Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right: Volume 1 (Oh Crap Parenting)

My sister recommended this book to me, she used this method for both her boys under 2 years old successfully. I started my daughter on this at 20 months old, and six weeks later she is potty trained and uses the loo with a loo seat insert - always asks to go for a wee/poo now as she can't pull her knickers and trousers down by herself. Only once in a while now, no more than once a week, she pees in her pull-ups at night and this is usually first thing in the morning if I don't take her for a pee immediately on the loo (we get up for a pee at about 3am and that means she is dry and has no pees in the night). It was hard work and stressful for the first couple of weeks as you really do have to watch them like a hawk, Jamie reiterates that a lot at the beginning and she it is so true! My daughter goes to nursery 4 days a week so I had to get nursery staff on board but they were really great and we just took our potty to nursery so it was always available for her and that really helped massively. You need to give it your all for a few weeks but it is seriously worth the effort and the time! My daughter is so excited and pleased with herself for going to the loo now and I feel like it has really made her grow up a bit more too at the same time. It saves lots of money on nappies, we just use one pull up a day now at night time (put it on just before she goes to sleep after her last pee) and it is only for just in case, she still asks to pee/poo when she is wearing it which I was quite surprised about. So many people say they will just wait until their child is 2 or 3, or they say we don't want to push them too much, but now I have done it this way I would really recommend this method as quick and effective. A child of 20 months (in my experience) is totally capable of being potty trained, and it doesn't pressure the child at all, it just makes your intentions totally clear so they get is quickly and thoroughly.

If your child is under 30 months, you feel they are ready and you have a week off work this book is amazing. (The book says ready is the usual cues plus they can recite the alphabet song, my child can't but she can sing a load of nursery rhymes so I went with that). I used this for 25 month old after massive failure following an online guide that had nowhere near enough detail and rushed along to next steps. I like the block approach, you have to nail using potty naked from waist down to move onto next step. This is where a long weekend wouldn't have cut it for us as this took 5 days. The book is reassuring, gave me and partner confidence and so much detail, a whole chapter on poo. I was ready to stop on day 3 as thought she wasn't ready but we decided to try another day based on the book and she started getting it. 3 weeks on and she yells when she needs a wee, goes before we go out and we go to the parks, shopping, etc with no accidents so far. Definitely worked for us, but I think you have to be the right audience. She definitely advocates for training before 30 months so this will put a lot of people off. (Personally I don't think 30 months is late at all!) Also she has a chapter on doing a reset, if you've started once before, I think this gave me a lot of confidence as I got the book the week after first attempt so the gap between starting again was inline with what the book says. I think she recommended waiting 3-4 weeks. Also, it's an easy read, you don't need every chapter so it's not that long and there is a cheatsheet on the back. It covers a lot of bases, a lot of them we encountered like not pooing, not relaxing on potty, accidents when moving into trousers, all the pitfalls but it actually tells you how to deal with them.

The method worked for us! The writing style was slightly grating - felt like the author was trying too hard to be cool and relatable - but it was (mercifully) a quick read. I know every child is different, but for us, things went pretty much as the book said they would.

I can’t recommend Oh Crap! Potty Training enough! As a mom of a strong-willed 3-year-old who had zero interest in ditching the diapers, I was feeling overwhelmed and honestly kind of dreading the whole potty training process. This book was a total game-changer. Jamie’s approach is so practical, down-to-earth, and reassuring. She breaks everything down into manageable stages and helps you understand what your child is going through — emotionally and physically — during the transition. I appreciated the no-nonsense tone and the encouragement to trust my instincts while also sticking to a clear plan. We followed the method pretty closely, and within a few days, we were seeing real progress. It wasn’t magic (there were definitely a few messes and meltdowns), but this book gave me the confidence and tools I needed to stick with it and stay calm. Now, just a couple weeks in, my little one is proudly using the potty like a champ! If you're on the fence or feeling nervous, do yourself a favor and read this. It's supportive, smart, and actually kind of funny. Total lifesaver!

I could not possibly not write a review and express my sincere delight and appreciation for this amazing book! I read this on a recommendation from a friend, who had potty trained her son in 3 days using this book. Aware that I should not get my hopes up too much and be too optimistic, (after all, my son is not communicating very well yet), I read this cover to cover before I had planned to potty train my own son. But, quite simply, it worked! We potty trained my son, day and night, in 3 days! I loved the simplistic, straight-forward language and description, which put me in mind that I was training my son a vital life skill. At times, the author’s American dialect and accent would come through, but that only added to the rousing cries I could hear in my head of ‘you can do it, mama!’ It actually spurred me on and gave me all the confidence and motivation I needed before I embarked on the potty training. She assures the reader that, as long as the child is within the set age bracket, and is showing all the signs she describes, they are unequivocally ready to be potty trained. No ifs and buts, no excuses. I loved how she tell it like it is! So now we have come out the other side, and I am so proud that my son is fully potty trained. I really do feel it was a collaborative effort between me, my son, and the author, Jamie Glowacki. Whilst there is a trouble shooting section to get children on track with potty training, I am so so glad I started out with this book and got the job done. Thanks to my friend for the recommendation and an even bigger THANK YOU to Jamie Glowacki.

