Potty Training on speed

My daughter is very bright and catches onto things pretty quickly. Despite this, she absolutely detested the thought of potty training. After 6 months of trying I was desperate and bought this book at Barnes and Noble (it's also available at Amazon).

I had mixed feelings about the book while reading it and was pretty skeptical of the methods. The author gave great advice but often it was redudant. The book is 255 pages long and could probably be condensed into 150 pages. The back of the book lists lots of potty training resources. That makes it worth it's list price alone.

Here's a run down of our potty training party (the method of training the book recommends):

We spent Saturday morning reading potty training books. One was "No More Diapers for Ducky" by Bernette Ford and Sam Williams. and the other was "It's Potty Time" by Chris Sharp and Gary Currant.
This book has an annoying button that when pushed, sounds like a toilet flushing and a little girl giggling. We also watched Elmo's potty time. Amelia loved this. While we read the books and watching Elmo, I introduced Amelia to a baby doll that pees (baby alive - bought at Target). I showed Amelia how the baby used the potty chair to go pee pee which really grabbed her attention. Once the baby had an "accident" in her underwear and Amelia was not amused and insisted we change the baby at once.

I learned some things that I was doing wrong. When Amelia had potty training accidents in the past, I cleaned her up to make sure all traces of the accident were removed (I'm a germ phob). After reading the book, I learned that she had to be responsible for her accidents. She did not like it when she took of her urine soaked underwear and pee got all over her leg. I also learned that I needed to stop asking her if she had to go potty and focused my words instead to encourage DD to be more aware of her body. Instead I said things such as "how does your tummy feel?" or "do you feel like pee pee or poo poo is going to come out soon, etc." with the goal that DD would become more in tune with her body. That worked really well.

I also used to say "tell mommy if you need to go potty." Now I say "if you feel poo poo or pee pee coming, you need to sit on the potty." DD became aware of these feelings and her responsibility over the course of two days. I really think she made huge leaps and bounds in recognizing the feeling of needing to use the bathroom after I changed what I was saying to her.

The parties suggested in the book are a little extravagant for my tastes. My extended family loves Amelia like crazy but I wasn't going to send out invitations asking them to come to a party bearing gifts to celebrate her toilet training. I modified many things that were suggested in the book to better suit my daughter and me. I bought Amelia a little tent as a gift half way through the weekend. I told her that this tent is only for children who don't wear diapers. She added another rule - no boys are allowed - to keep her 13 year old big brother out of her special place. She really loves her tent and kept telling me that she was not going to get poop or pee on her new tent. It was a lot of work but I'm glad we did it!

At the end of our potty training boot camp, Amelia placed all of her left over diapers in a bag and chose which baby she was going to give them too. Overall the book was helpful, and it truely helped me organize my thoughts and develop a plan.