 The
world's gone potty!
babyworld takes a look at how other cultures toilet train babies,
plus we explore the weird and wonderful world of potties - there's more
to them than you might think!
Let's be honest. Of all the significant milestones in your child's life,
this is probably the one that from a personal point of view, you're really,
really looking forward to. The day when she is 'dry', when soiled
nappies can become history and yes, when you can start carrying a normal-sized
handbag again. Bliss.
Cultural differences
Travel to other countries and one of the first things that will strike
you is that there are millions of babies under the age of a year that
are out of nappies. In fact, there are many soft botties across the planet
that have probably never even touched one. Imagine if you live in an igloo,
remote village or the jungle, a quick trip to the supermarket for a crate
of disposables is going to be a bit tricky. In fact, in these cultures
the concept of nappies and a potty are completely alien. Not only that,
but the idea of a child who can walk not being able to do his 'business'
solo is unthinkable. The aim is to start 'em young.
In the West, the 'normal' time to start even thinking about teaching your
child about toilet stuff is around eighteen months. The idea being that
your child is not yet capable of realising that his natural bodily functions
require him to move to a designated location, pronto. The further east
you go however, the notion is quite different. If you were to enter the
household of a Chinese household say, it would not be unusual to see a
nearly newborn baby being held over a toilet.
Infant potty training
The underlying message behind Infant Potty Training (IPT) is that babies
are actually a lot smarter than we think. The belief is that babies are
capable of recognising the bodily functions of peeing and pooing and can
learn to respond to it from infancy. It's all about knowing your newborn
so well that you can recognize when he is ready to go.
IPT relies heavily on a mother being able to pick up on certain signals
to do with timing - how long and how frequently the baby goes after waking
or feeding, body language and sounds. Once you can do this, the process
moves to your building up an awareness in the baby about expressing the
need to go and where to go.
But does it work and is it safe? As with so many things to do with 'natural'
parenting the only real evidence lies in hundreds years of practice and
experience rather than in proven scientific study. IFT is however still
the practiced norm in many societies, even in countries like Italy and
Spain!
Where to next?
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