Customer Reviews

Toilet Training: A Practical Guide to Daytime and Nighttime Training

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Now in a completed revised and updated edition, Toilet Training by Vicki Lansky is a first-rate resource for new parents on the art of teaching toddlers how to take care of themselves in the bathroom. Step-by-step instructions, wisdom from experts, advice on the question of whether to use potty chairs or adapters, means to deal with bed wetting, and more fill this pages of this welcome, necessary, and "user friendly" guidebook. A bonus children's book, "Koko Bear's New Potty," is included for reading aloud to one's toddler to help him or her become used to the transition. Also very highly recommended are Vicki Lansky's earlier parenting guides, Feed Me! I'm Yours (Meadowbrook; ISBN: 0671884433); Games Babies Play: From Birth To Twelve Months (Book Peddlers; ISBN: 0916773582); and Practical Parenting Tips: Over 1,500 Helpful Hints For The First Five Years (Meadowbrook; ISBN: 0671792059).

This short overview provides a good general guide to a subject that many new parents approach with apprehension, if not outright dread. Lansky does a good job of reassuring parents that whatever their particular toilet training issue, they are almost certainly not alone.

She takes the approach that each child and each set of circumstances is different. So instead of prescribing a single effective method, Lansky gives an overview of the different techniques that have been popularized in other books on child psychology. While her approach is even-handed and inclusive, it is not a very decisive one. The idea that there is no single universal solution is a major part of her point, but some readers may still get frustrated with the lack of specific recommendations beyond "try what works for you".

Still for someone without a clue as to where to start, this book provided a good introduction to the topic and nicely laid out the likely (and less likely but still worrisome) challenges and complications, all while keeping a calm and reassuring tone.

I found this book to be offensive. On page 2, the author acknowledges the language differences of the process (toilet training vs. toilet learning). As a reader, I understood her position and was comfortable to progress onto further pages. As I continued reading, I was content with the author's writing until I accessed Chapter 4, where she discusses the positions of experts and references some of their works. On page 47, she references the controversial book of "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day," by Nathan Azrin, Ph.D. and Richard Foxx, Ph.D. and that their "program was devised not for speed, but to help the retarded learn this difficult skill." I think the term "mentally challenged" or "developmentally challenged" would have been more appropriate. In spite of my shock that someone would write a book and refer to those with special needs as "retarded", I continued on until I accessed Chapter 6, "How Can I Train My Child Under Special Circumstances?" Under the section "Using Public Restrooms Alone", the author discusses what she considers "supervised" use of facilities. She states that a parent can stand outside the door while the child uses the facilities alone. She states that a parent can "ask an appropriate-looking man to take the boy into the restroom while you wait outside the door. (Same for situations with girls, Dad.)" and to "only let a child alone to one that is in shouting distance or in view." In a world where pedophiles are lurking in such areas and seize those moments when a child is alone to harm them, I find that advice to be completely irresponsible. At that point, I could no longer continue reading this book and take advice from someone who would make such irresponsible suggestions. I would rather have my child in diapers for the rest of her life! Over 275,000 copies sold -- I wonder how many of those were returned, as mine was.

Being a new mother, this book has been a big help! My husband and I have found Ms. Lansky's advice to be very sensible as well as benificial to both us and our daughter. This book was recommed to me by a friend. and I would pass this information on to anyone I know with children.

I found this book to be very helpful in potty training my daughter. We had tried several different approaches. She was over 2 1/2 when we trained her. This book works.