The New York Times reports on a new trend in early years childcare: teaching newborns to use a toilet properly before their first birthday. A practice widespread across the rest of the world, according to Contemporary Pediatrics magazine: more than 50% of the world’s infants are toilet trained by their first birthday. Although we in the west consider babies unable to control bowel movements until much later than this report suggests, perhaps practices are in for a change. One theory is that by delaying potty training for infants we encourage bad toilet behavior and make it harder for children to learn to use the toilet when it is later deemed appropriate.

For many parents in the United States, the idea of potty training before a baby is able to walk, or even before age 2, is not just horrifying but reprehensible – a sure nightmare for parents and baby, not to mention a direct route from the crib to the psychiatrist’s couch. But a growing number of parents are experimenting with infant potty training, seeing it as more sanitary, ecologically correct and likely to strengthen bonds between parent and child.

Ingrid Bauer, author of “Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene” (Natural Wisdom Press, 2001), believes it is easiest to begin toilet training in the first six months. To start, parents are taught to hold the baby by the thighs in a seated position against their stomachs and to make an encouraging hiss or grunt. With practice, parents learn their child’s rhythms; some parents sleep next to their children and keep a potty at arm’s reach, or diaper their babies overnight.

NYTimes: A Fast Track to Toilet Training for Those at the Crawling Stage

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