Hensley Ruth: What Just Happened?

Hensley Ruth, you are seven months old and you just peed and pooped in the big potty! Holy cow! This has your mother so excited and proud! You peed in the big potty last week too!


So, am I crazy? Maybe. (Crazy for the midwest, but if I lived in San Francisco, I may be normal!)  I've been sitting you on the big 'ol toilet just after you eat (because I noticed that is usually when you go) and after the second time I sat you there, you went pee. It was quite interesting to see your little mind and body work. 


I just ran into this article from the NY Times on infant potty training and I totally need to read more! Wish I would have heard of this stuff earlier. Watch out, this mommy is full speed ahead and going to be finished scooping poop out of those cloths before we know it! 


Some tidbits from the article:
For many parents in the United States, the idea of potty training before a baby is able to walk, or even before age 2, is not just horrifying but reprehensible - a sure nightmare for parents and baby, not to mention a direct route from the crib to the psychiatrist's couch. But a growing number of parents are experimenting with infant potty training, seeing it as more sanitary, ecologically correct and likely to strengthen bonds between parent and child.


As with breastfeeding, a turn toward infant potty training would represent a leap into the past. Before the 1800's, babies in Western societies were swaddled, which restrained them and contained their wastes, Laurie Boucke said in "Infant Potty Training" (White-Boucke Publishing, 2002), one of several books she has written that advocate the technique. When cleanliness became a virtue in the 19th century, Ms. Boucke wrote, infants were regularly held over a chamber pot until they learned the habit of using it.

"When I started doing this, I got to start seeing him as a little person with abilities," she said.


At two recent meetings of support groups, mothers and one father shared signals their babies gave: kicking, nose-rubbing, getting loud, getting quiet, hiccupping, feeling warm to the touch, shivering.

If you or a friend have done this please comment and let me know! I'd love to learn more. Or if you have a baby and want to try it together contact me!