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I get the no diaper thing, but only when they are old enough to control their bodily functions.
We used traditional diapers with my daughter. We went cold turkey the month she turned 2 year old. (except pull ups at night). We had her naked and sitting frequently on a potty for the first day.(We had stone floors and she had 2 pee pee accidents) She would ask for a pull up to go number 2. The second day we got big girl panties and she was pretty much potty trained going #1 and within the month #2. It was a month of torture, but totally worth it. After a month she was totally independent. I put her on the potty every 20 minutes or so the first day. After that I increased the times to 30,40,50,60 minutes and up to 3 hours between potty visits.
How would that be any different than traditional potty training?
People can do what they want at home. My parents visited China and the toddlers there wore pants with a split crotch. They simply squatted and went where ever and when ever they needed to. Out in public, that's gross and unsanitary.
I know lots of people that do diaper free with their babies, including ourselves, and I can count on one hand the number of incidents in which there was urine/feces on the carpets, couches, etc. - and those were pretty much all instances in which the child was sick, was wearing a diaper, and took the diaper off... Do you think that this is just a bunch of people being lazy and letting their kids crap all over the place?? One biased NY times editorial does not a factual assessment of a parenting practice make.
For the record: going diaperless with your child entails putting them on the potty from a very early age (birth with both of our kids) when you suspect they need to go (after naps, for instance), watching them for cues that they need to go in order to facilitate this, and making sure they never sit in a wet diaper for long so that they don't get comfortable with it. Contrary to the nomenclature of "diaper free," we go through about 2 dozen diapers a day when they're little because we're constantly swapping them out. As they get older, they do go diaper free and when they look like they're about to go, they get put on the potty, and they go there. They go diaper free during the day because if you put them in a diaper, they'll go in it; if you leave it off, they won't. My oldest was potty-trained for poop at 6 months, had 1 or 2 pee diapers a day until he could stand comfortably on his own, and by about 15 months was in underwear full time. My youngest is 11 months, and usually wets about 3 diapers a day, and one poop diaper every 3 or 4 days - we're not as consistent with watching her cues because of entertaining the older toddler. When he's off at summer camp, she's dry all day. Between both children combined, there has probably been pee on the floor less than 10 times, and never poop, except for the aforementioned sick day.
And before everyone jumps all over the place as if we're doing it to create overachievers: the early potty training is not the point. The point is that it's nasty to let them **** themselves if you can prevent it, and also a really bad idea developmentally to try to potty training during the time frame it's usually done in the west, that is, during the independence/fearful streak that is known as the terrible twos. They never learn that it's okay to go in their pants, and they therefore never put up a fight when it's time to use the potty: the toilet is ALWAYS the proper place for it. I'm far more disgusted by the parents (and I know many, including all my family members) that will literally stare at their child as he craps his pants, continuing on with their conversation in the meantime, wait for him to finish, and then maybe mosey on over to clean him up.
Going through 2 dozen diapers a day doesn't sound like "diaperless" to me, my kids wore diapers and didn't use 2 dozen diapers a day.
Yes, mine also were diaperless after becoming toilet trained, but the term diaperless would seem to mean kids who aren't trained and aren't wearing diapers.
How would that be any different than traditional potty training?
Most people use pull ups during potty training and this prolongs the process. We put her in regular panties for her training period, no diaper. ( even when we went out of the house) She did ask for a diaper to go poop in for a little while because she was afraid of doing it in the potty.
I think it's a little different when there is a dirt floor and not much furniture.
I can't imagine the smell of these homes where the diaperless child is peeing and pooping on all the carpets and couches and beds. Gross. You can't get that smell and stain out of things.
If you look at the actual practice, the parents do not usually have children peeing and pooping on the floor or the furniture. They recognize the signs of when the child needs to go and hold him over the toilet. I don't think I could do this, but...
Ms. Stare watched for cues that meant her baby needed to go to the bathroom or was going to the bathroom, like a certain cry or squirming or a grimace. Then, she began associating those cues with her own noises, like “sss,” or grunting. After a while she could make those noises — the elimination communication — to the baby while holding him over the toilet or the sink for perhaps 20 seconds, and he would go to the bathroom on command or refuse if he was not ready.
There are misses, she admits, but even cleaning up a small mess on the floor is easier, she says, than laundering diapers.
In China, the parents use a split in the pants for this.
How can this be a "fad" if people have been doing it for centuries in countries like China...?
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