Letters to the Editor
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the whole thing is presented as some wacky new innovation and then right in the middle of at least one article it says:
"widely practiced in Asia and Africa where people can't afford diapers". Seems like this should be the starting point of the discussion, not a throwaway line. Come to think of it though, all primates carry their babies and I don't think the females walk around their whole lives caked in baby poop. It probably won't work though without some tech enhancements: someone is going to have to find a biological signal of imminent eruption that can for the basis for an alarm system.
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Big gap here.
There's a big difference between "is it okay to not diaper your child?" if it's solely messes you're going to be cleaning up, and "is it okay to not diaper your child?" if it means your kid is going to be leaving presents under trees for the neighbors or pissing in a sink.
If you're going to not use a diaper, use a toilet. These weren't situations where a toilet was unavailable. These were situations where the parent was using something else because it was more convenient. And sorry, no, I don't think letting your kid defecate in a sink is okay. But I don't think that these are choices that everyone who tries to do this *needs* to adopt.
These people weren't without access to bathrooms. One was just sitting outside what sounded like a home. The other one was *in* a public restroom. No shortage of toilets there! It seems, then, that it would be easy to do this in a way that would be much less objectionable to others. Probably wouldn't be what I'd choose, but it doesn't have to be a public health issue, at least.
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Oh, dear.
You know, keep your kid diaper-free if you want. But don't have the little snot peeing in a public sink. Just because it's baby pee doesn't mean I want to wash my hands near it.
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This is for Shouts and Murmers, right?
Ok, that's hilarious. You must get this into the New Yoker asap. And I love how this answers Hitchens perfectly (although his 'beefy' line was pretty funny.)
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Yes!
This method of responding to babies' needs works. It is not foolproof, and it is not always practical, but it does work. Babies do have some bladder control, and they can release when signaled. "Experts" who say otherwise just haven't had the experience.
I don't know about a diaper-free nation, but how about millions of babies and toddlers using slightly fewer diapers, and using diapers for fewer years? We used these diaper-free techniques only intermittently and part-time. It saved us some diapers, and it helped my daughter to potty train earlier than otherwise. She already knew what a potty was for, so the training was a matter of degree instead of a whole new concept.
This doesn't have to be a revolution. Parents can benefit just from giving their babies the chance to eliminate somewhere other than a diaper once in a while. Thanks for publicizing the topic!
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a blanket works for nursing why not for other things, add a collapsable bucket/seat and it seems like it would be no more trouble than a diaper bag
and people pick up after their dogs, why not their kids. It seems much simpler than dealing with a smeared all over baby.
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Excuse Me, Madam, Your Baby's Pissing On My Leg
What a clever way to reduce the birthrate. How brilliant of the zero-population growth folks!
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Diaper free: Fine, using the world as your child's toilet: Utterly not-fine
My wife and I talked about diaper-free for our two kids but decided it wasn't practical for us. For people for whom it is, fine, but for everybody's sake: Always have something with you to catch your child's poop and pee.
One sick toddler pooping in a playground could infect huge numbers of other children and/or adults. Even if your kid doesn't seem sick, they may have something coming on, and oh what a nice way to spread diarrhea to everybody in the area.
I can't believe that a person would be stupid and disgusting enough to let themselves be in public with a diaperless infant and nothing but a public sink to catch it in. That parent is a menace to everybody's health; if I saw them doing that, I'd give them a piece of my mind that would make the situation more than just awkward.
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Diapers = women's freedom, too
at least from the need to be 100% tied to the needs of their babies.
In Africa or Asia, in rural areas where families are outdoors most of the time, perhaps a toddler squatting off nearby isn't a problem, if mom misses the signals. In urban areas where babies spend most of their days indoors, what is asked for is hypervigilence on the part of the parent--usually the mom. Her life then must revolve around the needs of the baby, because baby running off to squat under the dining room table (a favorite place of my diapered eldest!) would be a real problem.
For attachment parents and some at-home moms, this plan may work. My great-grandmother claimed my grandmother was trained by 6 weeks, and had the lacy little baby undies to prove it.
For me, as a working mother, I'm sorry but--diapers are a useful convenience I would not have been willing to do without.
Now, when it comes closer to actual potty learning, then definitely parents need to undergo a bit more inconvenience and let the child feel she's wet--at least, my eldest, quite an economist, decided that diapers were made for peeing in and there was no point in choosing otherwise. Once she felt wet a few times because we moved away from diapers before she reliably dry, she decided potties were fine. I worked with the book Toilet Training in Less than a Day for my second child, and while it actually took most of a week, it was overall a positive experience for us both. But he was 2, not an infant.
Fewer lifetime diapers, yes. No diapers at all? No thank you.
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very young diaper-free
"potty training" generally has a lot less to do with the child signaling than the mother learning when junior makes that face or motion he's going to go in roughly 10 seconds and mom needs to ready him ASAP. This was/is the common practice in places before diapers or where diapers aren't readily available but I wouldn't call that "potty training" (since the child still has basically no physical control over the function) so much as hyper-vigilant oberservation. That said, by all means let your little hooligan ran around naked at home, but for the untrained and very young, diaper them in public. If they are able to hold it or signal, great - no messy diaper. If they can't, at least you won't have a baby peeing in the sink. Which is really, really gross.