Late Potty Training Pros and Cons

Potty training is one of the important milestones in a toddler's life and in ours as well. It takes a fair amount of time for a child to be well trained and requires a lot of patience and creativity from our side to help him be motivated to use the seat and stop wetting himself. The ideal age of starting the training is 2 years old, by then the child's bladder and bowel movement are well developed, his motor skills are improved and his cognitive skills are well established (When are most children potty trained?). But some parents choose to start early training (The early potty training pros and cons) and others decide to go by the late training which is usually discouraged and linked to many health side effects.
In order to give you a reliable article, I went through a number of books, studies, and interviews made with doctors in this field.
All of you must be wondering when is it considered a late potty training?
A late potty training is from 3 years old and up, since most pediatricians and specialists consider that the perfect age is at 2 years old. But as in every subject we find  people that encourage late training and others who assure that it has considerable side effects on a child's mental and physical health.
Dr. Baruch Kushnir, creator of the children DVD "The Magic Bowl: Potty Training Made Easy"  considers that potty training symbolizes progress in the acquisition of independence and control. He warns in an interview on www.sheknows.com that: "When a child is not completely potty trained by the age of four, he becomes an 'exception' and may suffer personal and social embarrassment and disappointments. He may also be exposed to unpleasant reactions from the social environment … and they may damage the child's self-image and self-confidence and interfere with his developing personality.


I- Pros:

• Fully developed bladder and bowel movement.
• The child will have achieved his verbal and communication skills.
• A child after 3 can understand better the concept of rewards.
• He can master his motor skills - therefor pulling up/down his pants and climbing to the seat sounds very easy to him.
• He's emotionally ready.

II- Cons:

• Our child will be ashamed of being one of few untrained kids which will effect his mental health.
• Physical consequences: When young children become dependent on diapers or pull-ups, they don't learn how to recognize the need to go to the bathroom. Their inability to control their bladder and bowels at an early age can actually affect their bladder and bowel control as they grow older.
• Late training could lead to bladder control problems and urinary tract infection.

Most of the pediatricians and child care specialists have agreed that the best age to start toilet training is between 1 1/2 and 3. As for the methods to follow, there isn't one golden rule, methods change depending on the child we are dealing with and the degree of development he has reached in all the important skills he will be needing for his training progress.

Reference:

Weltford, Heather. Successful Potty Training
Dr.-Kushnir.com
www.sheknows.com 

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Early Potty Training Pros and Cons

Many parent worry that early training could harm the baby emotionally and mentally; this idea has been promoted by pediatricians and child care professionals and it goes back to the bad training methods. Parents in 1920's used harmful and abusive techniques that leaded to emotional side effects upon children.  Pediatricians, like Benjamin Spock and T. Berry Brazelton, argued that pushing children may cause a variety of troubles, including stool withholding, stool toileting refusal, regression, and bed wetting. On the other hand, the few scientific studies on potty training revealed that early training does not cause any problems.
In this article, we will review together the pros and cons of early potty training.

I- Cons:

1. Children trained earlier tend to take longer to complete training: the youngest the child is the less prepared he is for potty training which will slow the progress.
2. Infant training steals the child of the sense of pride older children develop when they accomplish the skill on their own, says T. Berry Brazelton, MD, a renowned pediatrician and the author of Toilet Training: The Brazelton Way (Da Capo Press). "When you start that early, you train a reflex, something that isn't conscious in a child," Dr. Brazelton says. "When it works, I'm sure it's rewarding. But when it doesn't, it could increase the parents' tension to the point where they say: 'Oh, my God, I put so much into this, why are they not getting it?' It's a parent-oriented kind of approach, and not a child-oriented approach."
3. Pushing the child to potty train too early will cause a variety of troubles, including stool withholding, stool toileting refusal, regression, and bed wetting.
4. Early training is unpractical for parents since they have to analyze their child's every facial expression,it is better to wait until age 2. That's typically when a child expresses interest in potty training and shows signs of readiness ( When are most children potty trained)

II- Pros:

1. Fewer diaper rashes
2. Fewer illness: The Rotavirus is less likely to spread among children in daycares if they had fewer diapers to change since this illness is spread by fecal to oral contamination and is extremely contagious. Few studies showed that children wearing diapers and in daycare are at higher risk of getting infectious diarrhea and infectious hepatitis.
3.  Less risk of bladder problems: Studies showed that late potty training increased risks of bladder control problem and urinary tract infection.
4. Positive effect on both the environment and economic situation: Early training has financial benefits related to the substantial costs of diapers and environmental benefits when we cut the use of diapers.
5. Natural bonding experience: Just like breastfeeding, potty training is a natural bonding experience between baby and his mother. Social connections develop as they both communicate, touch and spend quality time together.

In general, it is advised to wait till your child is 24 months, then he will be ready and the process will be easier to both of you. You will still benefit from all the advantages of early training even if trained after 2. My advice to you, is to start preparing your baby to the idea since he is 18 months. Always refer to the fact that you and his dad use the bathroom instead of diapers, take him to choose the potty or baby seat (as I did), let him decorate it with stickers of his choice. Start practicing sitting on potty once a day without expecting any progress since you are just preparing your kid to the process; this way when he is ready the concept of urinating in the seat will be already planted in his mind and this will lead to faster progress in the training.

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