Choosing a Potty Training Process

Be Patient—and Clever

From Potty Training Sucks by Joanne Kimes with Kathleen Laccinole

The Experts: Though neither author is a doctor, both are moms, and this book reads more like a buddy-to-buddy guide than a jargony parenting bible. (Kimes also wrote Pregnancy Sucks and Bedtime Sucks.)

Their Approach: "Only Junior can control his bottom," the authors say, introducing their child-led potty training approach. Sucks advises parents to get their child interested in and comfortable with the potty chair by putting them on it at the same time every day. Parents should ask their child routinely if he needs to use it, praise him when it's used correctly, and switch to cotton underwear once the child has successfully used the potty a few times. Kimes and Laccinole also advocate for using "motivators"—sticker charts, hugs, even (gasp!) candy—if these have proven to work for your child's behavior before.

Toileting Tip: Potty train during the summer. "When the weather is warm, your little love muffin can run around the house in the buff, or at least scantily clad, which makes the 'tossing of the little one onto the potty when he starts to poop' quite easy," they say. Even let your child bring the potty—and his nude self—outside. "If he has an accident, then you just hose him down like a fighting dog and get on with your day."