The ‘Wait Until Ready’ Approach to Potty Training Is Under Fire
The UK is encouraging earlier toilet-training, challenging decades of conventional wisdom shaped alongside the rise of disposable diapers.
When members of the UK’s House of Lords gathered in January for their first debate of the year, an unexpected issue was high on the agenda — potty training.
The discussion came as the UK grapples with an alarming statistic: About 26% of 4-year-olds in England are not potty-trained when they start school, according to a recent survey by nonprofit Kindred Squared. Seventy years ago, by contrast, an estimated 83% of UK children were toilet-trained by 18 months, as chronicled by researchers in the book Children Under Five.