This is something that has puzzled me for years. Why do Americans allow babies to poop and pee so freely and spend a fortune on diapers? It’s understandable when babies can’t move around and go to the toilet, but when babies start to walk around they can be trained to go to potty by themselves. Normal toilets are way too big for babies but when I was young I had a tiny potty that fit me perfectly. My mom said that soon after I started walking I was able to do my business in my personal porcelain throne and I only got excrement on myself when I was sick and couldn’t control myself. Of course, my parents had to empty the potty out and clean it daily, but it’s not really much worse than cleaning up after a puppy or cleaning a regular toilet that is heavily soiled. A baby potty isn’t very expensive, but I’m not sure if they’re widely used here in America.
This weekend I spent some time with my friend’s baby. He’s exactly 17 months today and he is walking around quite capably. He is still wearing a diaper and is quite used to pooping standing up. His dad told us a funny story of where he was playing ball with the baby. Suddenly the baby needed to poop and concentrated on pooping while he stood there. Instead of catching the ball he let it hit himself in the face. It is pretty comical to me because the boy is quite smart and is learning words by the mouthful. He can certainly learn to poop in a potty and his parents can probably save hundreds of dollars on diapers.
Today I discussed this issue with my coworkers during lunch and one of them is an immigrant from Vietnam. He recounted that he had a baby potty, too. His parents set the potty outside of the house and let him do his business there. He also doesn’t understand why toddlers here routinely soil themselves. It also amazes me that there are products like Pull-ups that probably prolong the potty training process. It is almost like a diaper industry conspiracy to take your money and keep your child ignorant. I don’t have a kid yet but I think I can probably save a lot of diaper money just by training my child to use the potty as soon as possible. Babies are really smarter than people expect them to be.
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7 comments ↓
All I can say is:
1. Have a child.
2. Teach them to potty as soon as they can walk.
3. Please blog about your results!!
Just for the record - Canadians do the same thing.
Mike
Good post, I have 2 kids out of diapers and they all learned to potty train at different ages. Some kids just are physically developed enough to potty train at an early age. They need the muscle control, especially when peeing. I can’t believe I just commented about this. LOL
hahahah thanks for the advice guys. My first child will definitely be a fun experiment.
[…] BagLady had quite a post this week - if anyone out there has been through potty training their kid (I […]
I’ll just say…. it isn’t always that easy.
As with most things.
If you’d like to volunteer to explain to my son how to make himself start peeing, like, how to actually *understand* how to make the sensation start on command instead of just whenever it feels like coming out, well, you are welcome to
Poop is the easy part. At least for us
And btw my son is three and we have been potty training for the better part of two years. It isn’t pretty or exciting or wonderful but it is reality in our world. My son has a communication disorder so one could blame that I suppose.
Every kid is different. We are desperately trying to train a 3 year old! and she just doesn’t get it. We have tried every technique/piece of advice we can get our hands on. Believe me I hate parting with $50 a month, or so fo r pull-ups. Our first born had no problem and learned much earlier.
Children are ready at different times. Some will not be ready before 2 or 3 others are ready by 14 months. You do not have to spend a fortune on diapers either - CVS has excellent diapers for a fraction of the cost. Frankly, I don’t mind the diapers, I’d rather that than a toddler peeing all over the place (that’s what happened the last time I tried at 17 months).
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