‘Diaper-Free’ Babies Let Moms Know When it’s Potty Time

Parents attempting to let their babies go “diaper-free” know better than to aim for complete success because bladder control can be tough — but they do aim for potties.

They also aim for sinks, bathtubs, trees, bushes and tires.

Letting the baby go to the bathroom in anything other than his or her pants will do, according to the rules of “elimination communication,” as going diaper-free is called by the parents who practice it.

The idea is to recognize the baby’s need to go and then communicate to the baby when he can do his business by holding him over a toilet (or something) and making a sound. Parents choose the method for many reasons, including fostering better early communication with their children and reducing their environmental impact by getting rid of disposable diapers.

“It’s not potty training,” said Tami Colon, 36, a preschool owner and mother of two diaper-free children in San Jose, Calif. “It’s not coercive. It’s really just responding to the needs of your baby.”

RELATED: iPotty: iPad Hits Potty Training

She said she tries to watch for signs her children need to do their business. When they make a certain noise or a certain face, she will carry them to a potty (or something else) and make a soft hissing noise to let them know it’s O.K. to go.

Most diaper-free moms aren’t diaper-free at all, said Jenay Burke, 33, who started her company, Naturally Diaper Free, shortly after trying the method for her second child in 2011. She makes cloth diapers, split crotch pants and other items out of her home in Portland, Ore.

“The common misconception with EC is that you don’t ever use a diaper, you have a naked baby all the time, you’re constantly covered in pee and poop, and your house is a mess,” Burke said. “It’s not like that.”

RELATED: Is Early Potty Training Harmful?

She said families use cloth diapers as a backup for when they don’t “catch” the baby’s business in some kind of receptacle. (The cloth diapers make it easier for moms to tell when babies are wet than absorbent disposable diapers.) In that case, it’s a “miss,” but they don’t reprimand babies for it.

“As long as there’s no scolding done, which I would certainly not be in support of,” said Dr. Julie G. Capiola, pediatrician at NYU Langone. “I don’t think the child feels any pressure with the parenting style.”

The practice drastically reduces the occurrence of diaper rash because the child is rarely sitting in a wet diaper, Capiola said, but fewer than five families have asked her about it during her career. For most of them, it’s not practical unless a parent stays at home during the day, she said.

For Burke, communicating with her children nonverbally about when they needed to go to the bathroom gave her a sense of empowerment when she was a new mom and felt she had no idea what she was doing.

When Rebecca Hiebert, 33, had her second child, she decided to try the diaper-free method after initially being skeptical. If her baby couldn’t hold up his own head, how could he control when he peed or pooped?

So when her son was four days old, she held him over a toilet. To her surprise, he peed.

Four days later, after a trip kept the family away from home for longer than expected, Hiebert assumed her newborn would have gone in his diaper. As soon as they got to their home in Steibach, Canada, she found that the diaper was dry and held him over the potty. He went.

“They know the feeling just like they know the feeling of being hungry,” she said. “It’s just not well known in our society.”

Capiola said most children can’t control their bowels or bladders until they’re about 2 years old, but they usually potty train after they’re a little over 3 years old.

Diaper-free moms say their experiences have taught them otherwise.

Colon said her son was 4 months old when he sat on his grandmother’s lap in a library as they read a book about the alphabet. As they turned the pages, they made a sound for each letter.

When they got to “S,” he peed.

Disposable diapers or bare bottoms? China frets over potty training

As they rapidly enter the middle class, Chinese parents are scorning traditional environmentally-friendly split pants for disposable diapers. 

By

Debra Bruno, Contributor /
November 29, 2012

Potty training Chinese style is also known as “elimination training,” or getting Junior to “go” on command, sans diapers.
More and more middle class Chinese are choosing to use disposable diapers, instead.

Courtesy of Casey Hynes

Enlarge

Beijing

The grandmother and the toddler were huddled in the middle of the sidewalk on Gongtibeilu, not far from Beijing’s Workers Stadium. As the child squatted, a small stream of urine appeared out of a slit in the back of the child’s pants and puddled on the sidewalk while passersby barely gave them a glance. Beaming with pride, the grandmother carefully wiped the tiny bottom, and the two walked off, hand in hand.

