Customer Reviews

Infant Potty Training: A Gentle and Primeval Method Adapted to Modern Living

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a compendium of materials about natural potty training from infancy. It is an expansion of the author's ideas that were originally presented in a small (self-published?) volume called "Trickle Treat." The book is divided into 4 parts. The first section is entitled "The concept and the method", and it includes detailed descriptions of how to establish communication bonds between infants and parents concerning elimination needs, a history of toilet training methods, a comparison between infant toilet training and toddler toilet training, and myths about infant toilet training. The second section is entitled "Testimonials USA". It contains brief descriptions from mothers across the US telling how they put the concept into practice, the degree of success they met, and how they and their babies related to the method. The third section is called "Testimonials around the World". It is quite similar in content to the second section. The fourth section is called cross-cultural studies, and it provides a survey of toilet training information about cultures spanning the entire globe. The book includes a section of endnotes, 12 pages of references, and an index.

The author stumbled on this method of infant toilet training shortly after giving birth to her third child. Her first two children had been trained conventionally as toddlers. But Boucke was quite fortunate in having a friend from India when she had her third child who told her about how infants and mothers learned how to take care of elimination needs without diapers back in India. Boucke asked her friend for more information about how infant elimination was taken care of in India, and the friend helped her train her baby.

This infant training method involves establishing signals between mother and infant for elimination. At first, the mother simply predicts or observes when the infant is eliminating, and holds the child in a specific position while making a specific sound. Within hours or days even a newborn infant becomes aware of the position and sound and begins to eliminate on cue. Soon it begins to signal to the mother when it is about to eliminate so that she can hold it in position over the pot. As the infant gets old enough to move around on its own, it will crawl to the pot of its own accord when it needs to go, and by the time the child is walking, the child is already trained, without tears, arguments or battles. Of course, this is the ideal case, and no child is ever trained without accidents.

One of the most important predictors of success with the infant training method is the age when the method is begun, the idea being that it's much easier not to teach children to mess in their diapers in the first place than to try to get them to unlearn this habit once it has become ingrained. For best success, Boucke recommends starting from day 1 and certainly before 6 months, although some patient parents have been able to use the method even from 1 year. Boucke also points out that it's not necessary to use the method all day long, so that children can still be in diapers in daycare if necessary, as long as it is used regularly at some point in the day. Many parents have even reported success after taking a long pause in the method because of extenuating circumstances- -as long as they had done some infant elimination training early, they found they could return to the method even after a few months of reverting to diapers.

In the testimonials section, parents report that the habits Boucke teaches are much more than simple toilet training- -the habits build a line of communication between infant and care-givers that is otherwise never experienced. In the end, it's not really the early toilet training successes that lasted in the memory of the parents, but the joy in understanding what their infants were trying to say to them. Parents whose infants are in diapers all the time are deaf on these points, hence their infants soon learn that communicating their elimination needs is futile, since the parents seem to want the child to go in the diaper. Parents using the infant training method also report that their children never experience diaper rash, and never have to sit around in poopy diapers. Indeed, after using the method, they find themselves utterly disgusted at the very thought of letting their infant wallow in a messy diaper. The environmental benefits of the method are obvious- -parents using this method simply take an end-run around the entire cloth versus disposable debate.

The range of information contained in the book is overwhelming, to the point that Boucke could have turned the volume into a graduate thesis. Some of the material in the last section, though interesting, isn't entirely relevant for parents trying to train their infants. This is particularly the case when Boucke discusses cultures where toilet training doesn't begin until late toddlerhood. In general, the book has some rough edges both editorially and with the type-setting, hence my giving it 4 stars instead of 5. However, the quality and importance of the information is so high that it should be read universally by all parents-to-be. (These latter problems have been addressed in the revised 2002 edition.)

I read this book and gave it a try last weekend with my 8 week old son. I was astounded when he not only immediately responded and understood, but seemed thrilled that I finally was paying attention to his cues! It seemed overwhelming before I actually tried it, and I was really unsure, but I am a complete believer now.

You can do it as little or as much as you want to, it's not all or nothing. Try pottying your baby when they first wake up, either in the morning or from a nap and see for yourself!

Highly recommended. I also love the second section that gives a very informative and fascinating review of how and when potty training is done by other cultures around the world. The majority of them use techniques like this!

