{"id":10505,"date":"2017-11-20T19:45:13","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T19:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=10505"},"modified":"2017-11-20T19:45:13","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T19:45:13","slug":"diapers-potties-and-split-pants-understanding-toilet-training-around-the-world-may-help-parents-relax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/diapers-potties-and-split-pants-understanding-toilet-training-around-the-world-may-help-parents-relax\/","title":{"rendered":"Diapers, potties and split pants: Understanding toilet training around the world may help parents relax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alma Gottlieb<\/a>, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Are two-year-olds too young to start toilet training?<\/p>\n

For many children, yes. Especially boys. At least, that\u2019s what American pediatricians would likely say. Nowadays, only around half of children in the U.S.<\/a> are fully toilet-trained by age three.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Split pants let a Chinese boy go when he needs to.<\/span>
\n Daniel Case<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chinese grandmothers would be appalled. They\u2019d likely point out that with \u201csplit pants,\u201d most kids are trained by age two. This traditional wardrobe item features an opening along the crotch seam, allowing children to urinate and defecate freely without soiling their clothes. These garments remain the pants style of choice for toddlers living in the Chinese countryside.<\/p>\n

Parenting advice about divergent toilet-training methods (not to mention plenty of other child-rearing questions) is typically dished out as if it were the only reasonable, reliable option. Nowadays, parents are confronted with guidance claimed to be scientifically founded, and presented as relevant to all children, even when different strategies are in direct conflict with each other. With over 2,000 parenting advice books in print in English \u2013 and, along with so many parenting blogs, there\u2019s even a parody of the genre<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s easy to see why many modern parents feel confused about how to raise their children.<\/p>\n

As an anthropologist, I\u2019ve been studying child-rearing practices around the world for 25 years. Living with my husband (writer Philip Graham) in small villages in the rainforest of West Africa for extended periods convinced me that we humans are a resilient species, able to thrive in so many distinctive settings. Discovering the incredible diversity of ways to raise children inspired us to rethink and change some of our own family\u2019s child-rearing practices (around bed-sharing, independence and household tasks, for instance).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no one-size-fits-all model of child-rearing advice for all the world\u2019s parents. To spread this message, my colleagues and I collaborated on the book \u201cA World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Eight Societies<\/a>,\u201d based on our own and others\u2019 long-term ethnographic fieldwork in places ranging from Israel and the Palestinian territories to China, Portugal, Peru, Denmark, C\u00f4te d’Ivoire and a Somali-American community in Minneapolis. By presenting multiple solutions to the commonest challenges facing parents, we hope to provide a bit of a tonic for parents, to assure them that there\u2019s more than one path to raising a well-adjusted child.<\/p>\n

Toilet training from birth?<\/h2>\n

So, why do parents choose a given child-rearing practice? Often, it comes down to money and availability. Let\u2019s revisit that question about toilet training.<\/p>\n

In C\u00f4te d’Ivoire, Beng mothers begin training their infants\u2019 bowels a few days after birth. They administer enemas twice daily, beginning the day a newborn\u2019s dried-out umbilical cord stump drops off. By the time the little one is a few months old, caregivers shouldn\u2019t have to worry about him pooping during the day at all.<\/p>\n

What could account for such a seemingly extreme practice? For one thing, disposable diapers are unavailable in Beng villages \u2013 and throughout much of the global south. Moreover, even if they were sold in local markets, few subsistence-farming families could afford them. (And the planet can\u2019t afford them, either. Environmentalists calculate that \u201cdisposable\u201d diapers constitute the third-largest single consumer item in landfills<\/a>, and their production requires some 7 billion gallons of oil each year<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

But availability and affordability tell only part of the story. The structure of labor plus deep-seated values also shape parents\u2019 choices.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n A Beng babysitter carrying a young charge.<\/span>
\n Alma Gottlieb<\/span>, CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In C\u00f4te d’Ivoire (as elsewhere across sub-Saharan Africa), Beng babies spend most of their days attached to someone\u2019s back. Often, that someone is not the mother \u2013 who is working in her fields, producing crops to feed her large family. Beng society (unlike traditional Chinese society) also rates all feces (including those of babies) as disgusting, and the thought of a baby pooping on someone\u2019s back produces revulsion.<\/p>\n

Given the local attitude toward feces, no potential babysitter would take care of a child likely to poop on her back while being carried. Hence, starting potty-training from birth aims to help a mother get her farmwork done. In that sense, early toilet-training promotes an adequate food supply for a mother\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

A Western observer might shrink in horror from this practice, imagining long-lasting emotional maladjustments from early trauma. But, discounting the ravages of poverty that challenge health and deny educational and economic opportunity, these very early toilet-trained babies appear to grow into just as happy and well-adjusted adults as diaper-wearing children might become.<\/p>\n

Context counts for what works<\/h2>\n

In motivation, this practice may not even be as exotic as it might appear to a non-Beng reader. In the U.S., women\u2019s labor needs may also dictate potty-training schedules, albeit with a later timeline. Many daycare centers accept only children who are fully potty-trained. If a working mother lacks both in-home daycare options and babysitting relatives, she may work frantically to potty-train her toddler as soon as possible, so she may return to full-time paid work.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n This Palestinian girl cares for her baby brother as part of the extended \u2018hamula\u2019 family who raise children collectively whenever possible.<\/span>
\n Bree Akesson<\/span>, CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For stay-at-home moms, or working moms who have nearby relatives to care for their child, different life situations may dictate toilet-training decisions. In the Palestinian territories, for instance, many women start toilet-training around 14 or 15 months. They\u2019re able to start early because they aren\u2019t working outside the home, so they have the time. On the other hand, a Palestininan working woman may start toilet-training later, maybe around age two. In this case, women in the extended family (\u201chamula\u201d) would care for the child while the mother worked, so no daycare rule compels early toilet-training.<\/p>\n

\"TheOnce we explore the local context of people\u2019s daily lives, seemingly exotic or even abusive practices \u2013 split pants, infant enemas \u2013 suddenly seem far less so. Opening the minds of worried new parents to \u201cother\u201d ways of raising children may assuage fears that if they fail to \u201cdo the right thing,\u201d their children will be doomed. Through exploring comparative commode customs, along with many other parenting practices, it\u2019s clear there are many \u201cright ways\u201d to raise a child.<\/p>\n

Alma Gottlieb<\/a>, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, African Studies, and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alma Gottlieb, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Are two-year-olds too young to start toilet training? For many children, yes. Especially boys. At least, that\u2019s what American pediatricians would likely say. Nowadays, only around half of children in the U.S. are fully toilet-trained by age three. Split pants let a Chinese boy go when he needs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[2346,1858,3560,3298,3561,3559,3564,3565,3563,1034,2713,3562,3566,3558],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10507,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10505\/revisions\/10507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}