During my reading today I encountered the following piece of information:
Toilet training is started at a few months of age by closely watching
the infant's behavior and gradually training it to go in a small bowl
or potty. Bowel training may be achieved by 6-7 months and bladder
after a year. Diapers may never be used in their native country
(especially Somali) and diaper rashes are unknown and therefore
distressing when experienced here.
Of course, once the giant baby-care product company sells parents the disposable nappies, they can also quite handily sell them the products to treat nappy rash too... and the American norm of not toilet-training kids until they're 2 years of age or more suits these companies just fine.
I'm of the opinion they should have cigarette-style health warnings printed on the packaging. Nappy rash mightn't kill kids, but it is a serious and painful condition, and entirely unnecessary- it's just that Western society treats nappy rash as just part and parcel of a normal infanthood. Parents need to be educated about the effects the products they use can have on their babies.
5 comments:
I agree completely and really can't fathom why the age of toilet training in Western countries keeps going up, and up, and up.....
I encourage all parents to train earlier rather than later - it's an excercise in independence that will make both parent and child proud!
Suzanne Riffel, author of "The Potty Boot Camp: Basic Training for Toddlers"
Our kids were toilet trained relatively late for the simple reason that they weren't ready. It's something they have to do in their own time. Encourage from an early age but be patient. We let them run around without nappies whenever possible and never had a problem with nappy rash and they have never had an accident. There is WAY too much pressure on both parents and children, seemingly in all aspects of life. Don't succumb to the pressure from companies who only want to profit from your guilt. Enjoy childhood. It's over very quickly. You don't need 99% of the crap they want you to buy.
Yeah I heard that in China you can buy these split pants things to help tots clothes be more easily arranged for it.
I'm sure theWife is probably considering it was we speak.
The thing is that in the cultures where this happens, babies are carried 24 hours a day. The close physical contact is what allows parents to know when their baby is about to pee/poo, and the baby is then just held away from the body.
There's a book about adapting this practice to life in the west (where we generally don't have dirt floors and so don't really want the baby peeing on them)- it's often called elimination communication and there's a book about it by Ingrid Bauer that everyone reckons is the bible of such things.
I've said it before, we in the west get it all wrong when it comes to bubs. It's like as soon as they pop out they're expected to get a degree and a nice 2 bedroom unit. Get to know your child and then you will know when they are ready. Not just for toilet training either. You didn't have a baby, you had a person.*
Get to know them and save yourself some heartache.
*Yes, I know, haha that would really hurt.....
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