Infant Potty Training : A Gentle and Primeval Method Adapted to Modern Living

Rating:
Summary: Infant Potty Training : A Gentle and Primeval Method Adapted
Review: Laurie Boucke has uncovered the truth about babies! THEY ARE SMART! Infant Potty Training, has become more of a "how-to" book in our house, it has set a new standard for our parenting. I was longing for a more intimate relationship with my baby. As I gained understanding from Ms. Boucke's research I discovered that babies, even tiny, can and want to communicate. I feel that Laurie Boucke's book is a much needed revelation for our culture which has distanced itself from the children. I have recieved what I call Mother Training by reading the book, plus there is the perk; a baby who is out of diapers by age two or under! This book is a satisfying blend of research and straight talk. The only thing you will regret if you buy this book, is that you didn't have it sooner.

Rating:
Summary: Infant Potty Training : A Gentle and Primeval Method Adapted
Review: Laurie Boucke has uncovered the truth about babies! THEY ARE SMART! Infant Potty Training, has become more of a "how-to" book in our house, it has set a new standard for our parenting. I was longing for a more intimate relationship with my baby. As I gained understanding from Ms. Boucke's research I discovered that babies, even tiny, can and want to communicate. I feel that Laurie Boucke's book is a much needed revelation for our culture which has distanced itself from the children. I have recieved what I call Mother Training by reading the book, plus there is the perk; a baby who is out of diapers by age two or under! This book is a satisfying blend of research and straight talk. The only thing you will regret if you buy this book, is that you didn't have it sooner.

Rating:
Summary: Changed the way I parent
Review: My son was 2 months old when I found this book, and it completely changed the way I parent, providing another tool to answer the question "Why is the baby fussing/squirming/crying?" I am just astounded that our society has lost the ability to communicate such a basic need with our children, and am endlessly grateful to Laurie Boucke for providing information about this critical function! Everyone who knows anyone who has a small child should check this book out!

Rating:
Summary: A future without poopy diapers
Review: This book is a compendium of materials about natural potty training from infancy. It is an expansion of the author's ideas that were originally presented in a small (self-published?) volume called "Trickle Treat." The book is divided into 4 parts. The first section is entitled "The concept and the method", and it includes detailed descriptions of how to establish communication bonds between infants and parents concerning elimination needs, a history of toilet training methods, a comparison between infant toilet training and toddler toilet training, and myths about infant toilet training. The second section is entitled "Testimonials USA". It contains brief descriptions from mothers across the US telling how they put the concept into practice, the degree of success they met, and how they and their babies related to the method. The third section is called "Testimonials around the World". It is quite similar in content to the second section. The fourth section is called cross-cultural studies, and it provides a survey of toilet training information about cultures spanning the entire globe. The book includes a section of endnotes, 12 pages of references, and an index.

The author stumbled on this method of infant toilet training shortly after giving birth to her third child. Her first two children had been trained conventionally as toddlers. But Boucke was quite fortunate in having a friend from India when she had her third child who told her about how infants and mothers learned how to take care of elimination needs without diapers back in India. Boucke asked her friend for more information about how infant elimination was taken care of in India, and the friend helped her train her baby.

This infant training method involves establishing signals between mother and infant for elimination. At first, the mother simply predicts or observes when the infant is eliminating, and holds the child in a specific position while making a specific sound. Within hours or days even a newborn infant becomes aware of the position and sound and begins to eliminate on cue. Soon it begins to signal to the mother when it is about to eliminate so that she can hold it in position over the pot. As the infant gets old enough to move around on its own, it will crawl to the pot of its own accord when it needs to go, and by the time the child is walking, the child is already trained, without tears, arguments or battles. Of course, this is the ideal case, and no child is ever trained without accidents.

One of the most important predictors of success with the infant training method is the age when the method is begun, the idea being that it's much easier not to teach children to mess in their diapers in the first place than to try to get them to unlearn this habit once it has become ingrained. For best success, Boucke recommends starting from day 1 and certainly before 6 months, although some patient parents have been able to use the method even from 1 year. Boucke also points out that it's not necessary to use the method all day long, so that children can still be in diapers in daycare if necessary, as long as it is used regularly at some point in the day. Many parents have even reported success after taking a long pause in the method because of extenuating circumstances- -as long as they had done some infant elimination training early, they found they could return to the method even after a few months of reverting to diapers.