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The spectacle of babies and children being held over trash cans, squatting in tree boxes, or using the floor of a train as an impromptu toilet is not shocking to anyone who’s lived in China for any length of time. And kaidangku, the split pants that allow this anytime/anywhere release, are as much a sign of China as Chairman Mao’s portrait looming over Tiananmen Square.

But Chinese consumers are rapidly entering the middle class – and it’s affecting things as basic as potty training.

Each day, luxury stores like Michael Kors and Alexander Wang open in Beijing, while sales of BMWs and diamonds break records. McKinsey Company, which tracks consumer spending, estimates that by 2015, China will account for about 20 percent of luxury sales around the globe.

QUIZ How well do you know China? 

One result is that upwardly mobile Chinese parents are increasingly scorning traditional split pants for their own children as “uncivilized” and loading up on disposable diapers, instead. To many, being wealthy enough to use and toss an item is a sign they’ve arrived.

“Chinese parents in cities have reached the income levels to afford consumer products that provide convenience and facilitate their modern lifestyle,” says Pricie Hanna, a hygiene industry expert with Pennsylvania-based Price Hanna Consultants.

Pampers – China’s top diaper company – even took that approach one step further, conducting a study in 2006 that reported that babies who used Pampers fell asleep 30 percent faster and slept a half-hour longer at night. That led to its 2007 “golden sleep” campaign, in which Proctor Gamble asked parents to send in photos of their slumbering babes – all apparently sleeping comfortably in their Pampers – and got 200,000 baby pictures.

Next

Moms Talk: Humiliation as a Potty Training Technique

It’s a task no parent particularly looks forward to: Potty training! While the prospect of saving hundreds of dollars on Pampers annually can be exciting, making the transition from diapers to the toilet can sometimes be an exhausting and frustrating process for both parent and child. But should a child ever be disciplined for having an accident?

Potty training parents have been making news lately, some for their strange training techniques and some for their extreme potty training punishment. In Utah, a mother propped her two naked twin daughters on little plastic potties at the table of a crowded restaurant, sparking a firestorm for her severe lack of etiquette.

And a father of a 3-year-old-girl got more negative attention than he bargained for when he hung a sign of shame around his daughter’s neck after a potty accident. The sign read, “I pooped in the shower and Daddy had to clean it up. I hereby sign this as permission to use in my yearbook senior year.” His attempt at humor backfired on him when he posted it on Reddit and it went viral; many parents felt he took things too far.

But it was a Detroit man who really took things too far when he tragically beat his 2-year-old daughter to death after she had a potty training accident. The man admitted he felt children should be physically punished for having accidents; he now will face his own punishment behind bars.

While most experts agree that punishing for potty training accidents only leads to shame, confusion and more accidents, they don’t all agree on what age children should begin the actual potty training process.

According to an article in the Salisbury Post, 50 years ago 95 percent of all children were potty trained by 18 months. One reason could be the introduction of disposable diapers in 1961, which made far less work for Mom and Dad because of the convenience. The article cites influential pediatricians like Dr. Brazelton, who advises parents not to push their children to train until they are ready. But Dr. Linda Acredolo, professor of psychology at the University of California, disagrees. She believes the older children get, the harder it is to potty train them, and that while well-meaning doctors tell parents children under 2 are not ready to train, that’s just not true.

Today, most children potty train between 22 and 30 months. Experts say children should exhibit cognitive, verbal and motor skills, have emotional and social awareness about the issue and be physiologically ready (having bladder control, etc.) But many children are well over 3 years old before they grow interested in ditching their size 7 diapers (yes, there are size 7 diapers for kids up to 41 pounds!) So is there really a right age, or is each child different?

Among mommy circles, potty training can be a hot topic. Many mothers boast about their wonder child who learned to sit on the toilet before his first birthday, while other mothers cringe and wonder if they’ve become complete maternal flops because their near preschool-aged son is still wearing Pampers.

