Missing the point
I’ve seen a couple of articles are in UK newspapers this week about EC. It seems to me generally the journalists are completely missing the point. It’s not about potty training your baby, or having them out of nappies younger, or forcing them to do something they’re not capable of. The point is, if your baby is squirming cos they need a wee or a poo, and you know that is why they are squirming, why on earth would you want to leave them to get poo all up their bum because it squidges around inside the nappy, when instead you can hold them over something and have a bum that is easy to clean and be able to put the same clean nappy back on again? How disrespectful would it be, to say “no, you have to go in your nappy”, if you have the option of holding them somewhere else? Obviously if you don’t know about EC you do what you can and change baby’s nappy as soon as you notice, and if you are EC’ing but driving the car or something it’s going to be hard to always have a potty stop. But if you are aware they need the loo and you can potty them, why is that a bad thing?
The argument that it’s the parent who is being trained is irrelevant - of course it’s the parent who is learning what to do, because as someone said on the Natural Infant Hygiene list this week, babies already *know*. In the same way, they know when they are hungry and signal.
I also think that though it’s a common idea that babies have no muscle control until at least 18 months, clearly L can release when he is cued by sound and position. He may not be able to hold it indefinitely, but he can signal before he reaches the point where it is going to come out no matter what, and can relax and wee or poo, so there must be some muscle ability at birth.
I think babies can be desensitised to their awareness, and learn that nappies are where you are supposed to wee and poo, and then they have to unlearn that when they are older and realise the big kids and adults don’t have nappies but use the toilet. L’s toilet fussing is what we called “colic” when M did the same kinds of things - I wonder if some colic is actually toilet fussing, and it stops by 3 - 4 months as babies learn to use a nappy???
Article in today’s Times: Is this baby too young to be potty trained?
Maggie Howell is the person who inspired me to take an interest in EC in the first place, as she was EC’ing her first son when M was a toddler and we went to the same La Leche League meetings, and then I went to the Continuum Concept group that she ran for a while.
This is the article from the Sunday Telegraph From birth to potty in 3 weeks. This one is a bit less negative.
And this is a news report from Chicago, with film clips of EC in action and interviews with parents.
We went shopping in Sainsburys this afternoon and while M and I were unloading the trolley, the checkout girl started chattering away as she scanned stuff through. She spotted L and started with “So what do you think of this potty training babies that’s in the papers today?”. Think I floored her when I said, “Oh, we do that!”. LOL
