Potty training

I’ve recently been thinking and reading a lot about potty training. I read an awful story in the Daily Mail (of all places), about kids up till the age of 7 years old who still in nappies. The report put the blame on nurseries, who prefer to take diapered kids as it’s easier for them than taking them to the toilet and clearing up accidents.

They reported growing health problems between school children due to extended nappy wearing. I thought it might be a piece of reactive DM journalism but when I was in a shop the other day I did actually see this new size nappy for 4-7 year olds. Terrifying.

In Jamaica most of the even tiny babies we saw were already wearing pants. There they practice what is fashionably called EC. This stands for ‘elimination communication’ and is basically what all our grandmothers did and what the majority of the people in the world (but not the West) still do.

Starting from birth the baby is held out over the toilet or potty and encouraged to eliminate. Nappies are never worn so very quickly the mother learns to pick up on signs of when the baby needs to go. A hissing noise is made when the baby is eliminating and eventually that noise stimulates the baby to go. For more about it have a look at this thread on our new forum, Alternative Family Travel.

I wish I had read about EC when Mickey was born, I will definitely be trying it with baby number 2 (whenever he or she comes along!) As it is, our first born is at the classic age to begin potty training. It is also the perfect time of year to go nappy free.

He stopped wearing a nappy at night about 3 weeks ago with only 2 accidents so far. When we are at home he usually runs around naked. Luckily we have tiled floors so it’s never hard to clean up a mess.

We had a fantastic surprise on Sunday. He came out of the bathroom making a great fuss and pointing and hissing noise. When we went to see what it was about we discovered that he had gone in there and privately used the potty for the first time – perfect aim too! Let’s hope he really gets the hang of it before the cold weather starts in October and we’re all back to wearing clothes again.