by Jayden Harlow

Created on: September 03, 2008   Last Updated: November 19, 2008

A few months ago, I visited friends who were in the process of implementing "elimination communication" (also known as infant potty training) with their one-year-old son. According to my friends, the process was more natural for the child and eliminated the stress associated with "forced" potty training at a later date because the parent was opening an early "dialogue" with the child about potty training. I'll admit that I was sceptical. I didn't see how one could "open a dialogue" with a preverbal child, and it was my understanding that children didn't develop the ability to reliably delay elimination until 24 months or so at the earliest (my friends don't agree with that opinion). But my friends insisted that their son hadn't had an accident in nearly three weeks and actually preferred using the potty - adding that he could reliably delay evacuating during car rides and regularly asked to "go potty," even if he was away from home. So I was willing to be open-minded. Goodness knows I had poo-pooed (forgive the pun) the whole baby sign language trend initially, only to watch it do wonders for a number of children I knew.

From what I was able to observe, "elimination communication" for my friends' son meant that he would be kept naked while at home, only being diapered when he left the house. The potty was set up in the front room in front of the television, and "Jake" was placed there whenever he gave any indication that he needed to go. Jake seemed willing to stay on the potty for long periods of time and would often watch baby videos from start to finish from his potty seat. In fact, in my observation, he spent more time on the potty than off during mornings at home. Later, he would be free to play, but his play was regularly disrupted by trips to the potty following garbled gestures and expressions that even my friends admitted were not especially clear. In fact, at one point, Jake's mom conceeded that she didn't know whether his most recent gesture meant he needed to go potty or wanted to play with his favorite toy.

Despite suggestions that Jake hadn't had an accident in three weeks, I witnessed regular accidents while I was there. Once, Jake returned from a trip and began to poop in his diaper, even though he was steps away from the potty. His mom whipped off the diaper and carried him to the potty, with poop gushing out of him the entire way. I called that an accident, but my friend blamed herself, insisting Jake had probably signalled his desire to use

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