Is the Gina Ford book ridiculously over-ambitious to say you can train in a week?

[Jane054848]

I've just started potty training my 2.8 yr old DS, having read the Gina Ford "Potty training in 7 days" book. Basically she says that you should have more successes than accidents by the end of day 1, and fully trained within 7 days. So far this has NOT been my experience. He's done one wee in the potty and 207,000 (seems like) on the floor.

I was feeling all disgruntled but having read some other threads, am I right in thinking it just takes longer than that?

[isthismadness]

If he's ready then yes it's doable. Maybe he's not ready?
I'm not a gina fan at all but think this book works

[mrsravelstein]

ds1 trained in less than 2 days (without the benefit of miss ford or any other books, honestly it's just common sense). ds2 trained in exactly the same way, took 2 weeks before we even remotely cracked it. all kids are different.

[bumpybecky]

never read the book so can't comment, but I like MoFo's suggestion :)

dd2 and dd3 both trained in under a week, but they were ready (and older than 2.8!)

[walesblackbird]

Depends on the child really. My daughter was potty trained in 5 days at just under 2.6 and was dry and out of nappies at nighttime a few months after that. Smarties helped!

My middle son took 6 months and was a complete nightmare. He's nearly now and only recently reliably dry at night.

My eldest son probably got it within a couple of weeks.

When I trained my daughter I did it in holiday time and didn't leave the house for 5 days and started off without any knickers. My boys were bored witless but after taking 6 months with middly I couldn't go through that again.

[MarionCole]

It depends on the child.

DS was trained in three days, having caught zero wees in the potty on day one.

[Lulumaam]

my DCs were both dry , day and night within a week but that's because they were ready to be 'trained'

if your child is not physiologically ready to be trained, they can't be trained

i tried DS at 2, total failure, again at 3, and dry within a week. day and night, DD was dry in the day within 2 days at age 3 and took a bit longer to sort nights out but it's doable quickly, when the child is ready and not a minute before

[harpsichordcarrier]

would agree that the child needs to be READY
I didn't really TRAIN either of mine as such. It was more potty (or rather toilet) facilitation...

[Hulababy]

Only think I found Gf useful for. Yes it is def possible IF your child is ready. Dd was 24 months and pretty much self trained. She was dry by day 3.

[CoteDAzur]

DD was dry day and night within a wek at 2.8. I didnt read GF's book.

[BunnyWunny]

I think if they are ready then it is easy to train. I didn't use that book, but dd was dry in 4 days at 2.2

[LadyBiscuit]

I failed at 2.8, did it in three days at 3.2

If they're ready, they're ready

[candleshoe]

I did twins in five days using 'Aunty Gina's' advice! Very few accidents after that!

[candleshoe]

P.S. Don't leave the house for the first couple of days and give a choc button for every wee/poo!

[NancyDrewHadaClue]

DD did it in three days at 18mths (I know that sounds ridiculously early but she wat showung all the "cues" so thought I'd give it a go)

The first morning was a nightmare - 5 accidents before we'd barely finished breakfast. And then got to the potty in time just before lunch and we never looked back.

[EdgarAleNPie]

My mum trained all four of us in a week apiece.

DD got it in a week, DS in three weeks.

children in general are physiologically ready for traning by 18mo - it is a cultural concept of readiness that interprets 'readiness' otherwise. Plenty of (widely ignored) evidence for that.

i don't do Gina Ford though. Demonstration and reward is the way forwards...

[DurhamDurham]

As long as the child is ready it's a breeze. I was dreading it with my first dd but it was so easy I remember wondering what all the fuss was about. Same with second dd, no accidents after a the first few days.

Lots of praise, gloss over the mishaps and have spare pants when leaving the house in first few days.

[lucykate]

ds was, kind of, trained in a day. i tried a week before and it ended in tears, and back in a nappy by tea time, but a week later, he got up one morning, put on some pants and said 'mummy, i wear pants now'. we had one accident that day. then after that, none, job done. by the end of the week he was dry at night too.

[Checkmate]

DD1 wouldn't potty train, kept trying again, with all sorts of methods, and she finally got it at 3+4.
DS1 did it in a week at 2+6
DD2 did it in a few days at nearly 3, but I'd waited until she was more than ready after the horrid experience with DD1.
DS2 is 18 months and I'll wait and see.

Every child is so individual with this - try it, if still loads of accidents then wait another few months, is my advice.

[Jojay]

I followed GF's book with both my boys, and it worked - they were both around 2.4 when trained.

In fact we've just trained Ds2, we're 10 days in, and no accidents for 3 days, so it has worked for him, so far.

But like with her routines, there are some it suits and some it doesn't. One size does not fit all

[spanky2]

Throw it away. I spent 4 days clearing up wee and poo off the carpet. Both my ds trained with nappies on. It took a week. Much less messy. Pull ups are convenient. I put mine on the pot about an hour after liquids. Massive praise for sitting and if anything is produced. You can only train when they want to. You will get the message if more is being done in the nappy than the pot. Ds1 had to be bribed with sweets. He was 3 and loved nappies. Ds2 was 2.6.

[Jane054848]

thanks all!!

[philmassive]

It is possible but dc has to be ready. I did it with ds1 and it worked in 7 days but even now 6 years later he has night time issues and I put it down to me making him anxious by reminding him to go to the loo every 5 minutes. I kick myself daily for this now. Ds2 I waited an extra 6 months and he literally trained himself in a day with 1 accident in a week. My advice is to use the GF as a doorstop and ignore the competitive mums. Your dc will do it best when they are ready, and being potty trained early doesn't make them better at going to the loo when they're 10, iyswim!

[JJBSpots]

I would agree with everyone who has said that if your little one is ready then it will be relatively straightforward. I am not a fan of Gina Fords baby books ? but this one worked a treat for ds1 and now has again with ds2. I thought it made a lot of sense and was a very reasonable, gentle approach. (e.g. If your child does not already do x,y or z then wait a while before starting, they might not be ready. Give them small rewards when they do something on the potty. Give them lots of praise for trying and don?t tell them off when they have an accident, just encourage them)
Last week I bit the bullet with ds2 who is 2yrs 7months. The first three days were awful and I wondered whether I had misread some of the signals I?d interpreted as telling me he was ready- but he seemed to crack it on day 4. Poo is still a bit hit and miss (more miss the potty and hit the pants/nappy) but ds1 was the same and I think getting the wee bit sorted first is fine. He's still bound to have the odd accident but I do think he's "trained" now (after all I have been known to have the odd accident, but that's normally to do with too much laughing after too much wine rather than getting too engrossed in whatever I'm doing)

Good luck!