BOSTON, March 17 (UPI) -- Parents are flush with pride -- and relief -- as their children graduate from the Toilet Training School at Children's Hospital Boston.
Enrollment, the school's supervisor says, usually is prompted by willful toddlers and parents at wit's end, CNN reported.
"By the time the children come in with their families, it has become a power struggle," said Dr. Alison Schonwald, a pediatrician who oversees "poop school," an affectionate nickname given the program.
The six-week program is one of a handful of potty schools nationwide. Kimberly Dunn, a pediatric nurse practitioner who has worked with some of the 450 graduates over the years, says most of her charges admit they're afraid to use that huge, white, cold thing called a toilet.
"Oftentimes, the parents come in and they want to know why they're afraid," Dunn said. "You could ask the kids until they're blue in the face and you hardly ever find out why."
Schonwald, the author of "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Potty Training," urges parental optimism.
"No one goes to college in diapers, right?" she says, "Everyone will get through this time, as awful as it might feel if you're struggling."
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