As a dad, I totally appreciate the Instagram photos of 4-month-old Ace Wells Tucker sitting on the potty. The little dude — son of Todd Tucker and Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Kandi Burruss — is adorable. But as a pediatric urologist, I cringe at those pictures, because potty training babies is risky business. I know early toilet training is popular. This week, too, supermodel Coco Rocha told People she’s training her 13-month-old daughter, Ioni, and Kim Kardashian recently told the magazine her daughter North is “so smart” because, at 19 months, she was already using the toilet. Here’s the problem: Children toilet trained before age 2 are at high risk of later developing bladder and bowel p
I have a Google alert set for “potty training” and “bedwetting,” so nearly every day I read an article offering misinformation on these topics, which are the focus of my research and medical practice. Just about everyone — health reporters, medical doctors, parenting experts — gets the facts wrong. Still, most of these folks are compassionate and well intentioned. It’s not every day that a writer blends ignorance about toileting issues with cruel and smug judgment. Not every day — but today is one of those days! Alarmed by reports that droves of British kindergarteners are having potty accidents at school, a LifeZette blogger wrote that students are “being potty trained on site because their
