More parents pushing 'diaper-free' movement

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More parents pushing 'diaper-free' movement
They're training infants, toddlers to signal when the youngsters need to heed nature's call

By RODRIQUE NGOWI
Associated Press
Aug. 28, 2007

SUTTON, Mass. ? Thirteen-month-old Dominic Klatt stopped banging the furniture in the veranda, looked at his mother and clasped his right hand around his left wrist to signal that he needed to go to the bathroom.

His mother took the diaper-less tot to a tree in the yard, held him in a squatting position and made a gentle hissing sound ? prompting the infant to relieve himself on cue before he rushed back to play.

Dominic is a product of a growing "diaper-free" movement founded on the belief that babies are born with an instinctive ability to signal when they have to answer nature's call. Parents who practice the "elimination communication" learn to read their children's body language to help them recognize the need, and they mimic the sounds that a child associates with the bathroom.

Erinn Klatt began toilet training her son at birth and said he has not wet his bed at night since he was 6 months old.

"The nice part is ... really getting the majority of poops in the toilet versus having to clean that," Klatt said. "I don't have to wake up at night and change diapers or have wet sheets anywhere. That's really nice.

"And being able to travel without a big, bloated diaper bag is terrific," she said.

Some parents and toilet training experts are skeptical.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5087420.html

[HappyChristian]

I read that this morning. Have to say it would be nice, as a mom, to not have to worry about diapers. But, I know it wouldn't have worked for us. I taught school for a while after Josh was born, and then when we moved here, I had a houseful of little ones in the day care I started so I could stay home. No way I would want that many little ones running around diaperless!!!! :eek

[5dumplings@home]

Frankly, it's not potty-training. It's parent training. I don't have the kind of time to sit and figure out when my 2 day old needs to be held over a toilet. I know that parents who use it love it, but it's not for me.

[John81]

I recall Katy-Anne discussing this and saying she planned to try it and how she knew others who had great success with it.

A month or so ago I was talking with my daughter and niece about this. I was surprised how much they seemed to know about it even though neither of them plan to use this method.

[Anon]

I agree, I'm lucky to have time to change a diaper much less run to the potty every time my newborn grunts (which is ALOT!). Its like "each to her own" but don't act superior if you do it, kind of thing.

[IM4given]

In 3rd world countries, where they have no diapers, the children just run naked most of the time, so this is a non-issue for them. The babies wear diapers (or a similar cloth - not huggies etc.) though until they can at least walk and crawl around. In Belize the women did not carry big huge bags of stuff around with them and a wagon load of carriers and cribs and things. They just held the baby on their hip and had a spare diaper draped across their arm. That's it and that's all. if the baby was hungry, they held the baby to their breast and nursed it. If it wet its diaper they took the old one off, rinsed it out and put the new one on, while the wet diaper dried on a tree limb or across a fence.

My babies wore cloth diapers until they were old enough to start pulling them off, and then I showed them the potty trick. I think these girls who think they have found something new, are just fooling themselves, this is the way it has been since time began.

[Psalms18_28]

I wished I have done it. My son developed a major rash since birth. It looked like a severe burn! I tried everything and nothing worked, but I couldn't let him go diaperless because we had carpeted floor at the time. It was a pain to fight his diaper rash. But anyway, it got better when he had less bowel movements. Before that, he was breastfed and was always having BM.

Now, I have another battle to fight... his eczema. Nothing will work and all I can do is hope he will outgrow it like his diaper rash.

[John81]

I pray the Lord may grant comfort and healing to your little one. :pray

[matie-k]

This is the way of life in China, but I've started seeing more and more babies with diapers on atleast in stores. It's very common to see parents/grandparents holding their babies like that over a bush and whistling. Actually a lot of times they don't even both with the bush but just do it any old place...like the little tiled area where there's a little picnic type table and stools right out the back of our apartment! When you see a little puddle or wet spot on the sidewalk here, you should definately avoid stepping in it!

In some ways though, this method seems good, but it has it's drawbacks too. No way is perfect, so people just have to decide which set of annoyances they want to deal with. I've chosen the diaper! But potty training my two year old is at my door step, and I'll tell you in a month or two whether or not I'd still stick with diapers if I had the chance to do it all over again! :eek