When to start Potty or Toilet Training?
When to start Elimination Communication, potty or toilet training is a personal question. Each community is different. The choice is yours to decide.
In the UK teachers have recently reported that children are starting school still wearing diapers at age 5! Worldwide the diaper companies have seen their market grow from the under 3’s to the under 5’s age groups.
Remember when you decide to start using the Baby Throne is a personal choice. However the earlier you start the healthier it is for baby, the better it is for the environment, and the easier it is for you and baby. Plus it is paediatrician endorsed!
The Baby Throne
Comfortably holds your baby in the optimal squat position triggering the instinct to push & empty the bowels completely. It is the pubo-rectalis muscle that constricts the rectum in a standing or sitting position. It is this muscle that fully relaxes in the squat position and assists with complete elimination.
The Baby Throne should only be used when baby is strong enough to sit up and hold their heads up unaided which is generally at around four months old. You begin with the Beginner (seat) Baby Throne with the diaper on to get familiar with the structure.
You really want to start moving through the Intermediate (potty) stage and on to the Advanced (on toilet) stage by the time baby is starting solids, which is at about 6 months. At about this time baby may also start having constipation issues. It stands to reason; solids are harder to move than liquids. Constipation is a very common, painful and a very serious problem for babies (even for adults!). Most cases of encopresis are the result of chronic constipation. The longer the stool remains in the colon the more difficult it is to push out.
The Baby Throne helps constipation and this is why paediatricians and paediatric surgeons especially like the Baby Throne!
The Baby Throne
The 3 stages are a gradual progression onto the toilet. The main concept behind the Baby Throne Technique is the use of physiology, reward & routine.
One size fits all! Suitable for ages up to about 4 years old (approx. 20kgs/44lbs) when the seat starts to become too tight.
Training a toddler is definitely more challenging than training a six month old baby. Babies are always learning; they learn very quickly that if they are hungry and they cry they will get fed. It is the same principle if they have a dirty diaper and cry, it will get changed. Babies are keen to please.
Elimination Communication babies can easily start with the Advanced stage as they are used to air on their bottoms, but be kind and let them start with the Beginner and Intermediate stage for a few minutes to get used to it. Start using the Baby Throne when they can hold their heads up unaided, which is at about 4 months (some may be younger).
Toddlers are trickier!
I cannot imagine anything more challenging than trying to train my two year old to do something differently. He has a mind of his own, he is exploring his independence and, quite frankly is more likely to say “no” and run off. I have also been informed that the more intelligent the toddler, the more difficult it is to teach them something new if they think they already know how to do something and want to do it their way.
Start younger, use fewer diapers by being efficient with them, and drop the diaper when it is always kept dry. Remember, we have proven that by using the Baby Throne, you can save over 2,200 diapers before your baby reaches two years of age. Good for baby, good for you and good for the environment! Why wait until baby is two? Help decrease the billions of diapers used worldwide each year and make your life easier at the same time!
An average baby uses 5 diapers a day. In South Africa, 26 million diapers are used each day. In the UK, 20 million diapers are used each day and in the USA, 100 million diapers are used each day. That is a total of 146 million diapers each day in just these 3 countries. That is a lot of diapers! Huggies started the Pull-Up diaper in the USA in 1991, but only in limited areas. By the time the competition caught up, Huggies were selling $400 million worth of Pull-Ups a year.
Just in the UK alone the diaper market is worth £400 million – can you imagine what this equates to worldwide? We have proven that you can save over 2,200 diapers for one child before the age of 2. Assuming all children have stopped wearing diapers by the age of 2, we can reduce the worldwide diaper wastage by at least half by using the Baby Throne and the Baby Throne Technique.
Imagine reducing diaper wastage in just South Africa, the UK and the USA by 73 million diapers each day with such a small effort! The increase in diaper use has sparked worldwide concern about diaper mountains (nappy mountains) and parents are finding that they are under greater pressure to potty train (or toilet train) their children but do not receive sufficient help or guidance in doing so. Before the invention of the disposable diaper, 95% of all American babies were potty (or toilet) trained by 18 months; that is totally diaper free.
Today most people do not train until the toddlers are 3 years old and 25% are still not dry at 4. Babies are being trained to fill their diapers, and then parents have to train them to use the toilet. Wouldn’t it be easier to start training when baby can sit on the Baby Throne (approx 4 months)?