Diaper-Free Before 3: The Healthier Way to Toilet Train and Help Your Child Out of Diapers Sooner

We bought this book after hearing stories of friends' children not being fully potty trained until they were as old as 5. I didn't want to go through that. This is a wonderful book and a wonderful program. We bought potties (one for each bathroom) when our daughter was just a few months old, knowing that we'd have them when we needed them. When she started sitting up on her own, we would occasionally put her on the potty for a few minutes with all her clothes on just to get her used to it and because I was so excited about the potty. The day after she had her first solid food, she was standing on me straining, so I brought her over to the potty and we had our first success! Since then (2+ months), she has been sitting on the potty several times a day. She only occasionally poops in her diaper and nearly always pees in the potty (she also pees in her diaper, but sometimes goes for several hours with a dry diaper). She loves potty time: it is our time to read books and play with mommy's shoes. She loves sitting up by herself; being on the potty is a way for her to have some freedom. I bought this book for my siblings and friends who are having children. The guidance is great for parents on the go who want to help their children potty train quickly, but can't be there all the time for some of the more labor-intensive potty training programs.

After reading this book, I bought the Baby Bijorn little potty and started potty training my six months old. He is now 8 months old. and has done wonderful. He only has 2-3 wet diapers a day( I use the G diapers)and has 2-3 bowle movements on the potty everyday. The only time that he goes in his diaper is when I'm to busy to listen or watch for the signs that he gives me when he needs to go. Without the help of this book, I don't feel that I would be as succesful with potty training as I have. I recommend this book to all of my friends.

This is not just another book on how to potty train your child. Dr. Lekovic also examines why the average age of potty training completion is creeping upwards, and calls into question a lot of the mainstream advice parents are given about potty training these days. This is not just one person's unfounded opinions and speculations either; she has clearly done her research, using parenting publications from past decades to illustrate how methods and attitudes towards training have changed over the years. For the part of the book where she actually describes how to do the training, she gives different "scenarios" on what might happen at each stage of the training, and how to handle those circumstances. This is something I have never seen in any other books about potty training. Most other books I have read assume the outcome of their instructions will be the same for all children. This book was a real eye-opener for me, because not only did it call into question a lot of the advice we as parents are given about potty training, but it also made me question a lot of the mainstream advice from parenting publications in other areas. It's like toilet training is just one small piece of the big picture- quite fascinating.

As a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Lekovic offers a much-needed critique from within the medical community of the academic sacred cows (such as the so-called `readiness approach') that continue to be perpetuated in spite of a great deal of contemporary evidence to the contrary. As a physician who is also a parent, though, what I appreciate most about Diaper Free Before Three is that it is one of those rare books that is intelligently written and well researched enough to be used by medical providers and yet approachable, impassioned, and even funny at the same time. Moreover, the book is a comprehensive reference on all things related to toilet training, including all of the problems commonly associated with it such as bedwetting, constipation, etc., so that even if you are done with potty training your kids, her book still has tons of useful information. I personally think the route that she advocates is an ideal middle ground between infant training and the advice most pediatricians are giving their patients to wait for readiness. There really is nothing else out there like this book!

I have used Dr. Lekovic's method to toliet train both of my children. My 4 year old son was trained at 26 months at my 2 year old son was trained at 20 months. They are happy, healthy and confident children! This is a great book!