Assisted infant toilet training: is it time for a critical revision?

Toilet training is an essential issue in child education, and its completion represents a developmental milestone. Although for the last 40 years the Western medical community has recommended to start toilet training after 18 months of age, today a growing number of parents are accepting assistant infant toilet training that can begin relatively soon after birth. As currently practiced, assisted infant toilet training emphasizes infant-caregiver communication for the gradual acquisition of bowel and bladder control. Signals emitted by the infant lead the caregiver during elimination assistance. This review will help the reader to understand this new phenomenon.