Elimination Communication – Decline of the potty

Parents use Facebook groups every day to seek help and advice from one another. It is not uncommon to see questions and concerns over the cost of diapers, nappy rash problems and potty training issues.

Over the past one hundred years, there has been a major shift in the way we assist our babies with toilet assistance.

A shift that has contributed to our children wearing nappies for longer than necessary, resulting in a range of new problems children potentially face around toilet anxiety, bedwetting and withholding stool.

Please help, we are short this week and really need nappies for our 2 and 4-year-olds.

How do you treat a nappy rash? It’s a constant…

I’m worried my daughter will wet herself at school, she’s having accidents daily and starts school next month. She hates doing poo in the toilet and holds on…

Let’s start by saying this – babies can potty, and babies are born ready to be assisted to potty. It’s a myth that you have to wait until a child is ready to tell you they want to use the toilet. Our society has been led to relax and not assist babies with toileting matters and this ties into the problems outlined above.

• Prolonged use of nappies (expensive, time-intensive and consumerism)

• Nappies used to function as a toilet (habit-forming, nappy rash issues)

A number of factors came into play, which would ultimately completely change the way we listened to and assisted our babies with elimination.

The flush toilet was invented, but not widely used yet.

The flush toilet became more widespread. Before this time, the majority of people used chamber pots (a potty), holes in the ground or communal outhouses.

Cultures worldwide would ‘hold a baby out’ over a bowl or the ground to urinate or defecate until they could sit on a potty or squat. This potty method was common in Western culture until a shift occurred after the world wars.

Before the 1900’s, our foremother’s would have held a baby out to eliminate after a meal. One of my great grandmother’s raised 14 children in a time when cloth was hard to come by and all washing was done by hand – her generation of Mother’s would have held the baby out to eliminate. This process follows natural and instinctual elimination patterns and would have been done until the baby could sit and had started solid foods, at which point the baby would have used a pot (potty). The process is gradual, natural and gentle and the baby is easier to clean up. The stool is managed very quickly and it’s not being squished out of the baby’s bottom into their clothing!

Parents in these times had no washing machines, no mass-produced cloth nappies or disposables. Baby boys are seen to wear gowns, a sensible clothing choice for toilet assistance. Do you think it’s possible children were toilet independent before 18 months?

In New Zealand, theTohunga Suppression Act 1907 came into effect. The New Zealand Parliament aimed at replacing tohunga as traditional Māori healers with “modern” medicine. Do you think Māori parents traditionally used nappies and delayed potty training?

Rigid and strict toilet training methods were promoted in some countries during the 1920s and 1930s.

Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, introduced the idea that babyhood ‘trauma’ gives rise to mental illness in adulthood.

Image: Holding out as recommended by New Zealand Plunket (approx 1920-1940) Plunket baby book inside cover.

Anthropologist and author Geoffrey Gorer, hired by the U.S. Office of War to analyze the ‘enemy,’ reasoned that Japanese parents potty train their babies earlier than Western parents and that this accounted for “the overwhelming brutality and sadism of the Japanese at war.” Would you base your toilet training decision on a racial profiling exercise established by the US government after WWII?

After WWII, more women entered the workforce. There is a marketing push on formula, commercial baby food and diapers, now mass-produced.

American pediatrician Dr Benjamin Spock published an influential book, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, which urged parents to leave bowel training almost entirely up to their baby.

These ideas presented at a vulnerable time in history by men have had a major impact on the way Western parents approach teaching toileting however, over time, researchers started to challenge these ideas. Can you imagine the social outrage if this idea was presented today?

UK’s first disposable diaper, the Paddi, was invented by Valerie Gordon-Hunter.

Until the mid-1900s the majority of (Western) babies finished toilet training by two years and achieved nighttime dryness by three years.

Gerber (and others) targeted baby food advertising to the medical community who were influential in helping promote feeding solids to newborns.

Doctors were a reliable source of information. In New Zealand, Doctors published articles in a magazine that was a trusted source – look at the way the Doctor speaks down to the Mother parent. This article from June 1959 explains to parents why they need to wait until their toddler is ready for toilet training.

The Doctor writes about two families with two-year-old’s, who have developed chronic constipation as a result of ‘holding on’ instead of passing stool into a potty. It is interesting to note that there is no discussion given about toilet assistance in the first 12 months. Do you think children become so used to using their nappy that switching to use a toilet might cause fear, shame and issues that lead to constipation and wetting accidents?

Disposable diaper first patented in the US.

La Leche League formed, and took off around the world. A response to marketing bottle feeding to the previous generation.

Pediatric developmental specialist Dr T. Berry Brazelton published a seminal paper outlining why parents should avoid pushing their child prematurely to toilet training.20 Dr Brazelton was also a spokesperson and consultant for American diaper company Pampers, advising on the larger-sized diapers and appearing in advertising for size 6 diapers.

The rise of the disposable diaper industry. (Now a $71 billion a year industry. An estimated 20 billion diapers enter landfills each year, making up over 4% of solid landfill waste and are the third-largest single consumer item in landfills).

By the 1980s most US families use disposable diapers. Family lives are busier and disposables are considered convenient.

By the early 2000s the average age that (Western) parents recognized their child showed an interest in using the potty was 24–25 months. Daytime dryness was achieved on average at almost 3 years of age. Nighttime accidents are considered normal until 5 or 6 years of age.

Ingrid Bauer penned the term Elimination Communication in her book Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene (2001).

Pampers, a disposable diaper company, releases a diaper for children who weigh more than 41 pounds (the average weight of a 5-year-old). Do you think disposable companies have a reason to promote delaying toilet training?

The effects of global warming are being felt around the globe. Consumerism is embraced; however, there is a shift toward sustainable living. Babies are born ready to EC – Are parents ready to consider it NOW?

Babies poop is backed with gas, it will project away from their skin. They will eliminate when exposed to air, after eating or when held in a deep squat position.

It’s important to recognize that the coercive approach that doctors rejected in the early 1900s has resulted in a movement away from any guided assistance for babies. Consequently, the marketing push to delay toilet training fell into place with the backing of doctors – a trusted source.

We need to recognize that it was not the early practice but the approach that needed to change. Delaying toilet training can increase the risk of toilet anxiety, bladder problems and stool toileting refusal, which can lead to stool withholding and primary encopresis. It can also present awkward situations and public health and safety concerns. Children having accidents can experience ridicule and abuse.

A relaxed attitude can mean some parents start potty training when their child is more self-aware, which can be challenging for some children. Elimination Communication is advantageous as babies are easier to potty, and it’s generally wrapped up before the time when self-awareness can cause resistance.

Babies CAN be taught where to eliminate and manage stool by around 6 months.

1851 The flush toilet became more widespread.

1907 In New Zealand, theTohunga Suppression Act 1907 came into effect.

1940s Anthropologist and author Geoffrey Gorer, hired by the U.S.

1956 La Leche League formed, and took off around the world.

1962 Pediatric developmental specialist Dr T.

1970 The rise of the disposable diaper industry.

1980 By the 1980s most US families use disposable diapers.

2000 By the early 2000s the average age that (Western) parents recognized their child showed an interest in using the potty was 24–25 months.

2007 Pampers, a disposable diaper company, releases a diaper for children who weigh more than 41 pounds (the average weight of a 5-year-old).

Now The effects of global warming are being felt around the globe.

Babies are built for EC – This baby demonstrates!

Delayed toilet training issues It’s important to recognize that the coercive approach that doctors rejected in the early 1900s has resulted in a movement away from any guided assistance for babies.

An easy ready taking parents through the stages of toilet learning to toilet independence.