This book is wonderful. After diapering three children with disposable diapers until they were 3+ years old I thought it would be time to try something new with my forth baby. I am now using cloth diapers and have been applying the elimination technique described in the book since my baby was about 2 weeks old.
I cannot tell how amazed I am about how successful this method is. Every morning when my baby wakes up I take off her diaper and hold her over a potty. She immediately poos and pees quite a bit. This is great because her diaper stays dry, which means less diaper rash for her and less laundry for me. During the rest of the day I manage to catch about 1/2 of the stuff that otherwise would go into the diaper. I feel especially empowered when I take off her dry diaper, let her pee and then put the same dry diaper back on.
I am by no means forcing my baby to go to the potty. I just try to respond to her cues as well as I can.
My daughter is relaxed about being taken to the potty. Sometimes she gets upset when I think she is done and put her diaper on too early. When I take it off for a second time and give it another try she immediately stops protesting and becomes calm again. I also have the impression that when she has to go, my baby waits until I take her to the potty.
I really enjoy the communication going on between me and my now 2-month-old baby.
It is true that people do not believe it when you tell them about infant potty training. On their visit my parents saw my baby go on the potty and said it was just a coincidence that she used it. They did not even change their minds after watching it for several consecutive days. After two months my mom finally believes me that the method is really working.
By the way: It does not matter whether you are using disposable diapers or cloth diapers. The technique aims on using less (or even no diapers, depending on how brave you are) in a shorter time than with conventional potty training.
Imagine how much money you could save and how much dirty diapers you won't have to handle.
I am convinced that, if I keep on doing what I am doing, over time my baby's diapers will stay dry during most of the day.
I can only recommend this book.

With Infant Potty Training, by Laurie Boucke, new and expecting parents have at their fingertips easy-to-follow, stage-by-stage instructions and training tips. Parents learn how to develop signals and cues that baby quickly associates with elimination, and how to chart baby's elimination patterns. Parents also get tips on choosing comfortable positions and suitable containers that vary adaptively to baby's growing body and capabilities.

The author also shares historical writings on early training, dispells myths, and discusses changes in attitudes and child-raising philosophies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that greatly affected the Western world's move away from this natural method of toilet training.

Along with stories of the author's personal experience with infant potty training and an abundance of research references, the book also includes an impressive number of shining testimonials which were gathered from families of different backgrounds, cultures, races, nationalities, lifestyles, and income/education levels. These demonstrate that infant toilet training is not limited to any particular society or group.

Undoubtedly, an important concern is how infant potty training can accommodate busy life-styles. Boucke addresses this issue by showing parents how they can use, mold, and adapt this method to contemporary living with part-time potty training. She includes feasible advice for working, traveling, and home schooling parents on time-management, multiple caregivers, siblings, erratic pottying, potty strikes, and unexpected interruptions.

While reading the book, it quickly becomes evident that this method logically parallels our current knowledge about brain development and the windows of early learning.

What is especially appealing is that this method compliments and strengthens attachment and bonding.

Notably, the book is endorsed by Prof. Marten W. deVries, MD. who has personally observed and researched this method, and who is currently Secretary General of the World Federation for Mental Health, and is a Professor of Social Psychiatry. There is also a favorable interview with pediatrician, Dr. Leah Lam, who is the Medical Director of CARES (Child Advocay Resource and Evaluation Team) at St. Lukes' Hospital in Boise, ID.

In this day and age of longer training periods, endless diapers, and parental potty training frustrations, Infant Potty Training offers a much needed and refreshing alternative to current toilet training methods.

Parents, caregivers, medical professionals, educators and parenting advisors, who strive to be on the cutting edge of child development and parenting information, will do well to explore this inspiring theory.

Infant potty training is not the book on how you get your infant pottry trained in miracle time. It is the gentle method on how you learn to communicate with your baby so that you can notice their signaling that they need to go, and you can then help them do so at a more hygenic place than the diaper. It is not easier than full time diapering, in fact the first months is probably more work, but it feels better for you, and I'm sure for the baby; that they can be free of the diaper.

It is a very comprehensive book all you need to know, I really loved it. We started with IPT a little late (3 months) and this book helped us answering some questions that arised, and more important perhaps, how to answer questions asked to us by other parents. We were practicing IPT, we knew it worked and would never go back to full time diapering, but it is sometimes difficult to explain it to others.

We don't do full time diaper free, we use cloth diapers at night and the days I don't feel I have the time to be all focused, or when going out. Cloth diaper are better than paper dipers with IPT because the baby feels they are wet and know that they peed. It help them associate feeling/action/result. But I try to always let my infant go potty within regular rutine, and when he signals, so that if he choses he may go on the potty and not in the cloth diaper. The cloth diaper is more of a "oops insurance" than a place to go. In this book Mrs Boucke also writes how one do if for a while one cannot do IPT, like if you get sick or other reason. It is ok to take a break and resume later. It is a comfort to know.

