Toilet Training: Easy as One, Two, Wee?

CHAPTER 1

Toilet-Training by the Numbers

The age at which toilet-training occurs has shifted in recent decades. In 1957, researchers identified that by 18 months of age, 92% of children were toilet-trained. Just over 40 years later, in 1999, that number had reduced to only 25%.

Were 1950’s parents lying? Did they tell the researchers that their children were toilet-trained so that they would look like good parents? Or were they doing something entirely differently to what we do today?

The same data showed that in 1999, only 60% of kids were fully toilet-trained at 36 months (i.e., 3 years!), and 2% of children were still completely un-trained at age 4¹.

Because this e-book is written from an Australian perspective, the following data comes from what may be the only study into toilet-training using Australian participants². The study is based on a relatively small sample of just over 50 Aussie families, and provides the following facts (which are broadly in line with data from other Western nations including the USA, UK, and Europe):

Average age toilet-training achieved: 28.7 months (or 2 years, 3 months).

Average age for boys: 30.2 months

Average age for girls: 27.5 months

Night Time Toilet-Training

Night time toilet-training is not a focus of this book. The emphasis in this book is on day-time continence and regulation. But there are a few things worth noting about Nocturnal enuresis (or night time bed wetting).

In the Australian research I pointed to above, over 40% of the children were still experiencing wet beds. The age range included in the study was 2-6 years, so presumably this was younger children as a rule. Also, note that 2-6 years is a very broad range, so I’m not convinced that this specific number is useful. The following may be, however. For the 59% of children who were able to hold their urine through the night, they had developed the capacity to hang on from 31.7 months, or nearly 2 years and 8 months.

As with the daytime toilet training, and in line with general findings from around the world, girls were far more likely to be toilet-trained at night: 61%

But When Is My Child Actually Ready?

Current evidence indicates that children have no