Infant potty training - elimination communication -
diaper-free babies. However you describe it, much of the recent coverage of the practice of putting very young
babies on the potty has been skeptical. So I was surprised by the almost euphoric article in my local newspaper,
The Oregonian, today. Many area parents are trying the practice, and as author Aimee Green notes, they
are part of a "tiny but growing number of families in the United States, Canada, Germany and other modernized
nations around the world that are ditching the diaper and embracing the way humans had raised their babies for
millennia." One of the few pediatricians sympathetic to the practice warns that parents should remember they are
"training themselves, not the infant" to respond to cues and get the baby to a potty or other receptacle (many
infants first relieve themselves in a sink or bowl, not a toilet). Green - and parents who commit to diaper-free
babies - call it a "respectful" practice.
We've covered this before: Keith has had on-again, off-again luck with his elimination communication efforts; and we've done a FAQ on potty-training.
1. My son was 8 months old when we began potty-training with him. He's now 14 months & uses the potty several times during the day. He knows that the potty is where he needs to eliminate, but he still wears diapers if we go out (just in case). I've been met with mixed reactions from many friends & family members for starting so early, but I would rather have him potty trained early, then to be worrying about it when he's starting preschool!
Posted at 6:50PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Deb