Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen
An interesting topic that has come up is babies being potty trained at 3 months. Apparently there is a method called elimination communication to achieve this.
I often post questions on my Facebook page for moms to chat and share information. A popular topic is potty training. About a year ago I asked my fans at what age their babies were fully potty trained and one mom said 3 months. I have to admit I had a good laugh at this, I had a vision of a 3 month old being able to ask to go to the toilet or dragging himself there and pulling himself up onto the toilet, even wiping his own bum. Yes I’m sorry, I have a wicked sense of humour.
When in my ignorance I made a comment a few days later on our page about babies being potty trained at 3 months old I was (much to my horror) shot down by some moms! Turns out there is something called Elimination Communication and it is possible.
According to Wikipedia Elimination Technique is described as follows:
“Elimination communication (EC) is a practice in which a caregiver uses timing, signals, cues, and intuition to address an infant’s need to eliminate waste. Caregivers try to recognize and respond to babies’ bodily needs and enable them to urinate and defecate in an appropriate place (e.g. a toilet). Caregivers may use diapers as a back-up in case of misses some or all of the time, or not at all. EC emphasizes communication between the caregiver and child, helping them both become more attuned to the child’s innate rhythms and control of urination and defecation. The term “elimination communication” was inspired by traditional practices of diaper-less baby in less industrialized countries and hunter-gatherer cultures. Some practitioners of EC begin soon after birth, the optimum window being zero to four months, although it can be started with babies of any age. The practice can be done full-time, part-time, or just occasionally.”
To follow this form of potty training you put your baby on the toilet at certain times (such as 20 minutes after a meal) and when he or she shows signs of needing to go to the toilet. I am not sure this would work for most moms and it would also surely be very intensive during that time!
According to Zoe from Baby Throne (who I met at the Baba Indaba in Cape Town recently) babies are quite sharp and catch on very quickly which is astounding to me. I have personally not tried this method and don’t plan to with my hectic lifestyle as I can barely get my 3 year old to the toilet on time, never mind my 9 month old baby. However for those that don’t want to pay the expense of nappies and/or save the environment from all these disposable nappies without washing cloth nappies it could be something to look into.
What do you think of babies being potty trained at 3 months old?
I’ve also read about this and it sounds amazing. But I feel that in reality most mums do not have the time to do this. It would mean constantly taking baby to the toilet, watching over them incase they show signs of needing to go and cleaning up the mess if you miss it!!
As nice and wonderful as it sounds, I think I’ll stick to the nappies for now!! 😉
I have a friend who stayed in China for many years and he said he often saw babies in crotchless pants. I guess nappies are a very Western item.
Never heard of crotchless pants for babies!
Funny enough i mentiined i wana potty train my 4month old and all the looks and questions i got was are you kidding or thats not right so yah but now i see that im not that crazy definately going to try it yay
Yes I’m sure, I also couldn’t believe it when I heard it! If you try this out then let us know how it goes!
I agree with Lauren.
We dont have time to watch them all the time.
We have to do washing and prepare food and of course take care of ourself too!
I can just imagine myself when i see a sign…. to run with baby to the toilet.
Lol
Wow i cant believe this but well done to who ever done it all i wont be able to i will aldo sta on nappies for now i think its very difficult on a age of 3 months old i dont ever think i can do it on that early age.
I would also never be able to do it, imagine how much time and effort that must take paying such close attention to your baby to try and get him or her to the toilet? Too much for me!
But so small it will be difficult to know when he wants to pee or poo i mean the baby is not yet ready to be routine at that age.
Wow I can not even Imagine what a struggle that can be. My son is almost 3 and still not potty trained. Well done to the Moms that’s willing to try this method!
My kids also took a long time to potty train, especially at night time! I would not be able to put in such time and effort to do this method!
Haha that is shocking. That kid must be really smart. My kid is 19 months and I don’t know when to start. How will I know if she is ready? Do I need to get a potty set for her? Do I move from nappies to huggies pants.
Yep potty training at 3 months is not something we tried LOL. Click here for some potty training tips:) And yes I highly recommend you get a potty for her, it will make it so much easier!
I guess if you have the time, patience and you know exactly what to look for (the signals) it could be done. I’ve personally never heard of it and it would surely save you alot of money, but changing my little ones diaper is special for me, I’ve struggled to get pregnant for 7 years, so I really dont mind changing the dirty diapers. Congrats for the mommies who achieved this goal????
LOL I’m not sure this is a very achievable goal for most moms. I certainly would not have been able to do it, I think cleaning diapers is a lot easier than getting this right.
ghee no not for me…time is precious cant babysit baby 24 hours for a sign lol
I know, mom’s have enough on their hands right LOL
I think it is great if a parent or a caregiver finds the time to anticipate the need of a babies toilet routine however I feel that the child should at least be a bit older
Sounds like it could save unemployed mother’s so much money but would require patience.
It would require buckets of patience!