infant potty training

[Anonymous]

I also EC my now 16 month old DS. We started when he was about 4 months old. As other posters have said - it is not traditional potty training, but a form of communication helping the baby to realize when they need to eliminate and offering them a chance to go somewhere other than a diaper. Sometimes he chooses to use the potty and sometimes he uses his diaper - and his preferences have changed now that he's older/more independent. I also recommend the local Diaper Free Baby EC group that another poster mentioned. It has been very helpful in offering online support even though I've only attended 1 meeting.

To those who think it's weird/don't understand it - I thought the same thing before I tried it. I will tell you that contrary to what you may think it DOESN'T take more time and is actually less messy than dealing with diapers (especially poopy diapers).

It is a personal decision and I think it's great that you are open to trying it, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People meet every month about baby poop?

I thought the same thing. I think some have too much time on their hands.

aren't you jealous? 8)

[Anonymous]

I started early potty training but I just made it up as I went along, didn't follow any particular philosophy. My friend had a girl who trained early and she suggested putting my DD on the potty early. So at 9 months, we sat on the potty after breakfast, then at other times as she got older. We praised her when something happened, and didn't make a big deal of it when nothing happened. This was more like "potty awareness" than potty training. We read her favorite books on the potty, so she loved sitting there. It wasn't hard for me because that's the time I would have been sitting with her reading her books anyway. I didn't find this process taxing & neither has DD. We've just done it gradually according to her abilities

Around 14 months or so, I noticed that she could keep her diaper dry in the mornings, so I bit the bullet and kept her out of a diaper in the mornings. There were a few accidents, but I was surprised about how easy it was to have her diaperless if I put her on the potty at the right times. About a month after that, she started telling me when she needed to potty, which was awesome. Again, took me some time to trust it, but now when we're home, we don't wear diapers and she just tells me when she needs to go. Sometimes I will put her on the potty if it's been more than an hour since she last went. She has bowl control now but not bladder control, so we're still in diapers when out of the house or sleeping. But it is great not to have to change poopy diapers.

I read somewhere that 80-90% of all babies in the US were potty trained between 18-24 months in the 1950s, but now that statistic is reversed. I personally don't think human physiology changed dramatically in 50 years, but rather our approach to potty training changed. My theory is that disposables make it harder for babies to connect the feelings of poop/pee with the messy/wet diaper. So we used cloth diapers during the day..

According to Jill Lekoic, M.D., there is a decreased risk of urinary tract infections and accidents in infants who are potty trained early. In her book "Diaper Free Before 3" she says, "Urology experts have expressed concern that delayed training has led to increased rates of voiding disorders and lasting wetting problems across the population. Urologists argue that the delays in training suggest a fundamental shift away from actually training children to empty their bladders at regular intervals (which is how children have been trained throughout history), and toward teaching them to await a sense of urgency before making the trip."