nappy free babys !

[demi]

i already posted this in the eco-parenting forum but it fits in here too.

basically you can start toilet training babies from birth using the method that they use in developing contrys where they dont have any nappies.
its saves you loads of money, not having to buy nappies and also helps the enviroment by not sending nappies to landfill and not having to use your washing maching to wash cloth nappies.

all you have to do is just start putting your baby on the potty every time you change his nappy, after feeds, when he wakes up ect ( much like a puppy). watch how often he goes and follow the patteren to predict when he needs to go so you can put him on the potty to avoid using nappies. make a sound when he pees/poos in the potty and he will start assosiating the sound with peeing/pooing and you should soon be able to make him pee/poo on cue ( as long as he does acctually need to go anyway )
babys trained by this method are usually fully toilet trained by 1 year old.

im doing this with my son just now and its working brilliantly. iv been doing it for about 1 week so far and iv already drastically reduced the amount of nappies i go through in a day.
i keep his nappy off as much as possible when im watching him. i put one on him when he feeds/sleeps or if we're going out to avoid any accidents.
today iv only gone through 2 nappies since i got up this morning and ill be putting him down for the night in an hour. he usually poos when hes feeding so i keep a nappy on him then, thats usually the only time the nappies get used.

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

I've been trying to do this and have been rubbish.

There seems to be no rhythm to my babies toilet habits and I usually miss when he goes so can't do the noise - he rolls over immediately when I lay him down (he can't quite sit yet) and I can't see!

Any tips would be great

[demi]

how old is he?
my baby is 4 months and i put him on the potty about every 20min or so. he tends to start making gurny noises when he needs to pee.

spend a day with him without any nappy on and just keep putting him on the potty until he does somthing. keep doing this and time how often hes going and you should soon see a pattern. they usually go more often in the morning after waking up and less often in the afternoon. as they get older their bladder gets bigger and they go longer inbetween peeing.
put him on the potty right away after feeding/sleeping, thats the best time to 'catch' it.

[demi]

heres a support website: http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/

they also have a book out : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diaper-free-Bab ... =8-1-spell

[tim_n]

Is this still going well Demi?

[JuzaMum]

I love the idea but don't think it is for me. When it's cold and baby is wearing several layers it's not so easy, I have carpets and don't have the time to run round with a potty all day. My little girl is in cloth nappies and that works for us. I think for an only/first child or in a warm climate it would be easier.

JuzaMum

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

My boys are well known for weeing a lot and rarely so this method was hard for me but now my youngest (10 months) has started to poo at regular times now so I'm going to try again and see how we go.

I'm hoping it will sort of follow after that.

Hopefully I'll get somewhere positive before I tell my horrified mother/mother-in-law!!

[vicki]

I've got 2 in nappies at the moment, one is 23 months and the other just 5 weeks old so I've got my hands full! I am putting the older lad on the potty before bath times and after naps etc and figure we'll get there slowly. I like the idea of starting them young then you at least have less pressure if it takes a time.

So far so good though!

[the.fee.fairy]

I love the idea but don't think it is for me. When it's cold and baby is wearing several layers it's not so easy, I have carpets and don't have the time to run round with a potty all day. My little girl is in cloth nappies and that works for us. I think for an only/first child or in a warm climate it would be easier.

JuzaMum

Try getting or making some split pants - they're like normal baby trousers but with the crotch seam open, so that when the baby squats, the seam opens and allows 'bits out'. They use them here. I don't think i've seen many babies in nappies. I've seen nappies for sale, but they're usually like a giant sanitary towel - designed to just slip into the split pants and be whipped out when needed without undressing the child.

Might make it easier in the house. Don't know if you'd be brave enough to take them outside though :)

The babies here wear split pants even in the coldest of winters, they have quilted ones and thermal ones and the babies usually have a few layers on to keep them warm. Even snow and ice doesn't seem to affect them.

I'll see if i can find a picture :)

[demi]

thats really interesting Fee.


the thing about this form of toileting for babies is that its not about never wearing nappies or any form of 'training' your baby. its about watching your baby to see what body language and signals they make when they need to poo/pee and using that along with good timing you are just placing the baby on the potty to toilet instead of letting him go in his nappy. its not toilet 'training' its more toilet 'catching' , which becomes so second nature to your baby that it makes the transition from nappies to potty/toilet much simpler as they are already used to it and you dont have to battle with them at a later age.

you dont need to be evangelical about it, although some people are and never use any form of nappy on their baby at all but whos got time for that?, you can still use nappies, wither cloth or disposable, and just sit your baby on the potty at every nappy change. you know when they need to go, after eating/sleeping and about every 30 min in between depending on how old they are, so its easy to catch it. its up to you how many times you want to 'catch' it.

