Yeah, there is a movement afoot, to catch your baby's eliminations in the toilet, supposedly eliminating your need for diapers and or not as many diapers. Just heard about this recently.

Not quite sure I'm buying it!

Diaper Free Babies

Newsweek Article

By Hlgmom on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 12:36 am:

A little bizarre for me! I would think this would be a bigger nightmare in the beginning than just changing a diaper!!! Who knows! LOL

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 01:05 am:

I don't recall changing diapers being all that difficult (well except for loose poop ones!) I think you would have to be so diligent, watching them all day! Seems like a scary and messy thing to me, even though they claim it won't be!

What if your kid has a sudden blow-out, though! I recall, that even with diapers on, Sarah would mess up her body, her jammies, the infant seat and everything would have to be washed! What if they went on the way to the bathroom? Yuck!

By Feona on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 06:58 am:

That is been around for a while. It is called how to make yourself and the baby anal retentive.

I actually know someone who did this 45 years ago. His wife blames this on why he is anal retentive.

By Kittycat_26 on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 08:17 am:

I guess this would be great if you had nothing else to do except hold your 3 week old over the toilet. However, I remember how much time we spent running to the bathroom for the little bit of time it took to potty train Timmy. That method would definately not be for me.

By Boxzgrl on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 08:26 am:

I can't believe anyone would buy that! It's just too funny, lol!

By Luvn29 on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 08:29 am:

Ugh! I'm sorry, but it just seems crazy to me. I can't imagine having to run a newborn baby to the bathroom all of the time. Seems like it would be nerve wracking on both baby and mother/caretaker.

What about at night? What about when you are out shopping? What about when you are in a waiting room? Or in the car? ETC.

Just my opinion, but it seems outlandish to me. They act like it is such a good bonding time for baby and you, but can't diaper changes be the same?

By Kaye on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 08:33 am:

This is very cultural. The US is one of the few countries that keeps baby's in diapers much past age 1. I think there are some great points to it. I think we rely to heavy on the easy way many times (ie TV, all the best toys, etc). In simple cultures babys are integrated into their lives and so watching them and taking them potty isn't a big deal. When you think back to that stage , not talking infants here, you realize they aren't going through that many diapers and it isn't that hard to figure out their scheudule. I guess I see where we could really gain from this idea and maybe start the potty training process much earlier, but much more relaxed.

Feona, certainly what are parents do to us cause us to have certain characteristics. But I am willing to guess it isn't just potty training early, but always having to have things just so and everything having to be perfect that caused that in your friend. But as a whole I would be suprised to find statistics that link age of potty training to being more or less anal retintive. I know in my family my oldest was the earliest training (at about 18 mo) and she is far from the perfectionist!

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 09:11 am:

Luvn, I guess you aren't supposed to leave the house! LOL! One page did say that some people did use diapers for travel and stuff. Diaper changes were a bonding time for me! I remember rubbing my kids' bellies with my nose and making them giggle, when I changed diapers.

By Amecmom on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 09:14 am:

I have read that this technique is not "potty training" so much as "parent training" you train yourself to put your baby on the potty in time to "catch" the eliminations every day.
This can actually delay real training because the child never really gets the sense of learning to control the eliminations. It leads to later night time control and, according to my Dr. Spock book, some trouble as an adult.
We do coddle our children and let them be babies for as long as we can. And why not?
Ame

By Eve on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 09:17 am:

Yes, I've heard about this before. It was on GMA yesterday morning. I personally would be too stressed out to attempt it! I would feel like it was me being the one trained! No thanks.

I do agree we are doing things a bit later now. I have photos of my DH strapped to the toilet and he is so tiny! I think he is around a year old. Then, you have my DD who wasn't completely trained until 3 1/2! Oh well.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 11:40 am:

Eve, that is about when mine were trained, too! The diaper-free thing would stress me out too much, too.

