Toilet training is an important developmental hurdle for both toddlers and their parents.
The skills required for bowel and bladder control is similar. These skills are the results of a series of accomplishments, and parents play an important role by recognizing, reacting to and rewarding each accomplishment. Young infants have a reflex known as the gastro-colic reflex. About twenty minutes after eating, the infant will have a reflex bowel movement. The ability to control bowel movements can only develop after the child has overcome this reflex.