728x90
my iParenting
From Our Sponsors
e-newsletters
Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters

new terms of use
new privacy policy
award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Home › Articles › Guiding Baby's Development › Elimination Communication

Elimination Communication

Can Infants Really Be Potty Trained?

By Katherine Bontrager

Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  

Walker says she finds the practice interesting, but as a whole doesn't recommend it to her clients. "Firstly, it requires the full attention of a caregiver and secondly, the baby has to have incredibly predictable bowel movements," she says. "My twins each had a bowel movement six to eight times a day – that's 16 poopy diapers a day, and as unpredictable as this was coupled with the needs of my older son, toilet training before the age of 3 was out of the question for us."

But Walker admits that EC may be effective for some families. "I'm a big fan of what works, and not every method works for everyone," she says. "I just don't want moms to feel pressure if their child is not potty trained by a year of age. There are enough worries for moms these days. Also, moms of multiple children often don't have the help required to carry out this method."

Dr. Peter L. Stavinoha is a clinical neuropsychologist at the Center for Pediatric Psychiatry at Children's Medical Center of Dallas and co-author of Stress-Free Potty-Training: A Commonsense Guide to Finding the Right Approach for Your Child (AMACOM, 2008). He's quite familiar with EC and infant potty training methods.

"These methods typically involve parents having a good sense of their child's typical elimination schedule and parents watching for cues that their child needs to eliminate as the primary methods of getting waste into the potty," Dr. Stavinoha says.

In essence, much of the infant potty-training method is about putting the parent on constant alert instead of teaching a skill to a child. "Until they're around 2 years old, a child can be capable of going on the potty, but not of understanding why or how to control it," Dr. Stavinoha says. "Cognitive and emotional readiness are just as imortant as physical readiness. Potty training is about a great deal more than just getting the pee/poop into the toilet – it's about crossing a milestone of independence, and that really can't happen when a child is so young. But there's nothing inherently wrong with these methods, and certainly I would not advise parents not to try these if they are so inclined. However, these methods will not necessarily achieve earlier potty training."


Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  

Want to see more?

Comments

Found 1 comment
Displaying all 1 comments below

Re: Elimination Communication by ECing mom on 12/10/2008 11:17PM

Thank you for printing an informative article about EC. Most of the article is well written with good information, but some of Dr. Stavinoha's opinions about EC are simply that. Children in many other countries are fully toilet independant by the time they are a year old. My own daughter has been out of diapers, since she was about 9 months old, and since about 20 months she has been able to do all of the steps of toileting herself. She takes herself to the toilet, undresses, eliminates, wipes, flushes, washes hands and re-dresses herself. I often don't even know she is in the bathroom unless she tells me she has gone. This is certainly not a case of my child not knowing all of the steps involved in toileting.I would argue that all babies are aware of their elimination needs from birth, and can voluntarily go, or not go from infancy.

add a comment.

Post As:
Enter your comment below:
Title
Comment Text
CAPTCHA
Please note that any comments submitted become the property of Disney Family / iParenting and can be edited and posted at our discrection.