Parents who force their toddlers for potty training prior to the age of three could be hurting them, said a paediatric urologist. Lead researcher Prof Steve Hodges from Wake Forest University in North Carolina, states that training toddlers too early may escort to toilet mishaps as bladder of toddlers may not be strong enough.
In addition to than it can lead to constipation, urinary tract infection (UTI) and even kidney damage because toddlers likely to hold in their bowel movements longer than they should. In his book It’s No Accident, Dr Hodges exposed myths that parents should struggle to get their toddlers out of diapers and onto toilets at earlier and earlier ages.
Toddlers should experience uninhibited voiding or elimination, in a manner that they can respond to their bodies urges in a judicious manner. Once they can fully work that out then parents should bring them to the bathrooms. When parents train too early, it can lead to devastating problems in the future.
Practically all toileting problems such as pee and poop accidents, bedwetting, urinary frequency and urinary tract infections all are related to chronically holding pee or poop or both. It is usually the kids who trained earliest and most easily who develop the most serious problems, wrote Dr Hodges.
Dr Hodges, further stated that half his patients have toileting problems and those same children were trained before the age of three. Children visits to physician for constipation have quadrupled in the last decade. Furthermore, eight per cent of girls have suffered a urinary tract infection by the age of seven.
Parents should believe that potty problems are normal many do not bother bringing their kids to the doctor. The bladder needs about three or four years to grow and develop and uninhibited voiding facilitates maximum growth. Parents who are too focused on potty liberation need to give their children some breathing room, concluded Dr Hodges. The study was published the Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility.