How good would it be to have kids trained early!:
AT just 18 months, little Maven was a graduate from the school of toilet training.
Now two and a half, his proud parents boast that he is a veteran of the throne, having overcome the burden of wearing nappies.
Maven is one of what advocates say is a growing number of nappy-free babies, a movement founded on the belief that babies are born with an instinctive ability to signal when they have to answer nature's call.
Parents who practice so-called elimination communication (EC) say they learn to read their child's body language and help them recognise the need to go by mimicking the sounds that a child associates with the bathroom.
"We started at birth," Maven's mother Charndra Pile says on her website, which is dedicated to the benefits of the EC system.
"I caught my first pee when he was one and a half days old - I got up first thing, took off his nappy as soon as he awoke and gingerly held him over the sink and whispered 'sss sss' quietly in his ear - and he peed!"
The Canberra mother says she first read about nappy-free babies in a newspaper article and was attracted by the prospect of an alternative to cloth or disposable nappies.
"EC is far easier in the long run - much less drudgery and poo-wiping," Pile says.
"I compare the tiny wipe I do of my son's bum with the endless wiping needed for a nappied child, I know I want to choose the easy way, thanks."
But early childhood experts are skeptical.
Most say children younger than 12 months have no control over bladder or bowel movements and little control for six months after that.
But some parents go nappy-free at birth, and infants can initiate bowel movements on cue as young as three to four months, says Elizabeth Parise, spokeswoman of DiaperFreeBaby.org, a network of support groups promoting the practice.
The early training regime also helps parents forge closer ties with their infants, reduces the environmental impact associated with nappies and eliminates skin irritation caused by a wet nappy, Parise says.
While the trend was first adopted in America, the nappy-free philosophy has caught on in parts of Australia, with mentoring groups in Canberra, Sydney and the alternative northern NSW town of Bellingen.
Pile doesn't like to call it toilet training.
She says it is the parent who is trained, rather than the child.
"I have not trained Maven. I have simply supported his in-born instincts and guided his gradual path to toilet independence," she says.
According to DiaperFreeBaby.org co-founder Melinda Rothstein, the process has the added benefits of helping parents gain insight into their child's development.
She says accidents signal that the child may be sick or entering a new phase.
Rothstein says finding a supportive daycare centre is the biggest challenge for parents who choose not to use nappies, while tracking down tiny underpants for nappy-free tots is also a problem.
Carolyn Scott, an early childhood lecturer at the University of Newcastle, says while Australia often takes its cue from US child-rearing trends.
But she doubts the nappy free philosophy will ever become really popular here.
"I don't think it will last long as a fad here," she says.
"It's just something that parents are not up to doing, people like the convenience of nappies."
Australians are also less likely to approve of children being allowed to do their business at any time or place.
"In India, when I travelled there, the children were just hung out the edge of the trains, here they don't tend to allow that," she says.
"It would be seen as quite abhorrent because you'd have to carry poo-bags with you ... like a dog-poo bag."
Pile, who is working on a second support website for EC followers, admits the process is hard work. But she says it has saved her time and money in the long-run.
"Sure there are plenty of wet pants ... its a gradual process, but (it's) very rewarding to catch so many wees a day," she says.
"The communication with Maven is wonderful, we are so closely bonded he tells ME to wake up in the night to go to the loo.
"It is a wonderful journey and I learn every single day."
