Article: Infant Potty Training?

[starshine]

And we all complained that we were potty trained before 2... What is wrong with these parents?


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/nyregion/09diapers.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

[kite]

the modern day parent wants a ready made kid that can take care of its self.

 

[starshine]

I just don't understand how the child and parent have a stronger bond? Your basically teaching the kid to be Independant from an early age. Now I don't agree with babying your kids until they're teenagers, but c'mon!

 

[babyemo]

to true, but it seems as if it would be harder to run to a potty when your kid makes a pee pee face, especially if you dont make it and your kid just leaks all over anyway (frustrating?)

i may be a little biased but i think diapers are essential to happiness in children

 

[paddedhawk]

i may be a little biased but i think diapers are essential to happiness in children

What kind of bias could you possibly have

But seriously, that would save a lot of money if the parent had time to do it.

 

[Takashi]

I just don't understand how the child and parent have a stronger bond? Your basically teaching the kid to be Independant from an early age. Now I don't agree with babying your kids until they're teenagers, but c'mon!

That sums it up for me. Nice one Mandi.

 

[Jaiden]

I don't particularly think there's anything wrong with it, it's very common in large parts of the world and is just a slightly different way of doing things that what we're used to.

I don't think kids should be pushed or forced to potty train when they're resisting it and aren't ready but when they're less than six months old they adapt so quickly and there's a great difference from taking a kid who understands what nappies are out of them when they're nor ready and doing this when they haven't really developed attachments or conceptions, so I don't think it would be a huge problem if the parents can make this work. Really would require an awful lot of attention though.

 

[Darkfinn]

The reasoning behind it is this... the vast majority of child care centers will not take kids who are in diapers anymore. If they do take them there is a substancial extra fee for "diaper duty". So you have working mothers trying their best to get the kids into daycare b/c they doesn't have time to raise them properly. They rush the kids out of diapers and pack them off so the "system" can start caring for them.

The one thing that really puzzles me is how parents take care of these kids when they are out in public. An infant's bladder is what... the size of a teacup? They can hold it for maybe 5 minutes. So every 20-30 minutes you are going to be rushing the kid off to the bathroom. How do you go shopping... or to church... or on a road trip somewhere when you have to deal with that sort of thing? If they want the kid to last longer... they simply don't let them drink anything... which leads to chronic dehydration and other lovely health problems.

What the hurry is these days for kids to grow up I'll never understand. Get out of diapers so you can go to school... hurry up and get out of school so you can get a job. A lot of kids are missing their childhood completely... and turning out a lot worse for it.

Then we wonder why AB/DLism is becoming so wide spread. Once these kids "grow up" they want to be able to return to a simpler more joyus time and make up for all that they missed. All the AB/DLs I've talked to over the years seem to share one thing... a short and rough childhood. They were either traumatized by abuse, pushed too hard to grow up, or forced to figure things out on their own b/c mommy & daddy weren't ever there.

Also... I don't really thing this is as popular as the magazine articles & books would have you believe it is. If the trend was towards younger toilet training why would pampers bother with a size 7? I have to believe that their R&D department did a lot of thinking and test-marketing before they gave the go-ahead.

Sure, upper class yuppie white famalies may be toilet training their kids at age 1 or 2 so they can get them into the Harvard of daycare centers. But the majority of this country is made up of lower-middle class people who can't really afford child care in the first place. Grandparents or the lady down the street are typically caring for these kids and would rather keep them in diapers longer b/c it is one less thing to have to worry about.

Overall it is an interesting fad... but I think in the end it is going to be just that... a fad.

 

[starshine]

Darkfinn: The daycare diaper rule must be American. The daycare I worked at, children were expected to be potty trained when they moved up to the Preschool 1 room, which was 3yr olds +... before that diapers were involved in staff duties.

 

[Darkfinn]

The daycare diaper rule must be American.

Probably is... what other culture would think up something so senseless?

 

[Charlie]

I don't see what's wrong with it.

You should try to potty train the child as soon it starts to recognise that it needs to go, it's just common sense. I think that people have become too obsessed with the concept of babyhood. Diapers aren't important, they're an unfortunate necessity.

 

[tom]

The reasoning behind it is this... the vast majority of child care centers will not take kids who are in diapers anymore. If they do take them there is a substancial extra fee for "diaper duty". So you have working mothers trying their best to get the kids into daycare b/c they doesn't have time to raise them properly. They rush the kids out of diapers and pack them off so the "system" can start caring for them.

I think in the UK, nurseries and daycare by law have to provide changing services free of charge.