Some good tips and gives confidence to go for it and stick with it but if you're practicing anything other than authoritarian parenting this is not the go to guide. Very rigid and claims you'll be able to see and do things that just aren't possible for all kids. Take it with a pinch of salt, if you can sift through the waffle that is!

Wow! Not only is this a great method but I love the authors style. Practical, honest and it works. The only potty training guidance you’ll need.

I don’t usually write reviews but thought this was worth it in the hope it may help other parents. My son is 32 months. We had tried potty training earlier and did the no pants thing which he was great with but as soon as he had trousers on he just wet them and continued playing. No real acknowledgement of what he did. We therefore stopped and waited a month. In that time I was given this book to read. Yes there are some things I don’t agree with and also it seems to be the end of the world if the kid isn’t potty trained by 3, but actually it is a really good easy to follow book. And it is what gave me the motivation to try again. Jamie explains that your toddler is never going to say ok I’m ready to sit on a potty and it’s all about your determination and just continuing with it. And do you know what, our little guy smashed it. As we had been doing no pants time before bath for a while he was already used to going potty naked so day one was a breeze. On day 2 we went out and about with the potette. He did a poop outside our house but again aced it. We had 2 accidents. And on day three zero accidents. There were a couple of leaks where he hadn’t got to the toilet in time but he knew where he was going and what he wanted to do. I think there was a bit of poo withholding but again we just kept going and eventually he had no other option. He now loves to admire his poop and tell everyone about how big it is! We celebrate that. Our nursery were on board. Before we started we explained the book we would be following and also the commando time. They were happy to go along with it including saying to him that from Friday we are throwing away nappies and he knew it. We are two weeks in and all good. We were also planning to put off night training for another few months but he is already having dry nights and waking up to tell us he has to pee so after buying more mattress protectors we are persevering with that too. I’d say the book is good if you need motivation and also just to know that you can go back and start again. I think some stuff just needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. You know your child best and what they can achieve but there is a lot of sense in this book. I think the key is not to put too much pressure on yourself. Like I said we put it off for a month as it clearly wasn’t on his radar when he was peeing and not noticing. But when you do start then just keep going. They will get it. Good luck!

We followed this book to a T with our 22 month and it worked amazingly! Love all the troubleshooting too. It's very complete.

Just Google rather, more info online.

Es una guía útil sobre cómo llevar el entrenamiento para dejar el pañal. He escuchado este “método” con varias mamás y pensé que al leer el libro me quedaría más claro, no lo hizo. Sin embargo, creo que para mamás como yo, perdidas en el tema está bien de inicio.

This book has really helped me and my family to relax about potty training. I like the way she writes in a very clear, funny and not over idealisation of how mothering oder raising a child should be like. I like the fact she covers a bunch of questions at the end because I really had some of those typical questions I needed answers for. It gave me some reassurance that i was doing it right and when my son started resisting I realised I needed to back off which is not easy since you feel like you are sooooo close. I can recommend it fully for everyone who has heard all the great tips about potty training or has a mother that says it was sooooo easy or a daycare that doesn't want to help you at all. You can do this!

I was really nervous about toilet training my 2yr old. I just kept thinking that I'd never toilet trained anyone before, couldn't remember what it was like to be toilet trained and didn't have a clue where to start. So I did what I always do when I'm anxious about learning something new: I read a book on the subject. And I couldn't have read a better one. Jamie not only has years of experience, but she also has obvious intuition about toilet training and toddler discipline. Not to mention she is realistic. So does tell you that your kid will be toilet trained in 3 days flat (as some books claim) but rather talks about the blocks on the road to toilet training success. Complete the blocks / stepping stones, one by one at the child's pace and he or she will get the message and start showing initiative about all-things toilet! My husband and I followed the book with our daughter who was 27 months old when we started toilet training. We made mistakes but nothing too major, and we checked ourselves against the guidelines of the book. The first 3 days were intense and so exhausting that we felt tempted to give up. But on the 4th day our daughter turned a corner, moved on to block 2, and everything became steadily easier. Our goal was to have her fully toilet trained by 30 months as Jamie's book admits that things get a lot harder at that age. We started night training her around 29 months and she wet the bed about once a week for maybe two months. Now she initiates all her day and nighttime toilet visits. So it took our daughter about 2 months to stop having day accidents and about another 2 months to stop having night accidents. 4 months is great in comparison to a year or even 2 years of begging and pleading with a toddler to use the toilet. I am satisfied and never expected it to be a 3 day affair, especially since we started toilet training at a time when she really wanted to start testing the parental boundaries in a lot of areas. The book has lots of advice and solutions for parents who have already attempted toilet training and hit a stale-mate and also for the more difficult age groups like 3yrs+ I appreviated this book so much that I bought Jamie's other book "oh crap, I have a toddler" and loved it just as much!