Cate Prichard was pregnant with her first baby when she listened to a podcast about ?elimination communication? (EC) and it sort of blew her mind. The idea behind EC, which is also known as infant potty training, baby-led potty training or ?natural infant hygiene,? is that babies are born with an awareness of their need to pee and poop, and an instinct not to soil themselves. If parents could only pay attention to their baby?s cues to go, they could avoid diapers some or even all of the time and their babies would be cleaner, drier and happier. They?d probably be potty trained before their peers, too.
When Prichard?s son was five months old, she noticed one of these so-called cues. Her baby had been in the habit of ?waiting? for a diaper change and then peeing or pooping right in the middle of one, and that?s when the idea really made sense. Why am I even bothering to catch it in a diaper, she wondered, when I could put him on a potty instead" Evolutionarily speaking, parents around the world have always found resourceful ways to redirect little ones? waste without diapers or even washing machines?whether it was holding them out to relieve themselves on the absorbent ground, using split pants or a sturdy pot. And while Western pediatricians have, since the 1950s, advocated the ?readiness approach? to potty training?that is, waiting until your child is developmentally more independent?EC still remains the dominant method of baby hygiene in non-industrialized societies...