Early Toilet Training
It is a well accepted principle among pediatricians (and the announced recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics) that toilet training should begin about the age at which the child has muscular control of the sphincter (towards the end of the second year) and of the bladder (a bit later). Nonetheless, over the years, there have been those who advocated toilet training infants in the first few months of life. The current effort of this sort is sponsored by the Diaperfreebaby Organizaton. Although it is not a well accepted movement, it is gaining widespread publicity both in the US and abroad. The argument is that the infant is aware of its needs to eliminate at an early age and, with the use of diapers, parents are teaching their babies to ignore these signs and not to make the effort to control the muscles in question.
A number of recent books have advocated the diaper free approach, Ingrid Bauer, for example, author of Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene.(Bauer 2001) contends that it is best to begin toilet training before the infant is six months of age. She suggests that the parent grasp the baby by the thighs and hold it seated against their stomach while making suggestive hissing and grunting sounds. With time, (and patience!) the parent will get to know the sign’s the child makes when he or she is ready to eliminate and be there with the potty at the ready. Presumably this practice saves parents a great deal money otherwise spent on diapers. It also has benefits for the environment with the reduction in the number of soiled disposables.
All of the advocates of early toilet training, and there have been many over the years, suggest the same practices. This is because all such programs aim at training the parents, not the baby. The parent has to be constantly observing the baby to recognize the signs of readiness to eliminate. Inasmuch as infants eliminate about 10 times a day, this takes a lot of watching, and putting children on the potty. Not many parents have the time, or the patience, to engage in this practice and that is the reason it has not really caught on-and probably won’t. It often occurs to me, when I read of approaches to childrearing that ignore children’s biological readiness, that no one has tried to teach mothers to carry for only five or seven months instead of nine.
The truth is, children do not like to soil or wet themselves any more than adults like to clear up the mess. Children are as eager to train themselves as are their parents. So when they are ready, they will give us an abundance of cues that they want to be diaper free. And if we assist them with patience, good humor, and the understanding that accidents happen, children will be trained easily and without stress.
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Bauer, I. (2001). Diaper Free. Saltspring Island, BC. Canada, Natural Wisdom Press.
Submitted by Professor Elkind on Mon, 11/05/2009 - 11:20am.
Comments
Not just parent training
Hello,
I was interested that you see all these early toilet training practices as the same, 'parent training'. I am an anthropologist working in northwest China, and in my experience babies have sphincter control much, much earlier than 2 years, and their method seems to be less 'parent training' than a relaxed approach that allows young babies to learn about their toileting needs. Most of the families I researched had independent toilet users by around 12-18months, where children walked themselves to the toilet and squatted over it to eliminate through split-crotch trousers. I definitely don't see this as 'parent-training'. Admittedly, there was a lot more hands-on involvement from 3 months (when they began 'holding out' their babies to eliminate) to 12 months, but then the style of parenting is fairly hands-on anyway. Do you think its possible that perhaps our later toilet training is as much about a preference for waiting til children can verbalise their toileting needs, and/or undress themselves? Just a thought.
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