By Linda Acredolo, Ph.D. & Susan Goodwyn, Ph.D.
Check out parent chat rooms on the internet these days and here’s what you’re likely to find:
* reports of more and more children nearing 4 and still in diapers,
* news that diaper companies are accommodating older children with ever larger diapers (now up to size 7!),
* nightmare stories from parents engaged in potty training power struggles they can’t win,
* negative attitudes about potty training and an aversion to starting the task.
Welcome to the current state of potty-training in the United States today. Thanks to the convenience of disposable diapers and misguided advice from pediatricians to wait until children ask to be trained, the average age at which training is completed has risen to an all-time historical high (over age 3) and is continuing to climb!
This delay in potty training is taking its toll on the environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 7.26 billion pounds of disposable diapers end up in US landfills every year, with each diaper estimated to take up to 500 years to decompose. What’s more, according to National Geographic, the number of disposable diapers used in one year in the United States alone (18 billion) laid end to end would circle the world 90 times! And, unfortunately, many experts believe cloth diapers have different, but equally undesirable consequences.
In reaction to the rising age of potty training and the environmental impact of diapers use, parents are seeking “greener” alternatives. GO GREEN with Potty Training!
Armed with the knowledge that babies in many countries around the world today are potty trained during infancy, a small group of highly motivated parents and professionals became advocates of what is now termed “Elimination Communication” (also known as the “Diaper Free Movement” or “Infant Potty Training”). With this approach, parents can train infants within months of birth by holding a diaperless infant over a pot or sink and making a “shhh” sound to trigger elimination.
>> Read the second part of Go Green with Early Potty Training
