The diaper-free baby movement - Good idea or not?

[astro]

Re the article below the diaper-free baby movement advocates letting a baby go commando for good health and that very young children can be trained to go potty. Is this a viable and healthier alternative to the modern preference of using a closely fitted diaper to seal them up in their own urine and feces?


The diaper-free baby movement website

What is Elimination Communication (EC)?

Just as parents learn to read their baby's signs for sleep and hunger, they can also learn to read their baby's signs for needing to eliminate. In fact, most parents already know what some of these signs are, such as the straining facial expression or the telltale grunting and bearing down that precede a soiled diaper. Practicing Elimination Communication (EC) is just a matter of responding a little differently to these signals from your baby. Taking your baby to the potty can be easy and rewarding!

Why EC?

A few common reasons that parents choose to practice EC are: to recognize and respond to baby's self-awareness; to promote close communication between child and parent; to prevent diaper rash; to avoid struggles often associated with diaper changing and toilet training; and, as side benefits, to save money and use fewer environmental resources.

The labor intensive implications of this really seems to piss off this Slate author

From Slate - Diaper Genie- Babies without diapers? No thanks.

Taking off a baby's diapers, on the other hand, means taking a giant step in the opposite direction. The mantra of the diaper-free gurus is "elimination communication," or EC, which means picking up on the little signals your baby makes before, well, eliminating. "Elimination Communication can be practiced full-time or part-time, by stay-at-home parents or by working parents," promises the mission and philosophies page of the Web site for the nonprofit DiaperFreeBaby. This smacks of false inclusivity. Learning to read your baby's elimination signals correctly involves watching them closely. It requires divining an infant's "timing patterns and rhythms"—zero, five, 10, 15 minutes after nursing; in the morning; in the afternoon; in the evening—and her "body language and signals"—frowning, squirming, fussing, tensing. Once you've keyed into the right cues, you hold the baby over a potty at the appropriate moment, go "hss-hss," or "wss-wss" to trigger the desired association, and then repeat 10 or 15 or 20 times a day. All of which sounds like the sort of incremental, intimate process that requires near round-the-clock contact. And who is likely to be so devotedly attentive? I wonder.

In fact, elimination communication sounds a lot like another name for ever-present mothering: attachment parenting, the theory of child rearing that holds that kids are best off emotionally and cognitively if they're always with a single caregiver in their early years. Here's how babies become toilet trained by the age of 6 months among the Digo people of East Africa, according to the American Family Physician: "The child spends the first few months of life exclusively in the company of the mother." Here's the modern-day Manhattan version as reported by the Times: "Some parents sleep next to their children and keep a potty at arm's reach." So much for an evening away. And forget about a day at the office

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[MLS]

IMHO these folks are not in any way "toilet training" the babies; they are training themselves at catching.

[MoodIndigo1]

You have to wonder how much time these parents can take off work in order to raise their baby or babies without diapers. Do you put them back on diapers when you go back to work?

That is one of the silliest movements I've ever heard about.

I'm not even sure that having parents that atttentive to the baby, to the point of looking for signs of bowel movements and urge to urinate. is exactly healthy.

[Witch]

Exactly. Waste of time and energy.

[BobT]

I found it stressful enough to keep track of my incontinent cat. I would hate to think what it would be like with a human.

[Shagnasty]

Crackpot. Sounds like something some of my relatives would do to screw with their own lives even more.

If you go that far, I don't think you should worry about it any further. Just let them poop and piss wherever and worry about it later.

[even sven]

This isn't anything shocking or new. The Chinese have been doing this since the beginning of time. I'd venture that most societies did this before it was economical to wash diapers or throw them away on a daily basis.

Obviously this isn't a technique for everyone's lifestyle, but if you are already a stay-at-home parent practicing attachment parenting, it might be something to look in to.

[Rushgeekgirl]

I already practice attachment parenting and I still think it's ridiculous. There is no harm in diapering your baby.

The time it takes to avoid accidents could be better spent, but this is just my opinion. I just can't see rushing off to catch Bella's urine in the toilet. This is nothing more than parent training and shouldn't be considered in any shape or form early toilet training.

[Alice The Goon]

My ex mother-in-law must have practiced this, way back in the day. Well, no wonder she would display such shock at the thought of my kids still being in diapers at 18 months (tsk tsk!). She had all seven of her children potty-trained by one year, you know.

[Guinastasia]

Forget work or going out-when the hell do you sleep?

[sinjin]

This was the system employed by Indonesian friends of mine. Unfortunately their kid frequently went potty on the floor in front of everyone. Fortunately, they had maids to clean it up. I have also seen this with Chinese children, age 3-4, who would just squat when the urge occurred. Depends on what your desired outcome is. I personnaly can't imagine US kids squatting in the park, or for that matter in the mall.

[Shagnasty]

Originally Posted by trublmakr

Well, no wonder she would display such shock at the thought of my kids still being in diapers at 18 months (tsk tsk!). She had all seven of her children potty-trained by one year, you know.

My wife's grandmother said the same thing. Is it even possible to toilet train your average one year old completely? Not that I care. I am not Freudian enough to give enough importance to the time or means of toilet training to really care.

[Smeghead]

Heh heh..."movement".

[picunurse]

Originally Posted by sinjin

This was the system employed by Indonesian friends of mine. Unfortunately their kid frequently went potty on the floor in front of everyone. Fortunately, they had maids to clean it up. I have also seen this with Chinese children, age 3-4, who would just squat when the urge occurred. Depends on what your desired outcome is. I personnaly can't imagine US kids squatting in the park, or for that matter in the mall.

Maybe an interum litter box...

[China Guy]

This used to be standard operating procedure in China and is still extremely common. However, there is a massive trend toward using diapers in China. Even very low income families tend to have the babies go commando during the day and 1 diaper at night.

It is extremely labor intensive. Kids in China tend to potty train much much earlier (by 18 months)

I can not imagine doing it this way and I bet most proponents have never actually been hands on in the process

[MaddyStrut]

I saw on the site that some use diapers as a backup and some don't.

For those that don't, how would they ever have a babysitter or family member look after the baby? It's one thing for parents to notice that a baby has to go potty--they've had lots of experience with the kid's behavior. A grandparent or babysitter wouldn't have the experience to catch the more subtle signs.

Come to think of it, how would they ever take the baby out of the house? Sometimes it's difficult for me to find a toilet while running errands, etc.--what do they do if they notice immenent elimination signs in the middle of a shopping center parking lot?

[Poysyn]

I think this is more of parent training that potty training. I had some people come over once that did this, I will never forget them holding their little five month old on the toilet. Sure, the baby went, but I think that was more recognizing the event before it happened and acting on it, not the child holding it until over the potty.