In my own home, potty training was starkly different with each child. My first son trained in less than a week, thanks to his daycare worker who swiftly escorted him to the bathroom several times a day during the transition. But when my second son came along, it was a different story. I feared he would end up in Depends if he did not start sitting on the toilet, but a month shy of his fourth birthday, a cool pair of Thomas the Tank Engine underwear finally did the trick, and we were home free.

My daughter trained herself in a day at age two, and my last son was out of diapers and accident-free by his third birthday. I cannot say I did anything particularly miraculous or extravagant; I simply acknowledged that each child would potty train in his or her own time, and they did. Not forcing the issue seemed to lead to less accidents and, in the end, less frustration.

Parents, when it comes to potty training, at what age do you think is too young? Too old? Do you think kids should ever be disciplined for having an accident? And what of the dad who hung the sign around his daughter’s neck? Do you think his humor was harmless, or do you think he went too far in shaming his child?

We want to hear from you!

All aboard the potty train express

Who’s ready?

If not for the fear instilled in me by Rosemond’s 24-month cutoff, I probably would have taken a more leisurely approach and waited to try again when I – not Chloe – was ready.

In fact, waiting is something more and more parents are doing. Before the advent of disposable diapers, 90 percent of American children were potty-trained by 24 months, according to a Harvard study. Today, only 4 percent of children that age are out of diapers.

Statistics like that certainly lend credibility to Rosemond’s approach. They were enough to convince me that my little girl was capable, whether I felt personally ready for the task or not.

It just so happened that, after a few days of telling Chloe she would soon “say bye-bye” to diapers, she asked me to take her diaper off so she could play without it.

“OK, but if you don’t wear a diaper, you have to go pee pee on the potty,” I told her.

“OK,” she said.

We took her diaper off, I led her over to the potty, and she sat down and peed.

Just like that. I was so happy, I nearly cried.

We decided we would go cold turkey that weekend. Experts suggest you pick a time when you can spend at least three days at home. We used that time to prepare.

A friend had suggested a book called “Potty Train in Three Days,” by Lois Kleint. All I could find at the bookstore was “Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day,” which sure sounded tempting, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

Instead, I read an article on BabyCenter.com that summarized Julie Fellom’s Diaper Free Toddlers program. You show your child how to use the potty, stay home for three days and let the little one run around naked. You keep a potty in whatever room you’re in.

If they don’t get the idea of using the potty at first, they get the picture once they feel the sensation of pee or poop cascading down their leg. Soon, they naturally decide they would rather go in the potty than wherever they are standing.

You’re also supposed to give them lots of salty snacks to get them thirsty and give them lots to drink, so you have plenty of opportunities to practice.

Potty Training Without Expense of Disposable Diapers,Training Pants

The Real Diaper Association estimates that the average family spends up to $1,600 on disposable diapers during the first two years of a child’s life. In addition to being expensive, disposable diapers also trap moisture against your little one’s delicate skin, often resulting in painful diaper rash that can leave her uncomfortable and irritable. When the time to toilet train your child arrives, the idea of using what’s essentially a disposable diaper vaguely shaped like underwear may not be particularly appealing to you, especially if she’s prone to rashes and your budget is tight. While disposable training pants have become a widely accepted tool for potty training toddlers since they were first commercially introduced in 1989, parents have been helping their children reach this milestone for centuries without the assistance of these relatively expensive and decidedly non-eco friendly products. These 10 tips can help you make the switch from diapers to the potty, without resorting to disposable training pants.