In the testimonials section, parents report that the habits Boucke teaches are much more than simple toilet training- -the habits build a line of communication between infant and care-givers that is otherwise never experienced. In the end, it's not really the early toilet training successes that lasted in the memory of the parents, but the joy in understanding what their infants were trying to say to them. Parents whose infants are in diapers all the time are deaf on these points, hence their infants soon learn that communicating their elimination needs is futile, since the parents seem to want the child to go in the diaper. Parents using the infant training method also report that their children never experience diaper rash, and never have to sit around in poopy diapers. Indeed, after using the method, they find themselves utterly disgusted at the very thought of letting their infant wallow in a messy diaper. The environmental benefits of the method are obvious- -parents using this method simply take an end-run around the entire cloth versus disposable debate.

The range of information contained in the book is overwhelming, to the point that Boucke could have turned the volume into a graduate thesis. Some of the material in the last section, though interesting, isn't entirely relevant for parents trying to train their infants. This is particularly the case when Boucke discusses cultures where toilet training doesn't begin until late toddlerhood. In general, the book has some rough edges both editorially and with the type-setting, hence my giving it 4 stars instead of 5. However, the quality and importance of the information is so high that it should be read universally by all parents-to-be. (These latter problems have been addressed in the revised 2002 edition.)

Rating:
Summary: A future without poopy diapers
Review: This book is a compendium of materials about natural potty training from infancy. It is an expansion of the author's ideas that were originally presented in a small (self-published?) volume called "Trickle Treat." The book is divided into 4 parts. The first section is entitled "The concept and the method", and it includes detailed descriptions of how to establish communication bonds between infants and parents concerning elimination needs, a history of toilet training methods, a comparison between infant toilet training and toddler toilet training, and myths about infant toilet training. The second section is entitled "Testimonials USA". It contains brief descriptions from mothers across the US telling how they put the concept into practice, the degree of success they met, and how they and their babies related to the method. The third section is called "Testimonials around the World". It is quite similar in content to the second section. The fourth section is called cross-cultural studies, and it provides a survey of toilet training information about cultures spanning the entire globe. The book includes a section of endnotes, 12 pages of references, and an index.

The author stumbled on this method of infant toilet training shortly after giving birth to her third child. Her first two children had been trained conventionally as toddlers. But Boucke was quite fortunate in having a friend from India when she had her third child who told her about how infants and mothers learned how to take care of elimination needs without diapers back in India. Boucke asked her friend for more information about how infant elimination was taken care of in India, and the friend helped her train her baby.

This infant training method involves establishing signals between mother and infant for elimination. At first, the mother simply predicts or observes when the infant is eliminating, and holds the child in a specific position while making a specific sound. Within hours or days even a newborn infant becomes aware of the position and sound and begins to eliminate on cue. Soon it begins to signal to the mother when it is about to eliminate so that she can hold it in position over the pot. As the infant gets old enough to move around on its own, it will crawl to the pot of its own accord when it needs to go, and by the time the child is walking, the child is already trained, without tears, arguments or battles. Of course, this is the ideal case, and no child is ever trained without accidents.

One of the most important predictors of success with the infant training method is the age when the method is begun, the idea being that it's much easier not to teach children to mess in their diapers in the first place than to try to get them to unlearn this habit once it has become ingrained. For best success, Boucke recommends starting from day 1 and certainly before 6 months, although some patient parents have been able to use the method even from 1 year. Boucke also points out that it's not necessary to use the method all day long, so that children can still be in diapers in daycare if necessary, as long as it is used regularly at some point in the day. Many parents have even reported success after taking a long pause in the method because of extenuating circumstances- -as long as they had done some infant elimination training early, they found they could return to the method even after a few months of reverting to diapers.

In the testimonials section, parents report that the habits Boucke teaches are much more than simple toilet training- -the habits build a line of communication between infant and care-givers that is otherwise never experienced. In the end, it's not really the early toilet training successes that lasted in the memory of the parents, but the joy in understanding what their infants were trying to say to them. Parents whose infants are in diapers all the time are deaf on these points, hence their infants soon learn that communicating their elimination needs is futile, since the parents seem to want the child to go in the diaper. Parents using the infant training method also report that their children never experience diaper rash, and never have to sit around in poopy diapers. Indeed, after using the method, they find themselves utterly disgusted at the very thought of letting their infant wallow in a messy diaper. The environmental benefits of the method are obvious- -parents using this method simply take an end-run around the entire cloth versus disposable debate.

