Toilet Training-The Brazelton Way

Beloved pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton offers hope and help for parents whose bathroom has become a battleground. With co-author Dr. Joshua Sparrow, Brazelton outlines a "waiting and watching" approach to toilet training. First, parents learn to recognize "touchpoints" (developmental signs of a child’s readiness to graduate from soggy diapers) including "potty talk and play," awareness of other’s toilet habits, and the ability to imitate behavior and understand directions. Readiness is further defined by the capacity for "object permanence," allowing a child to "say good bye to poop without feeling that apart of her will disappear." Next, parents should focus on a child’s temperament. Parents are encouraged to confront "the ghosts in the nursery", by exploring how memories of their own toilet training create anxiety, pressure or overreaction. Braze! lton and Sparrow use this child-centered model to resolve a broad range of problems including bedwetting, constipation, and preschool pressure. The authors’ clear and reassuring tone could be leavened with a bit more comic relief, but it is hard to imagine a more wise or well-detailed guide to this central milestone of toddlerhood. -- Barbara Mackoff