for example, if im really busy or im out and about i keep a nappy on my son as i know i wont have time to catch every pee, and if he goes in his nappy thats fine i just change it and sit him on the potty while im getting a clean nappy for him.
when im in the house, like now for example, he is playing on the floor without a nappy on and the potty is sitting there ready for him to use. i just sit him on it about every 25 min ( as thats roughly the time between his pees ) he knows the potty is for peeing in and he pees right away in it then i sit him back on the floor and rinse out the potty. its much quicker than changing nappies. yes there is the occasional accident but babies only pee little bits at a time and it usually goes on his vest which i can change. you can sit them on a mat if you fear for your carpets
my son poos very regularly now since starting solid food at 6 month. he poos every morning just after he wakes up. so my routine is wake up, quick breast feed then sit him on the potty for his morning poo while i go make his breakfast. i then feed him his breakfast while he is still on the potty as it can take 10 min for him to finnish his poo then i give his face and then bum a quick wipe ( poo in the potty makes hardly any mess on his bum ) and sit him on the floor to play while i go wash out the potty and get him his clothes. i then move on to making our breakfast while he is playing nappy free on the floor and i come back to sit him on the potty about every 25 min as i said.
his poos are like clockwork and its very easy to see when he is going to poo as you can see and hear him straining so ill just whick off his clothes and stick him on the potty and we usually get every poo in the potty. he poos every morning then about once a week he will also poo in the afternoon and about once every 10 days he wont poo at all.
i keep a nappy on him when im feeding him either in the high chair or breastfeeding him, and for when hes sleeping as i dont want a mess in the bed.

its really not difficult, you just learn how often your baby goes and offer the potty at those tomes. timing is a big part of it.
the younger you start them on the potty the easier it is as they will have always been used to the potty and they quickly ( instantly in my kids case ) associate the potty with peeing/pooing and the actual act of sitting them on the potty makes them go. like pavlov's dog and the bell. its not in any way 'forcing' your baby to be toilet trained. babies dont have full control of their bladder until around 18 months, when your baby needs to go he needs to go and cant hold it in, its your job to recognise when his needs to go and provide the potty at those times. and that is something that is easy to do and should make toilet training much easier in the long run. plus think of all the nappies, washing and money youll save and also lowering your carbon foot print on the environment.

[demi]

I love the idea but don't think it is for me. When it's cold and baby is wearing several layers it's not so easy, I have carpets and don't have the time to run round with a potty all day. My little girl is in cloth nappies and that works for us. I think for an only/first child or in a warm climate it would be easier.

JuzaMum

when its cold here ( it gets down into the -20's at night in winter ) we've got the fire on and i put a pair of tights on and some socks to keep his legs and feet warm. tights are easy to pull up and down as needed and if i miss his pee i can just change his tights. iv never had a mess on the carpet yet.

[the.fee.fairy]

http://chinahopelive.net/2011/03/18/spl ... experience

there's a pic here :)

I can't really go round with a camera trying to take pictures of babies' bums...

[demi]

haha! thats grate!
you know ages ago they used to keep all babies in dresses, boys and girls, for this purpose. they didnt have disposable nappies back then or washing machines to wash the cloth ones. the kids were all toilet trained at an early age because of it.
at what age are the kids generally train by in china?
my mum had me out of nappies by a year old and she didnt know anything about 'elimination communication' she just couldnt be bothered with all the phooey washing any more ( she was using cloth nappies on me ) .

i was thinking of buying some training pants and other EC clothes, but im managing fine without them and i dont think its really necessary. plus they are expensive and i think its just a marketing ploy. i can just make my own anyway just by cutting a slit in his trousers and iv got loads of my daughters pants that are too small for her now that i can put him in. im hoping to do away with the nappies altogether by his 1st birthday, but ill just see at the time how we're getting on and if i think he's ready.
but defiantly on the poo front we are getting 95% in the potty and the other 5% is when i sleep in and dont get to him in time in the morning and hes already gone in his nappy, which is my fault

[demi]

here's a pic of my wee one on his potty

and him enjoying some nappy free play time

[the.fee.fairy]

I believe they're toilet trained by about a year old. I know that the age for nursery is 2, and the children are expected to be toilet trained by then.

The split pants look really easy to make - some of them have a proper waistband and just an open crotch seam, and others have a drawstring at the waist instead of a full waistband.

I suppose i've become so used to seeing them here that I don't really think about it anymore! It would be a bit strange to see a child in the UK in them. I was reading a few posts on the internet about split pants and apparently the Chinese believe that disposable nappies are bad for the health of the child. One reason is that they 'make the genitals too hot'. Whether it's true or not, it's difficult to shake old beliefs, so grandparents (who do most of the child-rearing) tend to stick with what they know and bundle the kids up in millions of layers so they all look like little starfish with bums hanging out.

My mum told me that I was toilet trained by the age of 1 because she used cloth nappies (the old terry cloth ones, not the new-fangled super absorbent ones :)). Apparently the disposable nappies kept giving me infections (i was born 9 weeks premature and they didn't have preemie nappes then, so all the nappies came up to my nipples...).