Katherine Ryan reckons her eight month old is toilet trained

[WheelieBinPrincess]

Now, if I held my baby over the loo for a couple of hours for want of something better to do on a rainy Sunday, I reckon eventually he’d use it. I could then clap and proclaim I had started toilet training

AIBU to think she’s off her rocker? Apparently, putting your baby in a nappy means you are teaching them to always go in a nappy.

I know she has a nanny to deal with all this as well, who Im sure rolls her eyes at the proclamation that her baby is fully potty trained at 8mo.

Reminds me of a friend of mine who claimed her newborn learnt to use a hand signal for hunger from day 2 or 3 so she didn’t need to cry. She was apparently fluent in baby sign from two months old.

It is not potty training as such, it is wee and poo catching. There are hormonal and physical development involved with continence.

*She would lay a Terry nappy on the floor and hold baby over it, so no toilet or potty used in all instances.

There are no differences in the behaviour of the children here. Just in the actions of the parent by holding them over something. The child has not learned to use the potty or the Terry Towel or anything except empty their bladder. The behaviour of the parent is facilitating all of this.

Id call the parent trained, not the child.

This is nothing to do with what they do in other parts of the world, through necessity or differing cultural practices, totally different and not my point at all.

No I don’t believe she has potty trained her eight month old baby, at least not in the way she thinks.

Why do so many MNers accuse people with very normal experiences of lying? Just because they have different customs?
I did this, both fully trained by 1, no accidents and no issues caused.
I was very poor and hated the washable nappies drying everywhere, it was hell being in a 1 bed damp back to back so I put the work it and it wasn't hard at all.
People are different, stop mocking those of us from other cultures who don't accept the British way is the only way.

My mother start training us from 6 weeks.

To be fair, that number of children, it was probably an essential survival mechanism.

My son knew 26 capital cities by the age of 2 including Chisinau and Baku. What on earth was I thinking.

You don't know about the practise because you don't know what happens in other countries or cultures (or happened in the UK historically). That's entirely the point. You thought you could sneer at KR but by doing so you're sneering at a practise that is common in other cultures.
There's a real parochial paternalism about that attitude ... and that's without even touching on your claim that people would be washing cloth nappies or would need a toilet or potty nearby.

Is anyone going to explain what elimination communication is then?

@13yearslater

My son knew 26 capital cities by the age of 2 including Chisinau and Baku. What on earth was I thinking.

What’s that got to do with the price of fish

@13yearslater

My son knew 26 capital cities by the age of 2 including Chisinau and Baku. What on earth was I thinking.

My Mum claimed I was potty trained by 1. I think she would just put me on the potty quite often when it was likely i would need a wee! After a nap/feed etc. Plus terry nappies were not as dry to wear as modern disposables. So I wonder if kids did become aware of wetness younger. It meant less nappies were used but it's not the same as expecting a child to be able to understand the need to go to the toilet. I think it's less common in the UK than it used to be - I think my Mum was far from unusual in her approach.

When people say things like ‘my grandmother trained all of hers by 1’ what does that mean? was the child in normal underwear and taking themselves to the toilet at age 1, or was the parent still doing a routine
of holding them over a toilet or terry cloth after lunch, after naps etc? Because the two are very different things.

@lucillelarusso

Why do so many MNers accuse people with very normal experiences of lying? Just because they have different customs? I did this, both fully trained by 1, no accidents and no issues caused. I was very poor and hated the washable nappies drying everywhere, it was hell being in a 1 bed damp back to back so I put the work it and it wasn't hard at all. People are different, stop mocking those of us from other cultures who don't accept the British way is the only way.

What happens with dc who bed wet ? That’s a maturity thing so how would this method work in those cases?

Sorry @13yearslater I missed the joke!

@WheelieBinPrincess

This is nothing to do with what they do in other parts of the world, through necessity or differing cultural practices, totally different and not my point at all.

No I don’t believe she has potty trained her eight month old baby, at least not in the way she thinks.

I actually think what is done in the rest of the world is entirely relevant. Your starting point here was that this is impossible and weird because it is outside your experiences and expectations as a western person.

That's just arrogant. The way we do things in the West isn't automatically superior and it's certainly not the only way.

This is 100% the norm in loads of parts of the world. It's time consuming but her choice, I dont see why we have to judge her for doing something millions of mothers do and have done for millennia.

