Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right (1) (Oh Crap Parenting) Paperback – May 28, 2024

This book is THE BEST, most current book on potty training available. I purchased this book before beginning in earnest the potty-training process with our daughter. We introduced the concept of the potty at 16-18 months, and did the potty training over the course of 5 days (1 long 3-day weekend and 2 days off from work) when she was 21 months old. The author of Oh Crap!, Jamie Glowacki, is very glib, so I can see how some people might be put off by her style. If you're interested in getting a sense of her methods and style, I recommend visiting her blog (jamieglowacki dot com) or viewing some of her videos on YouTube (channel "oh crap with jamie").When it comes down to it, her method WORKS. However, even though she says to follow her methods exactly, she also says in other parts of the book that you can do what you think is best for your child -- but if it doesn't work, then you've been warned! Fair enough. We did the bare bottom for days 1-2. Day 1 wasn't great, but on day 2 something just clicked and she actually started going to the potty on her own! Day 3 she was commando, but was running to the potty so often that she didn't have her pants on very much. Listen to Jamie's advice, don't give your under 2 year old extra fluids. On day 4 we tried commando again, but it just didn't work. When she had an accident, it just made her socks wet and her upper pants stayed dry. There was no real discomfort associated with peeing her pants. So after her mid-day nap, we switched to training pants - with no pants. This worked great! Only 2 accidents. Day 5 she was in training pants most of the day, with pants on to go on trips outside the house. Day 6 fully clothed all day with short trips outside (5-10-15-20-30 minutes) and everything was great. Only issue was number 2, which she still wasn't comfortable with. Day 7 she was back at daycare, no accidents, except a number 2, but later went 2 in the potty! Day 8 perfect, a couple small accidents, but still going 2 in the potty. Day 9 same. Day 10, back at daycare again and ZERO accidents.Based on our interpretation of potty trained, our daughter is fully potty trained: she can now verbalize when she needs to go, will sometimes go when prompted, and will sometimes go without telling us (we've surprisingly found her on several occasions peeing on the potty with her pants down), consistently goes 1 and 2 on the potty, has a complete potty routine, and stay dry for naps. Averaging 0-2 accidents per day, with 0 days more often.In terms of nap and night training, we also deviated a bit from Jamie's method. Our daughter has been staying dry for naps while in diapers, so we didn't put her in a pull-up for that, and just used training pants. She's had zero accidents during naps. Dry every day. So she's completely day-trained. At night we're using a pull-up (technically pampers easy-ups), but even still, she has woken up on at least 4 mornings with a completely dry diaper and has begun to consistently self-initiate the morning pee. So, we're happy with it as is. We have no intention of waking our daughter up in the middle of the night. We're just going to continue having her use the potty before bed and upon waking, and hopefully we will see a progression to more dry mornings. If not, and we're getting close to the 2.5 year mark, we may intervene and use Jamie's method.I get why there are negative reviews for this book. Jamie tells it like it is, and some people don't like that. It's a book, it's not like she's there with you, making you do anything. If you don't want to do it her way, then do what you think is best for your child, but honestly, she knows her stuff and her advice works. Slight modifications here and there are fine, but you can't hodgepodge different methods together or deviate significantly and expect the same promised results.This book is THE model that you should follow. This is the ONLY book you need to buy on potty training. Just BUY IT, READ IT, THEN START the process when you have 3-5 days to devote exclusively to spending time with your child. This book has everything you need. Plenty of chapters of prep, a clear how-to chapter, a chapter on nighttime training, chapters on trouble-shooting related to each stage or block of the potty-training process, a chapter on poop, a chapter on daycare - just look at the Table of Contents in the Amazon Preview. This book even has a Dad's cheat sheet (which could have a more neutral title, but you know, hetero-normative gender roles...), as well as a general parents' cheat sheet. Both of these were extremely useful. My husband would not read this entire book, but did read those two cheat sheets.Lastly, I would also attribute our potty training success to the following products and books used in conjunction with Oh Crap!- Elmo's Potty Time Sesame Street - Elmo's Potty Time Yes, you can rent it via Amazon on-demand, but trust me, you're going to want to have a hard copy that you can watch infinite times.- Fisher Price singing potty (do you really want to be checking between your child's legs every couple minutes to see if they peed? This tells you instantaneously, even if you're in the other room, and my daughter loves the instant gratification and fun songs) Fisher-Price Potty Training, Learn-to-Flush- Baby Bjorn potty chair BABYBJORN Potty Chair, Gray Because you'll need a second potty, and because everyone told us we HAD to get this one. It's fine, perhaps more ergonomic. Definitely more portable than the Fisher-Price chair.- Big Girls Use the Potty! (in paperback) Big Girls Use the Potty! It breaks the process down step-by-step for young girls (it also comes in a boy version) and has a sticker chart and stickers. We didn't use the stickers as rewards (my daughter was too young to grasp that concept - Jamie also advises against rewards), but did use the chart as a visualization of our daughter's potty progress - a concept she COULD understand and she took much pride in counting all her stars.- Potty by Leslie Patricelli Potty (Leslie Patricelli board books) Cute, easy for toddlers to understand, simple text and pictures with room for improvisation by parents- Oxo Tot 2-in-1 Go Potty OXO Tot 2-in-1 Go Potty for Travel - Green Eventually you're going to have to take your child outside for more than 30 minutes, and this is where things get complicated. Public restrooms are gross. Put this on the FLOOR as far away from the toilet as possible in the large accessible bathroom stall. Once they're older/bigger this seat also morphs into a potty seat for use on the toilet. It's extremely useful for all the random times your child tells you they need to go - at the park, immediately after arriving somewhere in the car, in the elevator...

