by Brianne Chohrach

Created on: February 18, 2009

For any parent who has every attempted to potty train a child, you know that it is more than just simply placing them on the potty and saying, "alright... do your thing." It is not that simple. If it were, the "diaper-free movement" would have caught on ages ago. A child is not ready until they are READY. You may be able to train a child to sit on the toilet, but until they are capable of understanding the feeling that their bodies undergo when they are ready to "go", you can not train them. Understanding body function is not something that you train into a child. It is something that they learn to identify at their own pace.

Yes, you can help a child along in learning their bodies signals, but that is usually the case with an older child. How do you reason with an infant? If you could potty train an infant by channeling their ability to reason, shouldn't you then be able to train said child to sleep through the night, eat their food instead of throwing it all over the floor, and by all means not put EVERYTHING in their mouths?

My friend swore her son was potty trained, yet I would constantly find him crouched in the corner doing his deed. She would simply justify it by saying that it was an "Accident" and she would swear that he had not done that in days or weeks. Yet, I would find him day after day doing the same thing. Just because you say your child is toilet trained does not make it so.

Anyone who claims to have toilet trained an infant or even a young toddler, has themselves fooled. They have in fact, more than likely, not trained the child at all, but have actually trained themselves. I had a pediatrician try and sell me on the idea with my first child. He told me his wife had done it with all six of his children. He said she had learned their "signals" and how to read their faces to determine when they needed to have a bowel movement. Like I said, she was trained. Chances are that that child had no idea what was going on.

So, my argument against this is not really an argument. Merely a thought. With all the other stresses and responsibilities a mother (or father) have to undertake with their children everyday, why add the stress of having to study your child's face in order to determine if you are safe to leave the room or not. Plus, you really could not take your baby anywhere without running the risk of an unforeseen "accident" happening and then having to explain that that is a rare occurrence and your baby really does know how to use the potty.

I, for one, am sticking to good old fashioned diapers. Babies grow up all too quickly anyway without adding yet another burden to distract you from enjoying the time they are little.

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