I wonder about following practices just because they are popular as opposed to logical. That's one of the main reasons I chose to give birth naturally, without the drugs. I can understand why this seems strange to the majority of the country, because of its popular and its been working then it must be the right way.
While I was pregnant I came across this website about elimination communication. At the time, S and I had a good laugh. On the surface it seemed that the practice was to have your infant without diapers and clean up after him. The whole idea of "sensing" when he has to go to the bathroom and getting him there in time seemed a little ridiculous.
After Z was born I came across this idea once again. This time I did more research. In the US, children are potty trained after the age of 2, and 1/3 of children are not trained by age 3. Disposable diapers are now made to accommodate children up to 125 pounds. In contrast, the rest of the world's children are trained soon after they learn how to walk. This used to be the same in the US, until a paid spokesperson for the diaper industry "recommended" that disposable diapers should be used until the child was "ready" for the potty. These days, they say it's psychologically damaging to try to train your child too early. I say, what's really damaging is having your child, who at this point is able to walk, talk, and eat by himself, in a dirty diaper. To me it seems logical that if your child is able to communicate with you, and able to sit by himself, he is able to eliminate waste. At a certain point in a child's development, you're either teaching them to go in their diapers or you are teaching them to go in a toilet. I think that waiting to potty train only benefits the diaper industry.
All this was just research until I talked to my mom. I was walking, talking, and potty trained by age 1. Her method? Taking me into the bathroom with her. She recommends starting around seven months, and I am inclined to agree.
Links are below. I really think it's worth taking a quick look.
http://www.pottytraining.com.au/early_potty_training
http://diaperfreebaby.com/
I first learned about elimination communication on this website: http://www.journeymama.net/elimination.htm.
ReplyDeleteThe whole journey mama website is pretty good; it was written by someone who was in my graduating class in college. She was an amazing person who became the 1st female president of the student body, and had all these plans for an illustrious career, and then she decided to take a more creative route... all the articles on that site are written by her.
I kinda agree with you. I hear people potty training at 2 and 3 and it sounds foreign to me because I feel like my baby brother was already potty trained before he was 2 (but older than 1, of course).
ReplyDeleteWhat's so detrimental about it? The potty is toddler size and could be set right next to the big potty if need be. :-)