Potty Training

Potty training honestly scares me. I got real lucky with Maxwell. With no coercion, he self potty trained himself at age 15 months. Our trip to California to visit my grandmother is when he finalized his training. [pooping in the toilet.] I do not ever force my children to do anything. I let them decide when the right time for them is, whether it be potty training or riding a bike.

Now that Dean is a year old and heading in the same direction as his older brother showing cues and interest with the toilet...it scares me. I would love for the same thing to happen with Max quick and painless. Like I never had to do anything but sit back and watch...marvel at how amazingly smart and intuitive they are with knowing when to go. But each child is different. Again, I will not force anything on Dean. I don't want to start potty training him either when number three will be born. I will be forced to cut the training short and can possibly have a horrible kick back effect. I will let "nature take its course." :D

There is this article online I came across and confused me so much. About how some parents are actually potty training at the very young age of 9 months. With whistle training as they go. It reminds me of training my puppy to pee...I whistle trained him. How odd. I don't think it's right for my family to force a child to potty train at a very early age for the soul reason of saving money. Yes! the parent's main reason in the article is to save money on diapers. Not sure what the stats are on the parents if it's only disposable diaper using families. I know in the cloth diapering community, most don't train until their children show cues/signs of potty training. Here's the link to the article...forced potty training.

There is also another group of parents/families that not a lot of us know about that practice elimination communication. Using cues and signs to potty train their children...from birth. It is not a common practice here in America that I know of. Mostly used in non diapered less industrialized countries and hunter-gatherer cultures. Knowing the rhythm of your child/children training them from birth is pretty amazing in these cultures but its not forced which I think is okay. Not for my family due to the stresses of daily life and crazy schedules. We will stick to cloth diapers and non coerced potty training. Also a great site to find more information about [EC] elimination communication. What are your thoughts parents? Leave a comment...I'd love to hear your input.