Potty Training in a Week Gina Ford

Gina Ford really is the marmite of child care experts - love her or hate her! If you are prepared to put in the time and effort, devote yourself to the task in hand for the first few days it will work. There is alot of preparation involved and build up to the big event but it is very sensible advice that spells it out and sometimes thats what you need. For a first time potty training mum it really helped me inderstand the process and how to get your child ready. Most of the advice leads upto when your child is ready to train and that really is the key. I now have a fully toilet trained 2 1/2 year old boy and an 11 week old baby, so trust me her methods do work!

Sets a high standard which isn't always achieveable. It can be disheartening for parents when things don't go according to Gina's plan. Some good general tips on what to look for as preparation etc.

not my cup of tea at all - i began rading it with an open mind but soon gave up - really only produces a child who understands scheduled toileting

This book has some good tips, it's not easy going (you can't leave the house for days!) however, it works, I potty trained my now-5 year old within 2 weeks when she was just 2 years old and have just potty trained my 2-year-old and (touch wood) she took to it in 4 days and no accidents as yet! It does go on a bit with case studies but the method does work.

Like all of her other books, this is full of sensible advice. Yes, it requires you to focus on the task for a few days but it's well and truly worth it. Most of what she says is common sense but it is nonetheless very useful stuff.This really is an instruction manual for toilet training.

Did not work. Can't see how it helps as eveything your child needs to do/be to be ready means they would do it themselves anyway.

Did not work for us at all, mainly because it does not really address whether the child is ready. My LO refused to consider losing the nappies until well over 3, by which time the lure of joining the big kids at the toilet was what swung it, not GF's routines and staying in all day.

Worked brilliantly for us ,and I am no stickler for routine but I was amazed by the results .

What child will sit for 15 minutes on a potty!? An angel? Does Gina Ford not realise the reality of trying to 'control', as she sees it, young children? She begins the book with a useless long story, about a typical boy with many typical behaviour problems including potty training, then ends it abruptly by saying she went in and sorted it all out. The book focuses on a strict 'how to' method, when development and behaviour is very important to problems with potty training, and her tactics do not work (I have heard from several others who have bought this book too). She has been critisised by many proffesionals and parents- do not listen to this woman!!

Thought this was okay but overall not very realistic. Most kids will get the hang of potty training pretty quickly if they are ready (which is what this book hinges on) but whether this will take two days or two weeks or a month seems minor sompared with keeping your child happy and you sane, so I don't agree with her 'day one, day two' method. Also, there will be inevitable accidents later on no matter what you do as kids get stressed or tired or whatever.

Only consider using this method if you are willing to devote yourself 100% to potty training for every waking minute of the day. It suggests that, in the beginning, you ignore the phone, don't have visitors, don't go out etc so not practical if you have other children or like to carry on with day to day activities. I also didn't like the approach of encouraging your child to frequently sit on the potty for 10-15 mins at a time.