Reply to S/O. What’s the point of potty training so young?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]From the 2001 Schum study on potty training (the most recent peer reviewed study on the matter):

"Girls demonstrated toilet-training skills at earlier ages than boys. The median ages for "staying dry during the day" were 32.5 months (95% confidence interval: 30.9--33.7) and 35.0 months (95% confidence interval: 33.3--36.7) for girls and boys, respectively. The median ages for readiness skills for girls and boys, respectively, were as follows: "showing an interest in using the potty," 24 and 26 months; "staying dry for 2 hours," 26 and 29 months; "indicating a need to go to the bathroom," 26 and 29 months. There was a marked concordance in the sequences in which girls and boys achieve individual skills. In addition, the interquartile ranges of the toileting skills varied from 6.9 to 11.4 months in girls and from 7.5 to 14.6 months in boys. In this study population, girls achieve nearly all toilet-training skills earlier than boys, including successful completion. Most children do not master the readiness skills until after the second birthday. The range of normalcy for the attainment of individual skills may vary by as much as a year."

So AVERAGE age for girls is 32.5 months and for boys 35 months. And normal variation is as much as a year. Meaning that 2.5-3.5 is very much within the normal range. A child might potty train at 22 or 24 months, but they are an outlier, just as a child who trains at 4 is an outlier.

The study also looked at "readiness skills" including showing an interest in the potty and the ability to indicate that they needed to go to the bathroom, and most do not show these signs of readiness until after 2.

The study also doesn't get into this, but UC Davis Health reports that the average time it takes to potty train is 2-3 months for girls, and 6 months for boys (again, these are averages, meaning that for every child who potty trains in a week, expect to find a child who takes significantly longer than the average). So when people say their kid trained at 3, it might mean they started at 2.5. Which is why it's so common for kids to train right around their 3rd birthday, since most people start training right around 2.5. It is very unusual for a child to train in just a few days of bootcamp-style training, despite what random strangers on DCUM try to convince you.

Here is the Schum study: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11487825_Sequential_Acquisition_of_Toilet-Training_Skills_A_Descriptive_Study_of_Gender_and_Age_Differences_in_Normal_Children

And the UC Davis resource: https://health.ucdavis.edu/children/patients_family_resources/potty-training-children.html[/quote]

How do they define “confidence” and what is the criteria for this study?  We all know kids have been training later and later due to disposable diapers. [/quote]

They don't use "confidence" as a metric. They use very clear metrics like "staying dry during the day" (i.e. no accidents) or the ability to recognize they need to go and indicate it before an accident occurs. The portion of the abstract I quoted is very clear about all of this and doesn't mention "confidence." Perhaps read it before commenting?

Regarding disposable diapers, I am sure they do result in later potty training. Maybe partly because diaper companies want to sell more diapers, but I think the main impact they have is that they are very good at wicking moisture away from a child, which means that babies and toddler may not get used to the feeling of wetness. That can impact their interest in potty training, as well as make it take longer because they have less familiarity with the sensation of wetness and it can take time to understand that.

We have also structured much of our lives around the convenience of disposable diapers. Two parent households, lives that take children outside their home regularly, more travel, etc., make cloth diapers incredibly inconvenient, which is why so few families choose them now. It's also become more common for new moms to get little to no support from family or community, so it is unsurprising that they are more likely to choose the easier option.

If you don't like this trend, my suggestion is to advocate for more cloth diaper use (also much more environmentally friendly) and find ways to provide greater support to parents who want to train earlier. Often daycares will fight against parents who want to train early. Some parents wind up delaying training until their lives will accommodate it (until they can take some time off, until summer when they can spend time outside, etc.) all of which delays training. If you really want people to train their kids earlier, why not do something productive about it instead of just yelling at people online about how old their kids were when they trained?[/quote]

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