Now at 9 months our baby can stay dry all night, and always poo in the potty (that he did from 4 months), though pee we sometimes miss and it goes in the cloth diaper or pants if he is diaper free. But paper dipers sometime leak too, and at least we never had any diaper rashes, and it's nice not having to buy new paper diapers all the time, and take the trash out. We also feel more secure knowing about when he needs to go, if we take him potty before bath he never pee in the bath water or on the changing table. Since we did full time disposable-diapers from birth till 3 months we have tried both methods. We infinately preferred IPT.

I didn't think it was possible but after only a few days of reading this book it worked for my 6 week old. With a little boy we went through a messy time (directioning was hard) at first until I got the recommended Baby Bjorn potty but now it is wonderful. My family including husband thought I was crazy until it actually worked. I'm contantly impressed by my son and I would have completely underestimated him if it wasn't for this book.

When I first heard about this, my reflexive response was quite negative. But when I read a little more, it made perfect sense, just another way to help meet a baby's needs. We decided to give it a try when our little one was born, using diapers as backup. Virtually everything Boucke says has turned out to be true; most recently, as our son learned to crawl and started to pull up on the furniture and cruise, we went for a few weeks of never catching anything except right after a nap. But as he gets the hang of the new muscles, he's returned to his usual, communicative self.

We noticed other parents seem to try to train their babies to go in their diapers, and wonder if this really is why child-led pottying tends to happen so late. Boucke's cross-cultural information is great to read, as is her historical overview of child care advice with respect to elimination and pottying.

The New York Times article and follow-on media coverage has helped move this from the fringe towards the middle. I expect to see this become part of the attachment parenting package over the next decade. It has made cloth diapering (as backup) doable; I don't think I would have been willing to deal with cloth diapers otherwise. Either way, reducing the amount of time a baby is in diapers seems to be in everyone's (the environment, the parents, the infant) best interest. But that isn't why we're doing it; we're doing it because our baby is in a better mood when he's not sitting in it, trying to get us to change him.

Laurie Boucke has uncovered the truth about babies! THEY ARE SMART! Infant Potty Training, has become more of a "how-to" book in our house, it has set a new standard for our parenting. I was longing for a more intimate relationship with my baby. As I gained understanding from Ms. Boucke's research I discovered that babies, even tiny, can and want to communicate. I feel that Laurie Boucke's book is a much needed revelation for our culture which has distanced itself from the children. I have recieved what I call Mother Training by reading the book, plus there is the perk; a baby who is out of diapers by age two or under! This book is a satisfying blend of research and straight talk. The only thing you will regret if you buy this book, is that you didn't have it sooner.

A few weeks ago I spoke to a mom with a 4 month old who was using this technique. Her daughter had just pooped in the toilet for the first time. She said she wasn't being too diligent about it yet but that it was starting to work. I was amazed as I had never heard of anyone potty training so young. I got the book and tried it out on my 9 week old. I am already fairly in tune w/ some of her pooping signals already so when she stopped nursing and got a little stiff off we went to the bathroom. I was amazed that she went the very first time! She smiled at me and was very happy to play this new game. The first day she pooped twice and peed twice. There are some trips to the bathroom that don't yeild anything, and when she gets fussy or irritated I stop immediately. At first I thought it was just a lucky coincidence, but I swear she knows exactly what's going on because when I make the sound for going potty she tries to go. I know we have a ways to go yet (pee signal is a lot harder for me to decipher)but I am excited. I really didn't expect to get so quick a response after just a couple of days. We use disposable diapers as we are so busy, so I am happy that we can do something to cut down on the environmental impact. I highly recommend this technique. It's very gentle and loving and feels very natural. Plus I get the added bonus of becoming more in tune and more bonded with my child. It's win-win all the way around!

I came across the idea of Infant Potty Training (also known as Elimination Communication, Natural Infant Hygiene and Elimination Timing) on a website a couple of years ago. To be totally honest, my first reaction was "OMIGOD, WHAT????". But darn if the concept didn't just stick in my head... and eventually I got curious, looked around some more and found this book, which I devoured cover to cover.

If you're someone like me who had never given a thought to what women in other cultures did before diapers were invented, this book will blow your mind. Chock full of amazing testimonials from women all over the world -- including the Western world -- this book is a pioneering classic that may help change the way in which we view potty training, diapering and the ability of babies to communicate their needs to us.

This book also led me to read the other essential EC book, "Diaper Free!" by Ingrid Bauer, and ferret out several websites on the subject. My son is 11 months old and has been totally diaper free since about 8 months. We started this with him at 2 wks old and haven't looked back since. Thanks Laurie Boucke!