no nappies from birth - please help me understand!

[littlebylittle]

a friend is 36 weeks and has shared with me that she intends to try no nappies with her new baby, ie spotting cues and catching whatever comes. I'd like to understand and support with this although I know it's not the route for us. How should i handle her visits? Sorry to sound naive but I'm guessing in the learning phase that there might be accidents and I'm not sure I'm up for that in our home. Also, why? what's the benefit except for no nappies to wash/throw so presumably more environmentally friendly? It's so out of my experience that I would love some thoughts

I am so very very sorry, but intial reaction to this OP was HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHHAHAHA

and WHY WHY WHY???

christ... newborn babies are enough work, why make it harder? Op, you are amazingly supportive, but your friend is bonkers.

Have a pack of newborn pampers on standby for her, just in case

yuuuuck - i don't think she is going to be invited on many playdates, allowed in most cafes and groups IOW complete social isolation and a dc who will prob never forgive her for it. are we talking about a first timer here? if so

I kind of hope she manages it in a way....

But she will forever be scraping shit off her arm/the sofa/the carseat/other sibling.

Unless you are in the developing world, I don't really see the point.

Lots of the world do EC and don't have emotional hang ups. Until recently babies were put on the potty in the UK at an early age. With disposible nappies the age of potty training has got later and later.

My son (who is eight years old) had a classmate for a sleep over. This boy wore a pull up at night and we had to take great care that my son did not find out.

Prehaps we have got somethings wrong in the west. However I think there is a middle way between potty training a newborn with no nappies and waiting until three years old.

If you search for posts by BabiesEverywhere you'll find out more

Don't dismiss out of hand

I used cloth nappies from birth with both DD's, but, on the advice of my mother began putting them on the potty from the age of about 6 or 7 months. Just once a day, generally in the morning, but sometimes more often, depending on what we were doing that day. And we did quite a lot of bare bum time too. Obviously babies of that age wee quite often, so they almost always did something on the potty, and once they were pooping on a really regular basis we could often get them to poo on the potty too. (it's much easier to wash out a poopy potty than clean poo from a baby girls crevices!

Both my girls basically potty trained themselves at 21 months. In a matter of two or three weeks they went from telling me they had done a wee, to telling me they were doing a wee to saying they wanted a wee.

For me, partial EC is brilliant, it meant we didn't have to actively potty train them, we didn't have to wash nappies full time for very long (they both wore a nappy at night for about a year after being dry in the day) and it was all very stress-free.

However, I think you have to be a bit of a loon to be totally nappy free from birth in this country. It's not like the tropics where you can leave your baby bare from the waist down all the time, so I suspect she will be changing her and her babies clothes a lot until she wises up and starts using nappies for the first few months at least!

Lots of the world may do EC, but generally not in countries where houses have fitted carpets and lots of upholstered furniture and where it is not considered acceptable for a baby to wee and poo in the street. And though it is common in China- do we actually know that it is common in the colder parts of China where babies bottoms have to be protected against the winter cold? England is not like many other countries in its interior decorating or its attitude to soiling in the streets. (I have noticed that even Swedish parents, though not into EC, are far more tolerant of messes in the house, because they usually have easy-to-clean floors and carpets are very uncommon).

If Really's ds' friend had pullups at 8. surely the most likely reason will have been because he had some kind of medical reason for incontinence, not because he hasn't worked out what a toilet is for? Doesn't that sound rather unlikely at the age of 8? My dd has incontinence issues due to disability; that has nothing to do with our culture or her potty training; it's due to a weakness in her bladder muscles.

I have a friend who did this. It worked for her, the baby was in nappies (so no "accidents"), but basically they weren't used most of the time. The way she presented it was very practical and straightforward.

cory this is how they get around it in China.....

They are called kaidangku apparently!

The crotchless pants make me feel a bit wrong. I don't know what it is about them - I think I can't quite shake the idea in my mind that crotchless pants belong nowhere other than sex shops so the idea of them on a child is just - eurgh. I did once go to an EC meet up though and a couple of the babies wore them with a prefold over the top, just tucked into an elastic belt like a sumo wrestler's pants.

I did EC very successfully with my daughter, and I was so keen to spread the word, that I've put together a website with the basics on it.

www.nappyfreebaby.co.uk

I also organise a support group in Oxford, and am trying to help other parents do so elsewhere.

Do get in touch if you want more info.
Amber

www.nappyfreebaby.co.uk