So I’d never heard that phrase until missionary friends of ours said that their daughter was potty trained before her first birthday. What!? That’s crazy, I thought. How in the world is that possible? They’re in Kazakhstan (near Russia), the wife is a native of the country while the husband is American. She was sharing that her aunts thought it was silly babies were in diapers until 3 and just assumed she’d be doing Elimination Communication (EC) with their daughter.

EC is a form of potty training (although apparently the correct term now is “Potty Learning”) where a parent watches the child for cues and signs that they need to go to the bathroom. It can start as early as a few months old. The parent then holds the child over the toilet while they eliminate, and then all go on with the rest of their day. Most of the time kids aren’t even in diapers, since all of it happens so fast there’s really no time to get a diaper off and get the kid over a toilet.

Crazy!

In fact, other friends of ours were in China and they noticed a lot of toddlers were running around naked, without diapers on practicing this technique. I guess it’s also not uncommon in third world countries. The mother carries a baby in a sling all day while she works, notices the appropriate signs and holds the baby away from her to eliminate, and then puts him back in the sling.

I guess we folks in the States missed the memo.

Now I have no desire to do this with Ben. Our missionary friends say it was exhausting, a ton of work and you’re constantly on watch. The payoff however is that your kid is diaper free very, very early. Kind of fascinating!