I'm not really sure what I think about it. If the child is ready for it, then I don't see why not, but if it is going to cause a traumatic experience, then I'd say leave it for a later date I guess.

 

[Takashi]

If the child is ready for it, then I don't see why not, but if it is going to cause a traumatic epxerience, then I'd say leave it for a later date I guess.

Good point; When I have kids i'm just going to watch and if they don't show any interest by the age of 4 then I will start trying them.

 

[starshine]

I don't see what's wrong with it.

You should try to potty train the child as soon it starts to recognise that it needs to go, it's just common sense. I think that people have become too obsessed with the concept of babyhood. Diapers aren't important, they're an unfortunate necessity.

Charlie... have you ever seen a 6mos old interested in potty training? If so, I'd love to meet the child.

Seriously, though. I don't agree with babying your children, or keeping them in diapers when it's not necessary. We are already starting on my sister, and shes about 19 months now. However she walks, talks, knows what it is... etc. She is starting to become 'ready.' However - I have NEVER seen a 6 month old, or 3 month old, that is -ready-.

 

[dogboy]

My experience as a parent was that our kids mostly enjoyed staying in diapers. It took a while to get them potty trained. Historically, babies didn't have diapers, but they were swaddled, presenting something to be changed, I suppose. But I think when we were part of nomadic tribes, the infant just did whatever on the spot. It's civilization and developments in culture that put them in diapers, and not until the last 200 years. Before that it must have been go where you are.

 

[Charlie]

Charlie... have you ever seen a 6mos old interested in potty training? If so, I'd love to meet the child.

Seriously, though. I don't agree with babying your children, or keeping them in diapers when it's not necessary. We are already starting on my sister, and shes about 19 months now. However she walks, talks, knows what it is... etc. She is starting to become 'ready.' However - I have NEVER seen a 6 month old, or 3 month old, that is -ready-.

Well they don't have to be interested in it, it just seems from the link that parents are simply training their infants and succeeding at doing it!

My beef with the whole thing is this quote: "For many parents in the United States, the idea of potty training before a baby is able to walk, or even before age 2, is not just horrifying but reprehensible - a sure nightmare for parents and baby, not to mention a direct route from the crib to the psychiatrist's couch."

This must be a weird cultural thing. I see nothing wrong with exploiting the fact that infants make signals before they 'go', and these signals can be used by the parent. It's more like the parents are the ones getting trained.
And, assuming the article isn't lying, clearly some infants can be properly potty trained. It's just like training a cat or a dog. I find it highly unlikely that early potty training could result in psychological damage, unless the method of training was highly stressful.

I really think that this is a cultural thing where making children grow up faster than what is expected is frowned upon. I think there's nothing wrong with it, if it can be done, without any problems, then it should be.

 

[avery]

i agree with charlie. in general the trend in western societies is to leave kids in diapers for longer and longer. the whole infant potty-training thing is sort of a hippie movement -- people are trying to get back to the wisdom of tribal societies. in those societies a mother doesn't plunk a kid down in front of the television for hours at a time: the mom and the kid are always together and the mom becomes receptive to the rhythms of the child's body and the signals they give when they need to go. the idea is that there's a very deep level of intuitive communication that takes place between mothers and children that's been partially lost in modern society.

obviously as a DL i'm glad i wasn't brought up that way, but i can definitely respect parents who choose to try infant potty training. it goes together with a wider philosophy of child-rearing that emphasizes closeness, togetherness, and a real focus on the task of raising a child, which are all good things.

Then we wonder why AB/DLism is becoming so wide spread.

oh yes, there's been such an explosion in the ABDL population lately. must be that infant potty training that's doing it.

 

[diaperedteenager]

This is insane! We don't live in 1939 imperial japan! Next thing you know, parents are going to have their children marching in formation and obtain the title of sharpshooter by age 4!

People are complaining that the U.S. is lazy, not by that article though. Where are all of these parents getting this time on their hands to be able to do this like every 30 minutes?

 

[Darkfinn]

People are complaining that the U.S. is lazy, not by that article though. Where are all of these parents getting this time on their hands to be able to do this like every 30 minutes?

It's because they are all upper class stay-at-home yuppie moms who have nothing better to do than sit around and wait for baby to grunt or twitch a little.

As I said... just because this is getting media exposure doesn't mean it is really all that popular.

 

[Jaiden]

You know, this does happen all over the world - in Asia and Africa particularly, so it's not like not using nappies as a baby will result in hordes of scarred and traumatised kids all over the place. If it did, they would already be here and if anything using nappies is the weird deviation from what most people in human history have done.

Here's an article that touches on some of the pertinent issues.