Time to get on the potty: Are constipation and stool toileting refusal causing delayed toilet training?

Abstract

There is a paucity of evidence-based literature on toilet training. Retrospective and cross-sectional studies have shown that sex, race, and culture are important influences on the process.1 However, many basic questions regarding the when, where, and how of toilet training remain unanswered. Because it is unlikely that parents will remember details of the toilet training process retrospectively, it is only by way of prospective studies that these questions can be adequately addressed. In reviewing the toilet training literature for this editorial, a MEDLINE search revealed only 7 prospective cohorts assembled since 1962. The prospective study by Blum et al in this issue of The Journal of Pediatrics addresses some of these questions