Potty train early to save the planet!!!!

[fortyplus]

I was in a waiting room on Saturday and the only available reading matter was the Daily Mail.

A columnist suggested that - from an ecological point of view - towelling nappies are no better than disposables as they require so much energy, water and chemicals to keep them clean.

No... his logic was that we potty train far too late these days - around 6-12 months later than 50 years ago.

He said that for environmental reasons children should be toilet trained from around 16 months.

My 2 are 11 & 13 now, but I wondered what parents of very young children think of this.

My thoughts... had to be a man... only in the Daily Mail!!

í don't have the time now to look up the stats but even taking washing into account a disposable nappy from manufacture to use consumes far more energy, raw materials and water than a cloth one. and more importantly they'll still be in the landfills in 500 years, yuk!

i found out recently too that it's illegal and highly dangerous to put human waste in the landfills and that disposable users should be using liners and flushing poo down the toilet too...... wonder how many do

like you said, only a man!

Try to potty train too young and you are still using up energy from washing all the crap out of clothes ...

Tosh

pmsl ghosty, too true!

I have only one reply to that sort of talk and it ends in off [restrained]

Laughing at your posts - especially having to wash just as much crap out of clothes! YUK!!!
At least the worst I have to deal with these days is an occasional skid mark!

Anyone else have any views?

pmsl
and the carpet shampoo needed to clean the carpet
the extra washing from the soiled sheets and bedding and mattresses and clothes.
Negligible benefits esp if you...
Pick your washing machine carefully - ours recycles its water, choose a lower wash temp - line or airdry 95% of the time
use wash balls
Daily Mail I'm surprised it's stil in busniess
WE could save more planet by not producing that crap for a start

Has to be a man, yes.

A childless man.

There was a woman writing a similar thing in the Guardian a few weeks ago. I have informed dd3 (2.7) of the environmental impact of staying in nappies but it hasn't actually made any difference to her total incontinence.

Piffle - I like the idea of washing m/c that recycles its water - I've never even heard of that. Would be great for anyone with a water meter. What make is it? (Can't believe I'm getting excited about domestic appliances - must be my age!)

bump

Mind you, children in cloth nappies often do train earlier because they can feel when they are wet.

That's true, but usually not at 16 months, surely?

not that I'm wading into the debate... jus to add that I was potty trained by 18mths because my sister came along and my mum refused to have 2 lots of cotton nappies on the go. That said, people say girls are easier... I hope so. DD is only 23 weeks so I'll not be starting any time soon!

My ds1 was 19 mo when he asked for a potty for Christmas. We gave him one and he trained himself within a few weeks.

Bless him! Both mine were nearly 3

Really Tootickydoves? Wow, what a prodigy he is! I am sure my two didn't even cotton on that they could even ask for anything for Christmas at 19 months ... even DS who is pretty bright ...
Ho hum ...

Ah but ds2 was quite a different matter! Poor dd1 trained slowly in the dark days before I had a washing machine and therefore wore disposables, poor child. We shall see about dd2 - she is 16m and has managed one poo in the potty so far - no I am not a pushy mum, she started pooing in the bath and I whisked her out pronto and sat her on the pot.

We have a toddler (partly trained - probably need to start a post on that) and a new baby. Washing machine runs atleast once, often twice or three times a day at the moment. A few reusable nappies really don't make that much difference to how much our washing machine runs.

There you are - potty train at 16 months and you'll save a shedload of landfill space...
...but drive yourself demented in the process!