In the Boston Globe today about potty training

[memedee]

www.diaperfreebaby.org
they advocate potty training for infants

[lmladuke]

Yeah, I read this today. Are you sure its not "mommy-training" not "potty training." As someone who is still struggling with an almost 4-year old for consistent potty training - I don't buy it.

Sorry if I am offending anyone - please read my comments as slightly tongue in cheek :)

Lori

Mommy to Jonathan Matthew 7/27/01
and Katherine Olivia 7/28/04

http://lilypie.com/baby1/050728/2/13/3/-5/.png

[aliceinwonderland]

My mother claims she had us trained to "let her know" when we were about to go potty by the ripe old age of 40 days. At Christmastime (Erik was approx. 7 months, I think??) she did train him very gently to pee in the potty.

But I am in no rush and never followed up. My kid has enough stress in his life, i am not going to introduce yet another one right now.

Plus, I need him to wear the cute cloth diapers, of course :)

e.

[brittone2]

Disclaimer, I didn't read the article yet, but yeah, it generally is sort of a form of elimination communication if you are interested in reading more. I don't know a ton about it, but many natural mamas do this. No pressure, just basically learning to recognize the baby's cues and respond to them. It supposedly works best when you start before 4 months of age. You actually use a cue word and the baby learns that means it is time to use the potty.

Apparently in some parts of Europe, Africa, etc. it is pretty common to use some form of EC.

I will read the article now...hope I wasn't redundant.

[aliceinwonderland]

this is what my mom did with DS.

e.

[mommyj_2]

I don't think it's mommy training to take your child to the bathroom instead of changing diapers, or leaving them in soiled diapers for extended periods of time as some parents do. This is the line most people use to criticize infant potty training, ECing, or whatever other name you want to call it.
It's actually a wonderful thing. I did it with my DS, and he has been mostly potty trained since before he was 1. I say mostly, because he does still wet his pants sometimes, but he goes on the potty most of the time (he's almost 2 now). I haven't had to deal with poopy diapers since he was around 6 months old (except for the occasional accident).
I think people should do what works best for them. If that means using diapers, fine. If it means doing some form of ECing, that's fine too. I do, however, want to point out that comparing ECing to training an older child who wasn't taught to be aware of his/her bodily functions from the start doesn't give an accurate picture of what ECing is. The main difference I found was that I was holding DS on a little potty instead of changing dirty diapers at the changing table. I don't see how that's training a mom any more than most moms are trained to change their children's diapers when they're dirty.

[deborah_r]

I've read up on elimination communication a bit. I thought ECers didn't like it called potty training, and didn't actually consider it to be potty training? (hence elimination communication instead of "infant potty training")

[brittone2]

Yes, most ECers do not like the term potty training at all. I totally understand why...it is very different IMHO. They aren't "holding" anything really (because they aren't capable so early). Mom and Dad are just tuned into their cues and "catch" them at the right time a lot. Eventually mom and baby kind of get in sync and mom/dad can cue the baby, but it still isn't the same as having full "control" over bowel/bladder as a potty-learned child would. Cool to see it mentioned in the mainstream media though even if they sort of mangled it a bit ;)