FRIDAY, March 8, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- If you're frustrated because your 3-year-old is still in diapers, don't despair. The new age of toilet training has dawned, and experts report it's decidedly later than in generations past.
A study published in the current issue of Pediatrics reveals that while little girls generally learn bathroom skills younger than little boys, the age for toilet training in both genders has steadily risen over the last 40 years. In the 1950s, children were trained by about 24 months of age; today, it can be as late as 39 months.
"Children are definitely staying in diapers longer now than ever before," says study co-author Dr. Mark D. Simms, medical director of the Child Development Center at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.
"But what was interesting was, the study showed that nearly all children acquire the basic skills needed to potty train by 18 months. So, any delay after that time probably has more to do with environment than anything else," Simms adds.
The study, one of the first of its kind, not only documented the age at which children become potty trained, but also the order in which they acquire the full complement of toilet-training skills, starting with what the authors called a "readiness" to potty train.
"These are the signals the child gives out that tells you they are ready to start learning these skills," Simms says.
But for New York pediatrician Dr. Marcia M. Wishnick, getting babies out of diapers has less to do with their readiness, and more to do with when Mom and Dad are willing to take control.
"I don't think this study is telling us anything new. But it is showing us that parents believe you have to wait until a child gives you signals that they are ready to be potty trained before you try. But this isn't really true," says Wishnick, a clinical professor of pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine.
As long as a child isn't neurologically impaired, Wishnick says, he or she should be ready to learn these skills by age 2. Then, it's "up to the parents to take control of the situation and start teaching," she says. If it's left to the child alone, "they'll stay in diapers until they're 6 years old."
Now if you're thinking back to your own childhood and remembering those wet, smelly, heavy diapers as your personal incentive for getting to the potty, you're probably right. Experts say the cloth diapers of yesteryear did encourage Mom, who had to wash them, and baby, who had to lug them around, to want to toilet train as fast as possible.
Kimberly-Clark, a maker of disposable diapers, sponsored the new study. Pediatricians say the advent of the new, stay-dry technology that pulls wetness away from the body may have set back toilet training more than a few months.
"If a child feels comfortable and dry all the time, that child misses part of the connection to getting to the potty," Wishnick says. "Feeling the wetness is part of the awareness process that aids in toilet training."
The study involved 126 girls and 141 boys between 15 and 42 months of age from Milwaukee. Each week, for up to 16 months, parents were asked to fill out questionnaires dealing with issues related to toilet training.
"We asked questions that would assess the child's readiness to be trained, as well as documenting behaviors linked to toilet training," Simms says. They included "readiness skills," such as showing an interest in using the potty, imitating parents' behaviors, and having the ability to walk, sit down and undress themselves.
When researchers were ready to tabulate results, they had nearly 11,000 weekly training reports -- about 49 reports per child -- from which to draw their conclusions.
Here's what they learned: Generally, girls exhibited "readiness skills" earlier than boys. An interest in using the potty occurred around 24 months for girls, but not until 26 months for boys. An ability to stay dry for two hours happened at age 26 months for girls and 29 months for boys. Indicating a need to go to the bathroom occurred, on average, at 26 months for girls, but not until 29 months for most boys.
In addition, the researchers learned that the skill girls acquired first -- at 22.1 months, on average -- was to "stay BM [bowel movement] free all night. The last skill they learned was to "wipe poop effectively," which came around 48.5 months of age.
For boys, the earliest skill learned was understanding "potty words," which came at about 24.5 months of age. Like girls, the last skill they learned was to "wipe poop effectively," which came at about 45 months of age.
Overall, the study found that the average age for "staying dry during the day" -- the criterion for being potty trained -- was 32.5 months for girls and 35 months for boys.
Finally, little girls took between 6.9 and 11.4 months to complete the potty training process, while boys took from 7.5 to nearly 15 months to do the same.
What To Do: For more information on toilet training your child, visit The American Academy of Family Physicians or The American Academy of Pediatrics. You can find some parent-friendly information at The Parent Center.
