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> My mom toilet trained me at 3 months. Is this a typo? I don't see how it could be physically possible for a three-month-old to be toilet trained. Among other
by allturtles 7mo ago
> My mom toilet trained me at 3 months.
Is this a typo? I don't see how it could be physically possible for a three-month-old to be toilet trained. Among other things, they can't sit up on a toilet seat or walk to the bathroom.
- noemit 7mo agoShe had me on a schedule and would hold me up. Yep at 3 months babies can't even sit up. She said at the start she would hold me up until I went, even if it took hours, and if I went she would reward me. She Pavlov'ed me. I think she said I would cry or babble in a certain way, or if she even suspected I needed to go she would put me on the potty and hold me up.
- allturtles 7mo agoFascinating. I'm not sure what would drive someone to do this, since until the child can actually go to the toilet on their own, you haven't achieved the actual point (IMO) of the training.
- noemit 7mo agoShe had only cloth diapers, no washing machine, she had to wash them by hand and boil them to disinfect them. I guess the time lost just waiting for me to go was better than the time lost doing all that cleaning. I was her second so she had experience doing this.
- allturtles 7mo agoI hadn't considered that. I can see how without modern conveniences the tradeoff would make sense.
- trollbridge 7mo agoNot having to change poopy nappies is a powerful motivator.
- throwaway173738 7mo agoThe point would be to not clean diapers.
- KaiserPro 7mo agoManual labour of cleaning clothes without either a dedicated washing machine, and probably no access to a tumble drier. That seems like a reasonable motivation to me
- em-bee 7mo agothat's pretty much the chinese way of doing it. i don't know about the schedule or starting time though, actually i think they start almost right after birth. since traditionally the grandparents help with taking care of children they have more time to sit around with a baby in their lap. the chinese also invented split pants that are open at the bottom making it possible to just grab a child when you see it ready to go without having to hassle with undressing. and once the children can walk they just need to squat down to go on their own. i did a quick look on wikipedia. apparently in europe it was common for young kids of both genders to wear dresses which i suppose also made that easier. (although dresses were worn much longer than necessary for toilet training, so they must have had another purpose or benefit too)
- Macha 7mo ago> although dresses were worn much longer than necessary for toilet training, so they must have had another purpose or benefit too Easier to reuse across a wider range of child sizes (either the same child over time, or siblings). You don’t need to worry about e.g. leg diameter or crotch/knee heights like you would with trousers, so can get by basically just folding it to fit height and waist. In an era where people modified and repaired their own clothes more rather than having modern cheaper but more disposable clothes, that would matter more.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- trollbridge 7mo agoYep. Some friends of mine had their 4 month old completely toilet trained. (Their 4th child.) This is also completely normal in the third world where they can’t afford things like diapers and also can’t afford children to be constantly soiling clothes.
- cm2012 7mo agoSome kids are very developmentally ahead of others, its quire uneven.