1. Be Prepared and Patient – Learning to use the potty is a major transition for your child, and it isn’t one that’s likely to happen overnight. In the weeks leading up to the big day, take any available opportunities to prepare your little one to discard her diapers. It’s also wise to prepare yourself for a few setbacks. Even the most eager and dedicated parent will struggle with potty training a child that isn’t ready, so remember that this is a big step for her and try to be patient.
2. Invest in a Moisture-Resistant Mattress Cover – Nighttime accidents are an unfortunate reality for almost all children, especially in the early days of potty training. If you’re determined not to use disposable training pants or diapers at all, it’s a good idea to purchase a barrier to protect your child’s mattress.
3. Talk About the Potty – Even if your toddler isn’t excessively verbal, she’s still able to understand basic concepts when you explain them to her. Take the time to talk about why she needs to use the potty, both in the days leading up to the transition and during the toilet training process.
4. Offer Visual Representations – Using dolls or reading one of the many illustrated children’s books on the subject of potty training can help your child grasp the concept a bit more firmly by providing her with visual representations.
5. Maintain Method Consistency – If you’re determined to go cold turkey, with no diapers and no disposable training pants, it’s important that you consistently maintain these practices. Getting frustrated with the process and slapping a diaper or pair of disposable trainers on your child will…

Read more: Babysitters.net

Save $2000 on diapers

Forget scrounging up disposable diaper coupons or trying the store brand. Switch to cloth, a.k.a. reusable diapers, a big trend in diapering that’s a huge cost cutter.

“You can expect to shell out about $2,500 on disposable diapers from infancy until potty training,” says Heather McNamara, the executive director of the Real Diaper Association in San Diego, which promotes the use of cloth diapers. “A stash of reusable diapers that will last from infancy all the way through potty training costs about $500,” she says — a $2,000 savings. And that’s if you’re using pocket diapers, a popular option that consists of a moisture-resistant cloth cover stuffed with an absorbent insert. Pocket diapers are one of the easiest types of cloth diapers to use, McNamara says. 

Save $2,400; use prefolds– a rectangular cloth diaper with absorbent padding in the middle that’s secured with a Snappi, a rubber fastener, instead of old-fashioned (ouch!) pins and a water-proof cover. “By using prefolds, you can do an entire infancy-to-potty-training diaper stash for $100 or less,” McNamara says.

Another budget-friendly option? Using used cloth diapers. “To save money, I bought all of my reusable diapers used through Diaperswappers.com,” says McNamara, who now has a 3 ½ and 5 year old. By using used reusable pocket diapers from the start, your entire pocket diaper stash will likely only cost you $300, a $200 savings compared to starting out with new pocket diapers. The popularity of cloth diapering has made Craig’s List a hub to buy and sell reusable diapers, McNamara says.

If multiple children are in your future, your initial cloth diaper investment sets you up from your first to your third since reusable diapers can last from baby to baby. And when you’re finally done, you can sell the diapers to get some of your money back.

The poop on reusable diapers

Cloth diapers are more labor intensive. You’ll need to change your baby’s diaper more often. If your baby hasn’t done a number two, which necessitates a diaper change no matter what type of diaper you use, you can’t go four to five hours between diaper changes like you can with disposables. You’ll routinely need to change cloth diapers every two hours, to prevent leaks, diaper rash and irritation. 

You’ll also need to keep up with the laundry, washing diapers every two to three days, which adds up to about two to three extra loads per week, McNamara estimates. To clean cloth diapers properly, you’ll need to set your washing machine so the diapers will be rinsed in warm water, washed in hot water, and rinsed twice in warm water, which is just one extra warm rinse at the end. Use a laundry detergent without fabric softeners or optical brighteners, which make cloth diapers less absorbent. Steer clear of scented detergent too, which may irritate your baby’s skin.

Jump on the diaper pail

The Great Cloth Diaper Change will be held on April 21, 2012. It’s an attempt to break the Guiness World Record for the number of cloth diapers changed at the same time. To learn more the event and find a Great Cloth Diaper Change location near you, visit www.greatclothdiaperchange.com.

Potty Training Is Not a Competitive Sport

In our grandparents’ era, children were potty trained much earlier than they are now. With the advent of disposable diapers, potty training became something parents stopped pushing on their kids and let the kids lead them. But then it all changed again.

Now, we have people on one side of the issue who insist children should be potty trained by the age of 2 (and some even younger) and those who believe children should potty train when they are ready.

