Wednesday, December 12, 2007

EC

I read this article in Brain, Child magazine and it really caught me off guard. Did you know that in some Eastern African cultures, a high percentage of infants are diaper-free by 4-6 months of age? Did you also know that there is a Diaper-free movement right here in the good ol' USA? I didn't. I had heard of EC (Elimination Communication) during my cloth diaper-makin' days from some of those crazy diapering Mamas on the Mothering.com message boards (No offense ladies but you guys can get a little nutty about cloth diapers!) but I dismissed it as completely absurd. The prospect of potty-training an infant seems ridiculous. I'm still wearing a big gold star on my lapel for toilet learning my baby girl at age 2. Go me!



My daughter (and her non-diaper-free Mother) would be behind the curve in the EC circles. Those mamas would take one look at my gold star, roll their eyes and laugh at me, "Two years old?" they would say,  "Try two months old! What kind of Mother waits until her child is two years old to take off the diapers?!" According to a spokeswoman for DiaperFreeBaby.com, there are 37 U.S. states that offer organized Diaper Free Baby support groups. Surprise! Tennessee is NOT one of them. We're still sitting on our back porches in our rockin' chairs, chewing on weeds and watchin' our babies run around in the grass in landfill-bound diapers that we purchased at Wal-Mart. We listen in awe to the stories about babies who learn to use the potty before they reach their second birthday. We consider that these children might be prodigies, headed off to some Ivy League college on a potty-trainin' scholarship.



What about those Elimination Communication babies who are toilet-learned by 4 months of age? Well, I just don't know what to think about them. Who knows? Maybe I'd be a believer if I actually met a Mom who'd used this practice successfully but I haven't. I've read a couple testimonials and frankly, it seems like entirely too much effort to save yourself and your baby a year or two of diaper duty.



8 comments:

  1. To me, it sounds like the mom is the one who's trained. After all, a 4-month-old can't sit himself on the potty, now can he? :-)

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  2. Remember, in Africa, most 'grazing' mammals are born with the ability to run with their mothers within hours, if not minutes of the time they pop out, it cuts down on interference from lions, leopards, etc. Sooo... it stands to reason that it's an inborn trait, ya gotta learn fast to survive, anit ya glad ya got inlaws like me to esplane this stuf to ya??

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  3. Tiffani-
    I agree. I'd rather focus on my baby's developmental milestones and beautiful face instead of her digestive activity!

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  4. Good point, Papa Dale. Maybe it;s a survival thing. That doesn't explain the phenomenon here where the only lions and tigers are at the zoo.

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  5. Wow. I have a subscription to Brain Child. I think I'd better get it out of the envelope and read the darn thing. Better then doing battle at the mall for diapers. :)

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  6. Crazies. All of them. I lump them in the same category as people that have never feed their children the nuggets of joy and carry around that Mothering bible.
    PS/ I'm allowed to say this because I had a homebirth - that trumps everything, right?

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  7. PULEEEZE, I am so proud of my disposable diaper carbon footprint I can hardly stand it!

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  8. I remember reading about this in the New York Times a couple of years ago and commenting on it here:
    http://suburbancorrespondent.blogspot.com/2007/01/of-costumes-and-commodes.html
    I'm surprised to see that the idea still has such currency.

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