I am SO glad I ordered this book! Jamie, we followed your instructions, and my daughter was more or less potty trained in a weekend. Thank you! By more or less, I mean that, in less than a day, she went from complete obliviousness to UNDERSTANDING that when she had "that feeling" that she needed to sit on the potty and put her pee in it. On day 2 she had only one pee accident. There were some misses for a few more weeks as she worked on her ability to pull her pants and undies down and some trail and error with timing/waiting/holding but she is now 100% day AND night potty trained.Some things that I think make this method different from (and superior to) other potty-training books:1. Jamie has worked with many, many kids and has some kind of magic window into their brains. She really helped me understand what was going on in my daughter's head. Some of the most helpful things for me was explaining how I can phrase things so that they make sense to my toddler, such as "put your pee/poop in the potty" and "I want to HEAR your pee." NEVER in a million years would I have thought on my own to use those phrases with my kid, but, you know what? They made complete sense to her and worked like a CHARM! In Jamie's words: Toddlers, whatEVER!2. The timeframe: Jamie recommends working with kids while they are within a certain developmental timeframe defined loosely in months of age. Before reading this book, I didn't think this was such a big deal, but now I get it. My daughter was almost 28 months old at the time, near the end of Jamie's timeframe and I can see how starting just a few months later when she had more autonomy would have made the process so much more difficult. There is this special window where they are old enough to do it but not old enough to know how to "play you." One of the things that helped me decide we needed to get moving was how she explained how you can tell children are "capable" of using the potty.3. Nighttraining: The method Jamie suggests makes total sense and works, but I never would have though of it on my own. I think my kid would probably be sleeping in pull-ups for another year while I waited for her to wake up dry. Instead, she sleeps in panties and wakes herself up if she needs to potty. It doesn't get any better than that.4. Flexibility: While there are some definitive "steps" to Jamie's method, she also provides flexibility for you to evaluate your own child's needs. I recognized my daughter's early need for me to "back-off" and let her have some control because the book showed me how to recognize that and adjust accordingly.5. Motivation: Jamie doesn't recommend that you rely on candy or stickers or matchbox cars to reward your kid when she/he potties on the potty but to let pottying on the potty be its own reward. Friends of mine have asked me what prize my daughter gets when she "goes" on the potty. My answer: "Her dignity."The ONLY negative thing that I would say about this book is that Jamie gives child care workers a pretty bad rap. The way her "Daycare workers and other caregivers" chapter begins, the best soundtrack to accompany it would be the funeral march. I read the book in one night and had myself all wound up to talk to my child's teacher the next afternoon, prepared for battle but as soon as I said " We are going to start potty-training" this weekend, she was totally gung-ho and told me that she had actually sent my daughter to the potty with another girl that day, and she had gone twice on the potty earlier (a Wednesday). The following Monday after that weekend's success, I sent her to school in panties and all her teachers were happy for her. They never lost faith in her, even on those days where she had more than one "miss" while trying to get her pants down and were NEVER negative or suggested she go back to pull-ups/diapers for awhile. Maybe I am lucky to have such skilled and loving teachers caring for my child, but I'm sure I am not the only one. I wish Jamie would have started this chapter in a positive way (like the rest of her book) and then provided "troubleshooting tips" if the first approach didn't work. Instead, she almost sets you up to think you'll have a fight on your hands. Also, being in full-day child care is hardly an anomaly as many, many mothers of young children work. The "Daycare" chapter thrown in halfway through the book instead of info peppered throughout seemed like a pretty antiquated setup.So, longest review I have ever written but this book deserves it! I hope it works as well for your family as it did for ours. My neighbor's daughter just turned 2 and she (the mom) mentioned to me that they are going to start potty training. The next day I walked my copy of Oh Crap Potty Training across the street. I told her to keep it because we don't need it anymore!!!!! Jamie, thanks again!

We were able to potty train our 21 month old because of this book. I have bought multiple copies to give as gifts. Amazing!

I’m excited to read it. Beware if ordering for a gift. Mine came scuffed up pretty bad and I’m not sure how it happened. Looked like it was purchased used but it wasn’t.

Miraculous ResultsI just want to start by saying that I know my results aren’t typical—but they are absolutely real. My son was just over 2.5 when we used the Oh Crap! Potty Training method, and within three days, he was fully potty trained. No accidents after that—not during the day, not during naps, not overnight. Even now, months later, still no accidents. He can hold it for hours. It’s nothing short of miraculous.I truly believe this method works, and I also recognize that part of our success came down to my child being more than ready. That said, the structure and clarity of this method made a huge difference. We followed the recommendation to keep him naked for the first few days, stayed consistent, and didn’t revert to diapers—and it just clicked. The book gave us the confidence to stay the course and trust the process.If you're on the fence about this method, I can't promise the same results we had, but I can say this book gives you everything you need to set your child up for success. We’re so grateful for it.