I also read a book called, Diaper free before three by a pediatrician named Lekovic. She takes a more traditional approach suggesting putting babies on the potty as part of the routine starting at 6 months, and has a lot of science to debunk the AAP’s “babies have no control until 18 mos or later” theory.

That’s all, just thought I’d give a testimonial for something that probably sounds terrible and impossibly hard, but is actually wonderful and achievable, given the desire!

Step One: Put fun underwear on the child and say, “Don’t tinkle on Lightning!” (or whichever fun character you’ve chosen.)
Step Two: If the child keeps the underwear dry, he’s potty trained. If he wets them, then put a diaper back on and wait a couple of weeks.
Step Three: Repeat Steps One and Two until underwear stays dry and rejoice in the fact that you don’t even have to worry about accidents for the most part. You’ll have a few, but I’m talking 2-3 a week, not 2-3 a day.

If you use a potty chair, line it with a coffee filter. So much easier to clean out!

I found a book when I was PG with the girl called Diapers Naturally, the Gentle Wisdom of natural Infant Hygeine. A total hippy book, but I loved it. It’s all about how infants are aware of their bodily functions and we by diapering teach them to ignore it and then they have to relearn. Then I made friends with people who’s three month old babies never wore diapers, and always peed over a sink or in a potty as their mom’s held them. Since the ideas were consistent with a style of parenting I had already adopted, we tried it, on and off for a while. MY commitment waxed and waned depending on the upheavals in our life, but hte one thing I had learned was how to keep my little one aware of the moments when she goes and help her know what to do. It helped me to train the boy after she was born. While I was never brave enough to go without diapers, which I think would have made it faster, (Maybe next child) she was peeing in her little potty at 6 months, and pooping with mommy’s help. It took time to get from there to where she told me she needed to go before I noticed her squirm, but one day, when she was about 18 months old, in the middle of a yarn store, she said, I hab poo and there was none, so we borrowed the bathroom and she went in the big potty for the first time, and hasn’t looked back. She’s 27 months and hasn’t had an accident in recent memory, even at night.

I read about infant potty training in two different blogs and decided to research it. Interestingly, it is a common practice in many countries throughout Asia and Africa and was fairly commonplace in the US and UK until the last 3 generations or so.

My own father-in-law was potty-trained at 8 months in the 1940′s (I know it sounds crazy, but it’s written in his baby book -so it’s not some half-pipe memory that his Gma brags about). So I don’t think that all these Gma’s are as far-out as we’d like to believe.

The concept: instead of training our babies to pee & poop in their diapers, we should be training them to go in a receptacle – toilet, sink, tub, the ground, a bowl, etc. Like Pavlov’s dogs, use a ‘signal’ every time the baby does its thing. Whistle, say “go-go”, etc. They will soon equate their signal with the pot & use it correspondingly.

The key is to observe the rhythms and signs a baby is giving off that it is peeing or pooping – focused attention, quietness, grunting, & the like. The books I’ve read also suggested getting them on the bowl (or whatever receptacle you choose) right after they’ve eaten (or during), or when they wake up from naps or the night’s sleep – that these times are when they are most likely to pee. I’ve found great success with that method.

It takes focused attention & diligence; but if I can get that sweet thang out of diapers sooner, it will have been well worth the effort.

Recommended reading:

Infant potty basics : with or without diapers– the natural way / Laurie Boucke.

Infant potty training : a gentle and primeval method, adapted to modern living / Laurie Boucke