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Resistance to Toilet Training

According to the KeepKidsHealthy.com, most children reach a developmental stage where they are ready to be toilet trained between the ages of 18 months and 3 years. The website explains that not all children are mentally ready to complete toilet training at the same age. Children older than 3 years of age who have not been toilet trained may be resistant to toilet training.

  1. Age

    • According to the website of Dr. Roger Knapp, who is American Board of Pediatrics-certified, a child is considered to be delayed in toilet training if he is 3 to 3 1/2 years old, is developing normally otherwise, and has been attempting toilet training for at least three months.

    Urges

    • Resistance to toilet training can be restricted to either bowel or bladder urges. The urge to urinate is usually stronger than the urge to produce a bowel movement. Dr. Knapp reports that around 22 percent of the children who are bladder trained within one month of training are not bowel trained in the same period of time. This can be explained by the usually stronger and more frequent urge to urinate, which is felt between four and eight times daily.

    Reasons

    • According to KeepKidsHealthy.com there many reasons a child can become resistant to toilet training. Firs, an irrational fear of sitting on the toilet is often accompanied by a fear of the flushing system. Second, a parent may have inflicted a severe punishment for failure to reach the potty and forced the child to sit on the toilet for a prolonged period of time. Finally, KeepKidsHealthy.com reports that constipation resulting in a painful bowel movement is one of the most common causes of resistance to toilet training.

    Power

    • The UNC Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities and KeepKidsHealthy.com both report a power struggle between the child and parents to be one of the major causes of resistance to toilet training. The institute reports that continual reminders to use the toilet from a parent can cause a power struggle during toilet training.

    Strategies

    • The UNC Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities reports on many strategies a parent can use to take control of a child's toilet training. Allowing the child to become responsible for his own toilet training is one. It means issuing fewer reminders about toilet use and allowing a child to clean herself up when an accident takes place. The institute advises parents against punishing a child for failing to reach the toilet in time; rather, parents should offer incentives such as play and video time to the child if he uses the toilet.

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