By Tklinreston on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 12:43 pm:

This reminds me of something I saw recently. I was on the beach in Waikiki a couple of weeks ago & saw a baby walking around completely naked. I felt bad for him because the sun was so hot & he was fair-skinned & because there were little prickly cones that hurt alot when you stepped on them & his poor little face would crinch in pain everytime he stepped on one. I tried to pick up as many as I could around him and was thinking about approaching his mom because she was oblivious to this. (She was always few feet away from him & looking in other directions.) Well... all of the sudden he stood still in one spot for a few second & he started pooping right on the beach. I saw some small drippings & before I even had a chance to grab a bag and run to him a HUGE flow of very loose stool (obvious diarrhea)just shot out of him. It was ALOT of poop!!! Poor baby! His mom didn't even notice. We had to get her attention. She just kicked some sand over it & her ds came back 10 minutes later to scoop up as much as he could into a bag. She then took the baby & started washing him up in the ocean where other kids were swimming instead of cleaning him up in the bathroom, which was very close by. I couldn't believe it!! Anyway your post reminded me of this incident.

By Eve on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 01:18 pm:

Eeew! Now, that's bad!

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 02:42 pm:

Ewwww, that's nasty! In the water? Talk about e coli counts! I never could have, or would have done that!

By Tklinreston on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 03:05 pm:

I meant to say her DH scooped up the poop not ds. She did attempt to clean up his butt alittle with a piece of paper but took him in the water for the rest. I felt soo bad for the little guy. He couldn't be anymore than 1.5 years old.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 04:17 pm:

Didn't she have any wipes with her? Geez. That's why I can't iamgine doing the diaper-free thing! Look at what a mess that was!

By Annie2 on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 09:01 pm:

That's just gross!

By Unschoolmom on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 10:05 am:

I think it sounds great. It solved the problem for me of what those moms slinging around diaperless babies in National Geographic pics did.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 10:40 am:

I never really thought of what people must have done, before there were diapers! I would still rather have diapers!

By Tklinreston on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 12:02 pm:

When my brother and I were babies in South Korea we lived in a very rural area and my mom only used cloth diapers, which she had to wash each and every time we pooped. My brother would often take his off and poop right on the floor and then proceed to wipe some of it on the walls. My POOR POOR MOM!! She still talks about it, 40 years later.

By Kaye on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 12:24 pm:

my youngest was a poop painter with disposables, blech!

By Dawnk777 on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 03:40 pm:

Ewwww. My kids never did that! Ugh. Although, Emily did puke all over herself the crib and the wall, though.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Saturday, October 15, 2005 - 11:55 am:

Dawn they have used cloth diapers for a long time. I really think that this is Mommy Training not potty training. I was potty trained at 9 months, I could barely walk but my mom would strap me to a chair for 15 minute blocks of time.. Her MIL, my grandmother, told her that I should be potty trained and my mom trying to prove she was a good mom killed herself and tortured me to do it... What long term effect did it have? NONE.. Did it make me smarter than someones child that didn't train herself to know when the baby needed to use the toilet before the baby knew she needed to? No.. Training yourself (as the mom) to schedule in potty breaks doesn't make the child aware of what they are doing. The child isn't potty trained you are.. And I can't see a purpose in doing it other than not having to buy diapers. It serves no other purpose.. And it didn't have an effect on the closeness or connection with my mom. I wasn't more connected with her because I could be strapped to a chair at 9 months old.. No difference between the moms that claim breast feeding makes them more connected to their children, holding your child while feeding your child causes the bonding not the actual act of breast feeding. Anything to make other mom's feel like they are failing their children.. I think it is just another case of people with two much time on their hands and no personal history to back their choice. They are assuming that this will be a "good" thing between them and their child. But I can't see it..

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, October 15, 2005 - 04:12 pm:

The whole running your child to the bathroom thing just seems like too much work. I would rather just change a diaper every few hours! (or sooner if your nose is offended! LOL!)

Besides, with breast-fed babies, they poop ALL the time! No way could I have kept up with that! I barely did, even with diapers! I can't remember how many times the baby was all cleaned up and as I lifted their feet to put the clean diaper underneath, they would poop again! I just can't imagine holding a baby over a potty for hours! LOL!