Nappies are gross and bad for the environment (washable use a lot of energy to wash) so have no objection to her promoting this

I think this could be true when I went to China people put their babies over grids to wee. I have no idea how they could tell but it seemed to work!!

Exactly @Beamur

I was potty trained at 11 months, but it wasn't that unusual back in the 70s.

Terry nappies meant babies quickly felt uncomfortable if wet, meant babies became much more aware of the discomfort of a wet nappy. Disposables really don't help our children to know.

As I could walk at 11 months, when I needed a wee, I just sat on the potty. There was a potty in every room. I remember my aunt potty training my cousin the same way at around the age of 1. Once they could walk they could potty train. Probably helped by the fact both my cousins and I were summer born, so to start off with, just walked around naked to facilitate easy potty access.

I did this. For poo not wee though. Once they could sit up I'd sit them on a potty when changing nappy, and they would then poo in the potty. Saved on dealing with poo in washables - they did still wear them to catch wee until about 19 months (I remember this, because first one was out of nappies in the day by the time the second was born).
My mum did the same with me (she was hand washing terry nappies which tends to focus the mind a bit) and my granny did the same with my mum.
Waiting until they are 3 has definitely coincided with greater access to washing machines and disposable nappies.
So it's not a new thing. More of an old thing.

Ok so she’s able to use less nappies, and that’s great because we know they just pile up rotting in landfills, which is awful, and cloth or reusable ones are an expensive outlay and not very practical and have to sit around festering between washes.

That’s not the same as your baby being trained to know when to go to the toilet or communicate it though, is it.

I've seen this in Nepal where babies co-sleep and (up until ten years ago anyway) nobody used nappies. My Nepali godson was also dry at night at 2 years 2 months.

Lots of people knocking something on here they obviously know little about. I know a friend who did EC (elimination communication/natural pottying or whatever you want to call it - it needs a better name!) with all 4 of her DC and after seeing her we tried it then did it with our second one. You can do it from birth but we did it from about 4 months as that's when we came across it. With hindsight wish we had also done it with DC1. Dc2 didn't poo in a nappy from 4 months old, we held him over the sink or loo and when he was big enough to sit up on a Bumbo seat on the loo. It was brilliant! Saved loads on nappies as we reduced number we used dramatically. He was happy with no nappy rash. We were happy as no horrible poo bums to clean or explosions into his clothes! I was sceptical at first and it was only because i saw somebody else doing it we had a go. I used the book I've linked to below. I'm a normal working Mum, I didn't 'spend all day watching him' as some above suggest. it was surprisingly easy to get the hang of after a few days. His little brother would tell us when DC2 needed to go. My parents did it when they babysat and the staff at the nursey did it with him from 12 months old when i went back to work - ie the sat him on the loo on his seat. They had never come across it but loved it! Its nothing amazing about us or our DS. Its just a natural process of reading your kids signs which millions of parents around the world do every day. He just learnt to go with his cue noise (we did 'pssst' like the noise for having a wee) as long as we gave him opportunities like when he first woke up etc. We've all been brainwashed by multi billion nappy industry over decades so using the 'normal' way for baby humans to get rid of their waste is no longer part of western culture. Other mammal babies don't soil themselves, its their instinct NOT to do that and its the same for babies if we let them use that instinct.
This book which was a quick easy read really helped me understand it.
www.amazon.co.uk/Diaper-Free-Baby-Training-Alternative-Healthier/dp/0061229709?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

Of course it can be done, what do you think mothers did when there were no disposable nappies?

You can house train a dog in two weeks flat, why not a child?

TBF, terrycloth nappies, big safety pins and huge nappy bins were the norm for several generations in this country before disposable nappies became widespread. It’s hardly a straight choice between disposables and EC. Many roads are equally valid, though.

I don’t think poor OP was expecting this earnest response. I think she was aiming for something a bit more lighthearted.

PS his first word was 'poo'!

As I could walk at 11 months, when I needed a wee, I just sat on the potty. There was a potty in every room.

We did this with our son from around 1.when he was at home we often just left him without trousers on and he would take himself to the potty. I would just bring the potty round the house with us so it was always close by and I was there to help him wipe. He hardly ever had accidents and never poo ones.