Babble had a controversial article last week from a doctor who says early potty training (under 3) is actually a major problem. The one thing we can be clear on is this: Potty training is not a competitive sport. No matter how many mommies (and daddies) might say otherwise.

As a mom of two, I have now seen two children potty train in vastly different ways. My daughter was done with diapers at 2. She just stopped. From then on, she was trained at night, during the day, and to this day (she is now 5), I can count on one hand the number of “accidents” she has ever had.

That said, we did run into some physical problems with her in regards to elimination and, though they all sorted out, it was scary for a little while. Was early training to blame?

My son, on the other hand, took forever to be ready to train. I was practically begging him to use the potty by the time he started. But once he did, he was trained night, day, and all the time.

Asking around, it seems potty training — like everything else to do with parenting — is fraught. People are so insecure about it and feel the need to compete as though there were some sort of medal for a kid going in the potty.

If your 18-month-old pees in the potty during the day, but wears a diaper at night and during naps, is he really trained? I think not.

Of course, competition isn’t the only reason to potty train a kid. There is also the environmental factor and not wanting to clean up poop all the time, both of which are compelling, albeit private, reasons to be less dependent on diapers.

It seems to me that maybe if there were less judging and more allowing for children to make their own choices, everyone would be happier and healthier. No mommy (or kid) ever won an Olympic medal for potty training. Every kid gets there eventually, right?

Do you think letting kids “wait” to potty train is bad?

Image via www.homejobsbymom.com/Flickr

Berea’s new shop offers latest baby trends: including cloth diapers

Anyone who considers cloth diapers a thing of the past should visit Snuggle Hugs on West Bagley Road.

It has your baby’s very important needs covered.

Owner Christine Bradt, a Berea resident, opened her shop this month after selling cloth diapers over the Internet for several years.

“I believe in them,” said Bradt, the mother of six children. “They are cheaper than disposables, healthier for your child, they don’t stink and are more environmentally friendly.”

Forget the diaper that once had to be folded and pinned. Modern cloth diapers are prefolded, look somewhat like training pants, have snaps or Velcro fasteners and come in various colors and designs. They also are reused from birth through the potty-training age.

Some can be expanded as a baby grows; others have pockets to insert a washable, absorbent “soaker.”

Bradt said the initial outlay for cloth is higher than disposables. But in the long run, disposables are much more expensive.

She said babies’ diapers should be changed about every two to three hours, regardless of the diaper style. With 24-36 cloth diapers sufficient to buy for a baby throughout its diaper life, that equates to about $700, or higher with a sized system. Costs to wash and dry them are minimal, she said.

However, Bradt said, “The average cost for disposables is around $2,500 for that baby. And that is just the diapers. Then add the (diaper disposal container) and other items needed. If you have more than one, double that (disposable) diaper cost. With cloth, you use the same ones you bought for your first.”

Cloth diapers also have an added feature. “Cloth-diaper babies will potty train quicker because they feel it,” she said.

The Real Diaper Association supports Bradt’s beliefs. It says cloth diapers are soft against the baby’s skin, free of chemicals found in disposables and do not enter landfills — in which disposable diapers comprise the third-largest amount of consumer items. The association’s website says it is estimated to take 250-500 years for disposables to decompose.

Snuggle Hugs also carries plant-based cleaners, a Mom’s Corner that offers nursing supplies, an area for dads that includes masculine diaper bags, toys made from recycled material, swaddle blankets, baby wraps and carriers, wet bags, snack bags, rice paper liners for diapers, lullaby CDs and other baby-related items.

Hours for the store, located at 445 W. Bagley Road, are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. Call (440) 382-8860 or visit Snuggle Hugs’ Facebook page.

See more Berea news at cleveland.com/berea.

Contact DuMound at (216) 986-7538.

More Berea stories

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Trendy Babies – Regina Leader

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed by already. Happy Nappy, Canada’s environmentally friendly diaper service, became available in Regina about a year ago, keeping both Moms and tots satisfied.

