The Average Age for Potty Training Girls

Girls vs. Boys

• Ask friends, relatives and day care teachers when their little girl or boy was potty trained and it seems you will invariably get the same answer: a toddler girl will potty train earlier than a boy. But why is that? The American Academy of Pediatrics' website HealthyChildren.org, says while there is no real difference in gender potty training, "toddler and preschool boys' tendency to be active physically may delay their training somewhat...The difference in timing between genders is not great in any case, and individual factors influence readiness to a much greater degree."

The Keys

• If there is anything experts agree on about potty training, it is that readiness signs are the key to success. You can imagine your little toddler mastering the toilet as unlocking a series of locks on a door. She needs a key for each lock to open that door.

  Key One---Your toddler knows when she is peeing or pooping in her diaper. You may notice that she will stop running and playing and is squatting (usually in a corner) to have a bowel movement in her diaper.

  Key Two---She should be able to pull her pants and underwear down and physically sit on the toilet, even if it's a training one.

  Key Three---She should be staying dry for longer periods during the day. A youngster may show interest in potty training as young as 18 months old, but if she still wetting her diaper every hour or so it would be more realistic to wait.

  Key Four---She is curious when Mommy or Daddy uses the bathroom and she understands what words like "pee" or "poop" mean. This shows she has interest in potty training.

Accidents

• It happens to everyone: Your toddler or preschooler has just gone two weeks straight with no diapers and has even used public bathrooms. Then, out of nowhere, she has an accident. And then in a few days, she has another one, and so on. Rest assured, this is normal and the best approach is to not punish or demean a child for an accident. "Such daytime accidents are part of learning new physical habits and should start to taper off by about six months after training. Nighttime wetting can continue much longer," says the American Academy of Pediatrics website.

  However, girls are much more prone to getting urinary tract infections (UTIs) than boys. So if your 2-year-old daughter is suddenly having frequent accidents, check with her pediatrician to rule out the possibility of a UTI. Other signs of an infection are saying it hurts to urinate and running a fever.

Time Frame

• Generally speaking, the younger a toddler starts to potty train, the longer she will take to be totally free of diapers. Some toddlers or preschoolers can be trained in a week, and some take months, especially if an event in family life has caused a setback. However short or drawn-out the process is, expect many accidents and even setbacks after a child has gotten the hang of using the toilet. "In cases when a child is physiologically and cognitively ready for toilet training, the basic training process from sitting on the potty to using it with some regularity usually takes around six weeks. However, your child is likely to experience many accidents and even regressions after this period, and may not be fully dry at night for several more years," according to the American Academy of Pediatrics website.

Setbacks

• When certain events occur in the family, setbacks often happen in young children who are potty training. Don't push the issue and accept the fact that many accidents will happen. According to the nonprofit organization Zero to Three website, "When children are going through a significant change or several changes at once it might be smart to hold off on adventures in potty training. At these times, children often feel overwhelmed and sometimes lose skills they have already learned or were making progress on, like potty training."

  Some issues to watch for:
  
  ---A new baby in the family
  ---A death in the family
  ---Moving to a new house
  ---A divorce or separation between parents
  ---A new daycare or preschool