Girls Master Toilet Training Sooner Than Boys

There just might be some truth to the old wives tales that girls are easier to potty train than boys.

A new study has been completed that has come to the conclusion that girls acquire potty-training skills at a younger age than boys do. Researchers from the study have concluded that the ages when children are ready to potty train, known as "readiness signs," is now at an older age group than in previous decades. The new typical range for "readiness" is between 22 to 30 months.

Dr. Timothy R. Schum of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee colleagues claims this is an American and Western society phenomenon as potty training in other countries often happens sooner.

A diaper manufacturer, the Kimberly-Clark Corporation (makers of Huggies diapers) sponsored the study and it is published in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The investigation included 126 girls and 141 boys between the ages of 15 and 42 months. Each week for 12 to 16 months, parents were asked to answer questions that asked about their child's potty training behavior.

Overall, the investigators found that girls demonstrated potty-training abilities at earlier ages than boys.

"One obvious explanation is that girls' physical and language skills mature sooner than boys'," the authors write. "Another explanation is that parents may initiate toilet training girls at younger ages than boys, and the practice at an earlier age leads to earlier acquisition of skills."

The average ages for "staying dry during the day" were 32.5 months for girls and 35 months for boys, the report indicates.

The surveys found that for girls and boys the results were as follows: "showing an interest in using the potty," 24 months for girls and 26 months for boys; "staying dry for 2 hours," 26 and 29 months, and "indicating a need to go to the bathroom," 26and 29 months respectively.

Most "experts" nowadays advise that parents should not force their children to begin toilet training before they are "ready." Instead, they say, parents should watch for signs of readiness, seek advice from their health care provider, and then proceed--usually around the time the child is 2 years old.

Schum and colleagues also note that the age of daytime bowel and bladder control has steadily increased from approximately 24 months in the 1950s to 36 to 39 months in the late 1990s. (How does human biology change, I might ask????)

"Although some boys and girls acquire readiness skills before their second birthday, most do not," the authors write. (As the author of The Potty Boot Camp, I heartily disagree. 75% of The Potty Boot Camp graduates are two years old or younger! It is obviously physically possible!)