[macintologist]

‘Diaper-free babies’ fad swells, despite critics - Kids & Parenting - MSNBC.com

SUTTON, Mass. - Thirteen-month-old Dominic Klatt stopped banging the furniture in the verandah, looked at his mother and clasped his right hand around his left wrist to signal that he needed to go to the bathroom.

His mother took the diaper-less tot to a tree in the yard, held him in a squatting position and made a gentle hissing sound — prompting the infant to relieve himself on cue before he rushed back to play.

Dominic is a product of a growing “diaper-free” movement founded on the belief that babies are born with an instinctive ability to signal when they have to answer nature’s call. Parents who practice the so-called “elimination communication” learn to read their children’s body language to help them recognize the need, and they mimic the sounds that a child associates with the bathroom.

Here's the main website for the movement
DiaperFreeBaby

What do you guys think? Anybody currently changing diapers on their infant child, what do you think?

[Big Mac]

I don't think it's proper to burden a baby with that responsibility immediately after birth.

[SpaceMonkey]

I think that this picture is too funny:

[Judge_Fire]

We tried it at around 4 weeks, found to our amazement that it worked and do it whenever possible. Really seems a built-in feature of the species.

We use diapers as usual, but whenever the baby gets restless in an obviously toilet-needy way, we let him have a go. The main benefit is that his skin doesn't get irritated from sitting in poo anymore. (Eww).

[Cold Warrior]

This sounds very cool. My wife is from the former Soviet Union, of an older generation, and her mother did this with her, because they didn't have diapers and many people didn't want to use rags wrapped around a baby's bottom.

[Kevin]

If it works it works. I knew a guy that trained his cat to poop in the toilet.. so why not.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Judge_Fire 

We tried it at around 4 weeks, found to our amazement that it worked and do it whenever possible. Really seems a built-in feature of the species.

We use diapers as usual, but whenever the baby gets restless in an obviously toilet-needy way, we let him have a go. The main benefit is that his skin doesn't get irritated from sitting in poo anymore. (Eww).

Your baby has trained you well. That's all it is-you recognize his behavior as indicating he needs to void or poop, and you help him out. This is not what most of us would call "toilet training." The commonest definition of "toilet training" is that the child recognizes the need to use the toilet and (relatively) independently takes care of the need. "Diaper free" isn't toilet trained, it's just more attentive monitoring of the child's actions.

First and foremost, a child's nervous system is not developed enough to both sense the need early and effectively enough, and to actively control the reflexive actions of his bowel and bladder until he's around 18-24 months old. Interestingly enough, that's where "conventional wisdom" says you should work on toilet training. Sure, it's better on his skin to help him void or stool in the toilet, but it's not something he's capable of doing intentionally or independently-you, the parent, are the only active participant here.

[andi*pandi]

no, it's not toilet training per se, but it must save on diapers! I don't know if we could do that with our infant.

[Kevin]

I wonder what man-kind did without diapers, or the use of clothes for such a thing. How did we get by? What practices where used in such events of babies pooping everywhere.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

If it works it works. I knew a guy that trained his cat to poop in the toilet.. so why not.

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