The range of information contained in the book is overwhelming, to the point that Boucke could have turned the volume into a graduate thesis. Some of the material in the last section, though interesting, isn't entirely relevant for parents trying to train their infants. This is particularly the case when Boucke discusses cultures where toilet training doesn't begin until late toddlerhood. In general, the book has some rough edges both editorially and with the type-setting, hence my giving it 4 stars instead of 5. However, the quality and importance of the information is so high that it should be read universally by all parents-to-be.

Rating:
Summary: This book is amazing!!
Review: We never would have tried this without the simple procedure outlined in this book. Our 4-week old boy is now using the bathroom, and he is beginning to let us know when he needs to go. He will "hold it in" until we get in position. And we've been trying this for just less than 2 days! He giggles and plays, and it's an extra chance for both mom and dad to hold and communicate with him. We feel more involved, and he definitely appreciates it. He is practicing holding it in, and pushing it out, and his little muscles are already getting more coordinated. As first time parents, it felt a little wrong to have him lie in his diaper and foul himself. I know I wouldn't like that much, and he didn't seem to either.

We highly recommend this book. It's refreshing not to feel helpless with something as simple and natural as potty training.

Rating:
Summary: This book is amazing!!
Review: We never would have tried this without the simple procedure outlined in this book. Our 4-week old boy is now using the bathroom, and he is beginning to let us know when he needs to go. He will "hold it in" until we get in position. And we've been trying this for just less than 2 days! He giggles and plays, and it's an extra chance for both mom and dad to hold and communicate with him. We feel more involved, and he definitely appreciates it. He is practicing holding it in, and pushing it out, and his little muscles are already getting more coordinated. As first time parents, it felt a little wrong to have him lie in his diaper and foul himself. I know I wouldn't like that much, and he didn't seem to either.

We highly recommend this book. It's refreshing not to feel helpless with something as simple and natural as potty training.

Rating:
Summary: Infant Potty Training
Review: With Infant Potty Training, by Laurie Boucke, new and expecting parents have at their fingertips easy-to-follow, stage-by-stage instructions and training tips. Parents learn how to develop signals and cues that baby quickly associates with elimination, and how to chart baby's elimination patterns. Parents also get tips on choosing comfortable positions and suitable containers that vary adaptively to baby's growing body and capabilities.

The author also shares historical writings on early training, dispells myths, and discusses changes in attitudes and child-raising philosophies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that greatly affected the Western world's move away from this natural method of toilet training.

Along with stories of the author's personal experience with infant potty training and an abundance of research references, the book also includes an impressive number of shining testimonials which were gathered from families of different backgrounds, cultures, races, nationalities, lifestyles, and income/education levels. These demonstrate that infant toilet training is not limited to any particular society or group.

Undoubtedly, an important concern is how infant potty training can accommodate busy life-styles. Boucke addresses this issue by showing parents how they can use, mold, and adapt this method to contemporary living with part-time potty training. She includes feasible advice for working, traveling, and home schooling parents on time-management, multiple caregivers, siblings, erratic pottying, potty strikes, and unexpected interruptions.

While reading the book, it quickly becomes evident that this method logically parallels our current knowledge about brain development and the windows of early learning.

What is especially appealing is that this method compliments and strengthens attachment and bonding.

Notably, the book is endorsed by Prof. Marten W. deVries, MD. who has personally observed and researched this method, and who is currently Secretary General of the World Federation for Mental Health, and is a Professor of Social Psychiatry. There is also a favorable interview with pediatrician, Dr. Leah Lam, who is the Medical Director of CARES (Child Advocay Resource and Evaluation Team) at St. Lukes' Hospital in Boise, ID.

In this day and age of longer training periods, endless diapers, and parental potty training frustrations, Infant Potty Training offers a much needed and refreshing alternative to current toilet training methods.

Parents, caregivers, medical professionals, educators and parenting advisors, who strive to be on the cutting edge of child development and parenting information, will do well to explore this inspiring theory.