I thought I was being Green when I made the decision to use gdiapers instead of disposables. (I’m still not convinced that cloth is greener than gdiapers. More cost effective yes, greener, not sure. Different discussion.)
Any hoo… I’ve “discovered” something that’s even greener! I say “discovered” because it’s nothing new. It’s actually been around, well, forever. But, as excited as I am about it, you’d think NASA, or Google, just came up with it last week! I’m in shock, absolutely stunned that I didn’t think of it before. And I can’t believe it’s not discussed in every baby book available – especially the slew of Green Baby books that are being churned out these days.
Are you ready to hear what is positively, absolutely, hands down greener than gdiapers and cloth? The answer may surprise you….
The answer my friends is – the humble potty!
Turns out even infants can use a potty! Sounds too good to be true, but its really not. My 5 month-old has been doing it for a week now.
It was a lot of work the first couple of days. We spent a lot of time in the bathroom on false alarms as I sorted through what the correct signals, faces, noises were for potty time, but our percentage of successes compared to trips to the bathroom has improved exponentially in just a few days. What started out as one success for every 4 trips to the potty has improved to about 3 successes for every 4 trips as of today. Of course, I still put a diaper on her. She is, after all, only 5 months old.
I’ll be totally honest. The first couple of days required a lot of patience from both of us. No way would a daycare or babysitter put up with it. But, a week into this, I’m sold. Its awesome. If the act of being able to flush a gdiaper was satisfying, just emptying a potty is a thousand times better. (And a helluvalot less messy!)
Note that I’m not calling it potty training. Apparently people don’t think infants can be trained, so the correct terminology is actually “elimination communication”, EC for short. In fact, a Pediatrician I spoke to about this phenomenon was totally cynical and said that, “of course the infant isn’t potty trained, it’s the parent that is potty trained.” For me, I don’t care. I’m absolutely willing and happy to be the one being trained.
As for Baby, I think she likes having a clean diaper for the majority of the day. That’s why she puts up with me.