I'm still a long way before I start seriously potty-training my son. But even now, I do something similar to what my mom used to do with my younger brother when he was an infant. Whenever I notice my son pooping (as all parents know, you can usually tell from babies' facial expressions when they're pooping, haha!), or right after he's done the deed, I repeat the words, "poop" and "nappy" to him. Hopefully, those words eventually become two of his first words, as they were with my younger brother when he was a baby.

I do have some friends who are in the process of potty-training their toddlers right now, and listening to their potty-training experiences (plus my own interest in it because of my cloth diaper business) has gotten me reflecting on the topic....

See, the new buzzword in North American potty-training is the term "elimination communication," coined by Canadian Ingrid Bauer (at least I think she's Canadian) who wrote the book Diaper Free. I haven't read the book yet (as I said, I'm still a long way from actively potty-training my son), but from what I understand, Bauer got the idea for her "method" of potty-training (though "training" isn't actually an accurate term) after visiting India and Africa. When she was there, she was amazed at how little babies there were "toiled-trained" (or more accurately, were running around diaper-free) at a really young age. So she decided to learn more about how those cultures managed to get their kids diaper-free, and she wrote a book based on the things she discovered.

Some of my readers might not appreciate why this book is all the rage in North America, but my mom might have insight into that. You see, my mom works in a pediatrician's office in North America. She often tells me how much of a cultural difference she observes in the US compared to here, the Philippines, when it comes to potty-training. Here, kids are usually potty-trained by around two or two-and-a-half, whereas in the US, she says, she often sees children still in their nappies at 4-years-old or even older.

Now, I'm not personally going to advocate any "rules" about potty-training. I personally think that what works for some families might not work for others. Some parents think that it's better to potty-train their kids later, "when the kids are ready," they say. Others are of the "old-school" mentality that you should start potty-training your kid soon after he starts walking (at around one or one-and-a-half). "Elimination communication," as I understand it, seems to be based on the idea that parents should help their kids become aware of their own pooping and peeing from birth.

As for me, I don't think that a parent should be too strict about trying to set a certain "deadline" for potty-training, because I think that doing that will just get a child overly stressed about it as well.

But here's the point of this post. From what I gather about the "EC movement," however, much of elimination communication is composed of common-sense things that we Filipinos traditionally do to potty-train our kids.

Ask Pinoy parents how they potty-train their kids. Some will dedicate a summer holiday back in the province to potty-training: they let their toddlers run around the bukid without underwear, gently urging them to be conscious of "when they need to go." Some will bring the toddler to the potty at regular intervals and make "shushing" sounds to encourage the child to pee into the potty. Some will just one day ditch the diapers, switch kids to underwear, and chase their kid around with a rag every time he/she pees (or, for a more creative version of this: ask the child to wipe up his/her own pee every time he/she makes a mess on the floor). Some will start rushing the baby to the toilet the second they start noticing baby make his/her pooping facial expression. These are our time-honored traditional Filipino potty-training methods.

The funny thing is, these traditional Filipino potty-training methods are some of the things that Bauer advocates as well.

So are we an "EC culture" too, just like India and Africa? Hmm, I don't know the answer to that because I haven't read the book.

But ... I do think our culture--especially with our fascination for poop and pee (notice how we love toilet humor, and how we have so many colloquial words for pooping and peeing, haha!)--traditionally makes us more aware of our children's need to "eliminate," and encourages our children to be more aware of it too. Maybe that's why Pinoy children are, on average, toilet-trained sooner than their North American counterparts.

Of course, this doesn't really explain why we're also a culture where men pee wherever they want ... but that topic is beyond of the scope of this post already. :)
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