a huge commitment, to say the least. The bottom line is this: I followed the guidlines of this book today. My son peed 13X and pooped just after dinner. This was after an all-day event with his new potty seat and his new doll, Joseph. I will never forget how much fun, (and tiring) this day was...the REWARDS were huge, though. I know my son was very proud of himself and it just melted my heart to see him have such success with the potty. Thank you Mr. Ezzo. I have loved your books, and value your advice. Congrats to you and to us!

This book was disappointing from a well-know author. There was not new information, nothing thoughtful or "meaty", nothing that really helped us at all. Just a lot of repeated and totally common sense information presented in an uninteresting way. My wife didn't make it past page 10, but i finished it. Total waste of time.

I absolutely love the Babywise series, and have used them for my 4 children. I like the Potty Training 1-2-3 better than PottyWise. With the tools given in that book, we had our 3rd child who was dragging his heels with the whole process, potty-trained within 3 weeks. So if you're considering this book, get Gary Ezzo's other one - much better value.

I recently potty trained my 32 month old son after reading Potty Wise. After 3 intense days of following the suggested methods, he was completely trained! The book is concise and easy to follow. I'd recommend it to anyone ready to start potty-training.

Wow, this totally works. We did it "the slow way" but just the approach of treating #1 amd #2 as two different skills, with the rewards for clean and dry. I can't say it any other way except that it TOTALLY WORKS.

I LOVE Dr. Ezzo's other books, so I decided to get this one when my eldest got ready for potty training. There are SEVERAL good ideas and suggestions that I gleaned from PottyWise. I ended up piecing together a myriad of suggestions from this and other sources for my own personalized approach. I AM glad I have this book, so I can review some more tips as I have another child rapidly approaching potty readiness.

I'll start by saying, I loved On Becoming Babywise, so I had high hopes for this book. I've been disappointed twice, once with my son at 35 months, and now with my daughter at 25 months. Both showed signs of readiness as described in the first chapter. I'm a working mom, so the idea of training my kids in a few days was very appealing. While it might work for "many" moms, the book leads you to believe it works for most people in a matter of one day, and after going through this twice with the same problems each time, I suspect that those "many" moms are most definitely in the vast minority. They might be lucky enough to time things just right at the start and if that happens to work, then I can see how the system might work in a day or 2. However, at my house, we followed the guidelines, and my kids both would sit and sit on the potty, then promptly pee after getting off the potty. (whether they sat for 5 minutes or 25 minutes didn't seem to matter). My son was trained in about a month. We just started with my daughter, but the progress seems to be about the same as it was with my son. While the principals of the book make sense, it sets the expectation that this will happen in a day, and when it doesn't, it creates more stress for everyone. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I've read the book several times and believe I have followed the instructions for progressive potty training and it has not worked as quickly as the book claims it will. I think the ideas in the book are good, just don't buy it thinking you will potty train your child in one day, because you will likely be disappointed.

The Babywise method of parenting is very out-of-date and has been criticized by hundreds of professionals in pediatric medicine, human lactation, psychology, anthropology, child development, and theology. Problems have
been associated with these programs--cases of slow weight gain, failure to thrive, depressed babies, hospitalization and even death from starvation. These precepts are unhealthy and dangerous for the child, and leave parents focused on the clock, the rules, and the book, rather than on what their individual baby needs in order to grow and develop physically and emotionally. The primary authors of the materials, Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo, self-proclaimed experts in parenting, have no training in child development, psychology, breastfeeding, or pediatric medicine.

Hungry Babies:
Breastfeeding your baby on a schedule may reduce your milk supply and contradicts the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP), which has stated, "The best feeding schedules are the ones babies design themselves. Scheduled feedings designed by parents may put babies at risk for poor weight gain and dehydration." The AAP recommends that newborns "be nursed whenever they show signs of hunger....approximately 8 to 12 times every 24 hours..." and states, "Crying is a late indicator of hunger." Babies also need to go to the breast when they are thirsty, are in need of comfort, or don't feel well. Clearly Babywise's and Prep's recommendations are not compatible with the AAP's guidelines, despite claims that they are.

Stress & Low Weight Gain:
Allowing your baby to "cry it out" increases his levels of cortisol, a hormone that indicates stress--which
affects the baby's ability to self calm. Excessive crying in the newborn interferes with normal bodily functions
in every way, including gut tensing, heart pounding, increase in blood pressure, labored breathing, and disorientation. It can also affect weight gain through burning too many calories or becoming too fatigued to nurse effectively.

Crying & Colic:
Babies do not have the cognitive ability to understand why they are left alone to cry during scheduled sleep times or before feedings. Some may actually "shut down" and stop attempting to communicate even basic needs such as hunger, because they feel it is hopeless. On the surface, these may seem like "good" babies; in fact, they may be undernourished and/or depressed, with potential long-term negative effects on the relationship between parent and child. Crying babies who are consistently responded to within ninety seconds end up crying 70% less than babies whose parents allow them to cry for longer periods of time. This can certainly impact whether or not your baby develops "colic."

Healthy Parenting:
Healthy, mature parenting is responding to your baby, meeting your baby's needs, in a way your intuition tells you is right. A high-touch, attentive approach to parenting is enjoyable because it builds both confident parents and loving, sensitive, and connected kids. These babies are likely to become more securely attached to their parents and appropriately independent at the right developmental stage. There may be good points to be gleaned from Babywise. However, these good things can also be found in other, medically sound sources. The things that are unique to Babywise are not good--for either parents or babies.

Christian Alternatives:
-Focus on the Family, The Complete Book of Baby and Child Care
-Leman, Kevin, Ph.D. Becoming the Parent God Wants You to Be
-Sears, William, M.D. & Martha, R.N., The Baby Book, The Complete Book of Christian Parenting and Child
Care, Nighttime Parenting, The Fussy Baby, The Discipline Book

For more information and research please see:
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[...] - Attachment Parenting International

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Potty train in a day? Get real. It must be the rare child who can be truly potty trained in a day. My daughter potty trained on her own time, and no one else's. This book may contain some practical advice (unlike the harmful advice contained in Babywise), but I would not recommend this book to anyone especially taking into consideration Ezzo's sheer lack of credentials.