Offered by the Saskatchewan Abilities Council, Happy Nappy Diaper Service is an affordable diaper service that delivers fresh cloth diapers to your door every week. According to Landon Lillejord, coordinator of operations for Happy Nappy Saskatchewan, this service offers the convenience of disposable diapers with the added comfort of fi tted cloth nappies. Lillejord explained that the diapers have a micro fi bre fl eece inside that pulls wetness away from baby’s bottom, leaving her drier and more comfortable without exposing her to the harsh chemicals in disposables.

There is also an environmental advantage to using cloth diapers. According to environmental studies, disposable diapers can remain in landfills for hundreds of years before completely decomposing. Disposable diapers are the third-largest single consumer item in landfills. This creates huge amounts of garbage with the potential of causing public health issues. As many as 100 viruses can survive in soiled diapers for up to two weeks, including polio viruses excreted by recently-vaccinated babies.

The manufacturing of disposable diapers also generates a huge amount of waste. Did you know that each year, over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce disposable diapers for just one baby?

There are many other benefits to using cloth diapers, including potty training. When a child is wet in a cloth diaper, they experience some discomfort – just enough to know that they don’t like it. This allows the baby to know when they are wet, making it easier for the child to be trained. The Happy Nappy folks are so confident about using this method to assist with potty training that they guarantee your child will be potty trained by two-and-a-half years or you get their service free.

How do you get started? Simply call 569-9048 or visit them online at www. happynappy.ca. If you are an expectant mom, your starter kit (featuring a pail, fi lter, bib and diapers) will arrive about two weeks before your due date. If your baby has already arrived, you will receive your starter kit on the next scheduled delivery day in your area.

So what’s in store for the Happy Nappy Service now that it’s been around for a year? Lillejord said that they are always looking at new ways to expand their service. “We are looking at getting a second truck operating in Saskatoon.” He said he is hopeful for the same need in Regina in the near future.

“We’d also like to thank all of our customers for their patronage and we look forward to serving them for years to come,” added Lillejord.

Gift certificates make a perfect gift for a shower, or any other time. For more information about the Happy Nappy Diaper Service and the benefits of cloth diapers, call 569-9048.

From January 1 to January 31 any new customer that signs up for 3 months will get 10 percent off service and a FREE starter kit!

Toddlers spending more time in day care, and diapers

November 30, 2011  

Potty training seems to be delayed for many Norwegian toddlers, who also are spending as much time in day care centers as their parents spend at work.

New figures from state statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) show that 20 percent of all Norwegian children spend more than 40 hours a week in day care centers (called barnehager in Norwegian). In Norway, where the official work week is 37.5 hours, less at some companies, that can mean the children are “at work” longer than most adults.

Four-year-olds had the longest days away from home, followed by three-year-olds, reported news bureau NTB. More day care centers are staying open in the evening to accommodate parents who work late, or have evening shifts. SSB’s numbers showed that the average Norwegian child, the vast majority of whom start attending day care at the age of one, spends 35 hours a week in day care.

Meanwhile, newspaper Aftenposten reports that the average Norwegian baby uses around 5,800 diapers before he or she is fully trained to use a toilet, and consumption of disposable diapers is up 15 percent in the past decade. That’s not good for the environment, or the children, say experts.

“They’re clearly using diapers longer than before and that’s sad, because it’s possible to train children earlier than we do today,” Dr Jon Steen-Johnsen, a retired pediatrician, told Aftenposten. He said 61 percent of Norwegian children were potty trained by the age of 18 months in 1940. Now some children wear diapers until they’re three or even four years old.

Professor Anna-Lena Hellstrøm at the University of Gothenburg ties diaper use to cultural causes. She thinks Scandinavian parents need to start potty training earlier, despite busy days at work and day care. Steen-Johnsen seems to agree.

“Increased diaper use has to do with family structure,” said Steen-Johnsen. “When most children were at home, it was easier to train them. We can’t expect day care workers to follow up all the children.”

Views and News staff

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