early potty training

Elimination Communication is a method of potty training that is widely misunderstood in America.

For the next four posts, we’re going to explore many of the misconceptions and misinformation that surrounds the subject.

Welcome to part three of Understanding Elimination Communication. Click here for part one and here for part two.

So far in the series we’ve discussed the differences in global mentality in regard to elimination communication and toilet training between America and the rest of the world.

Read on.

More than 50% of the world’s children are potty trained prior to their first birthday.

So what are we missing?

From birth forward, infants are aware of their body’s need to eliminate. While it is true that muscle control is not yet fully developed, an infant can still learn to release upon simple command.

By relying on thick and absorbent disposable diapers, today’s average American parent is merely teaching their baby to ignore the otherwise obvious signs of elimination.

This adds unneeded difficulty to eventual potty training.

Ingrid Bauer, well recognized author of the book, “Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene,” believes the optimum time to pull the trigger on toilet training is within the baby’s first six months.

In order to start elimination communication, the baby must be held by their thighs (comfortably) in a seated position against their stomach. It’s part of an infant’s instinct not to go to the bathroom on themselves. A parent can play into this natural instinct by positioning them over the potty at the appropriate time and encouraging them to make the natural hisses and grunts that sometimes accompany elimination.

Communication is of course required on the part of the parents, as they must learn to observe their child’s natural rhythm. Some parents elect to keep their child in the same bed with them, with the potty at arm’s length, so they may attend to their child’s needs whenever required.

No it isn’t easy, but yes it may be worth it. Consider the many advantages of elimination communication.

Families able to successfully potty train their infants will save thousands of dollars on diapers. Not only is this a boon to the family bank account, it is a tremendous benefit to the environment.

Each year American landfills are over crowded with 22 billion disposable diapers!

A potty trained infant will also be spared the suffering of diaper rash, never need sit in their own mess while waiting for mommy or daddy to clean them, and develop fewer (if any) issues with constipation or urinary tract infections.

In the next installment of Elimination Communication, we’ll finish our thoughts and leave you with a bit to ponder.

Potty Training Power…AWAY!!!

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Infant potty training is something that is widely misunderstood in America.

For the next four posts, we’re going to explore many of the misconceptions and misinformation surrounding the subject.

Welcome to part two of The Truth About Infant Potty Training. Click here for part one.

In the first part of our four part series, we discussed the inherent difficulties in waiting to start potty training.

Getting your child to see things your way becomes exponentially harder as they grow older.

Why wait?
Why make it harder for yourself or your child?
Why continue to change diapers day after day, year upon unnecessary year?
Why continue flushing money down the toilet with the expense of diapers, when you could be flushing your child’s pee and poo?

Potty training infants could be the answer.

The United States is now witnessing a growing trend to embrace the infant potty training principles already displayed by much of the world. Thousands of people across the nation are currently joining or have already joined Internet news groups and e-mail lists that allow them to discover all they can about infant potty training. Together these parents are learning a multiplicity of invaluable elimination communication techniques that allow them to encourage their infants to eliminate inside a toilet, sink or otherwise appropriate receptacle.

Their babies may be too young to walk or talk, but they are certainly old enough to observe and respond. Potty training infants might just be the future in America too.

One of the primary roadblocks to the widespread adoption of this early potty training method, at least within this country, is that it lies in direct opposition to the strategies articulated by the most famous child development expert of all time, Dr. Benjamin Spock.

Dr. Spock spoke the gospel for many American families throughout much of the last century, not just about potty training infants, but all manner of child rearing. His final advice on potty training said it was best to hold off until the child had demonstrated readiness on his own. Something that certainly never happens in the first year. Failure to heed this advice, according to Dr. Spock, would only lead to eventual rebellion, digression and bed wetting.

A fan of infant potty training he was not, but Dr. Spock’s theories no longer hold water after decades of distance.

Humans have potty trained their infants for thousands of years. For 99.9% of that time it was in a tribe’s best interest to get their child trained efficiently, a practice that has continued across most of the globe without the slightest bit of damage to worldwide psyche.

Relatively speaking, Dr. Spock’s school of thought itself has shown itself faulty and is perhaps an infant that needs to be trained. With infant toilet training, there is rich tradition and a wide body of knowledge, experience, and recorded data to articulate direction.

Parents in over seventy-five countries, including India and China (sharing the largest proportions of world population), wholly embrace the practice of potty training their infants. Chinese babies, for example,  are most often found in split bottom pants that allow for simple squatting and easy elimination.

These countries not only believe it is best to potty train infants early, they believe that early toilet training helps contribute to early cognition. By stoking the skill set of their children at the earliest possible age, they are adding fuel to a fire they want to burn in perpetuity.

Many parents who bring home children adopted from other countries are flabbergasted to find their “babies” welcomed into their new home fully capable, ready, and eager to use the toilet.

For those who know, this isn’t surprising. Potty training infants is little different than teaching them to nurse.

We’ll find out more in part three of The Truth About Infant Potty Training.

Potty Training Power…AWAY!!!

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The process of early Potty training is something that is widely misunderstood in America.

For the next four posts, we’re going to explore many of the misconceptions and misinformation that surrounds the subject.

Welcome to Part one of The Truth About Potty Training Early.

Phoebe Allan is an adorable seven month old baby girl. She has squishy little thighs and, like just about every other cute baby in the known world, a beautifully dimpled baby bottom.

So what’s the difference between Phoebe and most of the other infants swaddled across our 50 states?

Phoebe is wearing thin cotton underwear and can still parade about in the same clothes she wore during her first six months cooing. This is an easy fit since Phoebe doesn’t carry all the bulgy baggage hanging from the rears of her peers.

Phoebe sleeps through the night without a diaper. While the sun is shining, at intervals scattered throughout the day, her mom places her on a little plastic potty as she makes the sounds that help Phoebe identify her usual time for elimination. Together they practice potty training early.

Phoebe and her mother hale from Kismet, Maryland. This location makes the girls a bit unusual since it is rare in the United States to find families practicing the principles of potty training early.

For the majority of American parents, the idea of effectively potty training their child before they are able to walk, and well before the terrible twos, isn’t just foreign, it’s condemned, chastised and widely misunderstood.

Parents in the United States are often horrified by the idea, seeing it as an ensuing nightmare fraught with eventual psychological damage for their child.

Yet early potty training is effectively practiced throughout the world.

Here in America, things are different. Most doctors and psychologists agree, children aren’t ready to begin potty training until two years of age at the earliest. Some even say not to potty train the child at all. Rather, children should simply be allowed to toilet train themselves somewhere between the ages of four and five when they deem it most appropriate!

Yes, children could learn to read this way as well, but what’s best for their budding brains?

The methodology behind early potty training states that children are never too young to learn. Parents can start introducing the concept of elimination to their children at an early age. By doing so, it will never be foreign. Instead just another natural part of their day.

By starting potty training early, parents can teach their baby while still in the midst of their most impressionable stage. As your infant gets older, they will grow increasingly comfortable in their diaper and more firmly fixed in their ways. As months pass, the difficulty with potty training only increases. After a child develops language and compounded experience, they are able to control their environment and their situation, thus exponentially compounding the difficulty.

Start early, finish strong. We’ll explore these early potty training ideas further with part 2 of The Truth About Potty Training Early.

Potty Training Power…AWAY!!!

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