SuChin Pak
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Maybe it's 'cause I don't have a kid yet, but this recent story from one of my closest friends and a new mom cracked me up. Kirsten is my green guru, and when I wanted to follow up on her last post about greening baby diapers (that joke never gets old), she informed me that she's moved on to an even greener movement (the double entendres get better!)... She's actually trying to get her very reluctant 15-month-old on the toilet. Here's the Green Mommy hard at work:
Ok, so one last thing about diapers…These gDiapers I've been talking about aren't cheap. We had a stash gifted to us by my parents, but since they ran out, I've been researching alternative sources, like an assortment of cotton, hemp and fleece reusable diapers, bought secondhand. I know, my husband has the same reaction and I'm done with it.
Last week, a friend of mine was telling me how she takes her 10-month-old to the toilet every time she scrunches up her face. I asked her if she practiced elimination communication, or EC, a trend I'd blogged about where parents choose to go diapers-free and read their baby's signals--squirming, tensing the face, having a look of "inner concentration"--to determine when to take their often just weeks-old infants to the toilet. She hadn't heard of EC, but explained it just makes sense to train early, or, as her mother puts it, "It's strange that any child who can walk would poop their pants."
Her mom has a point: Kids are so comfortable in their disposable gel-filled diapers that they, or their parents, are waiting a lot longer to potty train. In the 1950s when nearly all kids used cloth diapers, 95 percent were potty trained by 18 months, but now that nearly 95 percent of kids are in disposables, only about 10 percent train by 18 months and many wait until 3 years. Given that kids go through about 2,000 to 3,000 diapers per year, this extra time hanging out in their excretions adds up.
So, now that our fair baby is 15 months, it's time to let the training begin. Though I'm waiting until I visit my parents next month--my mom still finds her poop cute.
More on eco-friendly diaper options:
Can Baby poo Be Green?
Solve the Diaper Dilemma: The Cloth Option
Solve the Diaper Dilemma: Safer Disposables
Solve the Diaper Dilemma: Elimination Communication and the Diaper-Free Movement
Solve the Diaper Dilemma: gDiapers, the Hybrid Diaper
Solve Diaper Rash, Choose Calendula
SuChin Pak is co-host of the G Word. Her column "The Green Room With SuChin Pak" will appear frqeuently on PlanetGreen.com, so check back often! Check out the full TV programming lineup or use our local Channel Finder to learn where to set the dial to in your area!
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