Nappy on the beach sparks book – Papamoa Post

A nappy washed up on Pāpāmoa Beach covered in seaweed was one of the reasons local mum Rebecca Larsen decided to write a book offering a new take on toilet training.

Her self-published work, Potty Plan, aims to have babies out of nappies well before most people begin potty training their toddlers. The Potty Plan approach is based on age-old practices following a natural routine for elimination that is easy and fun to practise.

Rebecca used the method with her two sons and she is keen to share it with other parents.

“I see parents struggling but they don’t realise they are, because everyone says this is normal,” Rebecca says of the ‘regular’ approach to toilet training. “I see women every week struggling with the budget, and a big part of that is nappies. This way you can get your baby out of nappies a lot earlier.”

The environmental impact of nappies is another driver. Rebecca says that seeing the nappy washed up on Pāpāmoa Beach after a storm was a reminder of how much waste is produced by disposable nappies.

“We love going to the beach and picking up lots of fishing line and rubbish after a storm, and we found this nappy growing weed. It is an example of a plastic-based disposable nappy. It’s not at all decomposed. Sea cleaners find nappies all the time in the ocean and waterways.”

Rebecca says the advent of disposable nappies has seen a delay in the age children are toilet-trained, compared with her parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

“The majority of parents in our generation follow the ‘wait for readiness’ approach to potty training. There are several methods for potty training, and unless you give this some thought before you have your baby, or within the first few months, you may fall to the default approach.

“I just want parents to have all the options and make the decision that fits best with them. You don’t have to wait if you don’t want to. There are so many benefits to starting early when your baby is an infant rather than a toddler.”

Rebecca is also the author of children’s books Row, Row, Row Your Waka, Tāne Mahuta has a Forest and Twinkle Twinkle Matariki; she is happy to speak to local mothers’ groups about Potty Plan. To get in touch, go to the website https://eliminationcommunicationbabies.com/.

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