Toilet Training at Six Weeks Old?
ZAHN: When I was a new mom, if anybody had told me that I could toilet train a newborn baby, I probably would have thought they were nuts. They're not even close to being able to walk at that age, let alone use the bathroom, but you're about to meet some parents who are trying just that with their newborns. And they say, it works. Here's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Zander (ph) lives the life of your average baby. Daddy takes him on airplane rides. Mommy feeds him and cleans him. But here's the one rather unusual part. When Zander has to poop or pee, he often uses the potty.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You still straining?</s>COHEN: That's right. Zander, 7-week-old Zander, uses the potty. And if you think that's odd, keep watching because it gets even odder. Frankly, Zander's parents, Corey Lynn Campbell (ph) and Eric Singer (ph), think American society is kind of odd for putting babies in diapers all the time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The idea of a baby sort of sitting in his own urine and feces is not -- you know, it is sort of -- you know, when you think about it, it's not very nice, so.</s>COHEN: They subscribe to a theory called the elimination communication. The elimination part, use diapers as little as possible and your baby will likely be toilet trained by his first birthday, rather than by his third like the average American baby. The communication part, it only works if parents keep a watchful eye on their baby, look for a squirm, a grimace, something that lets them know it's time to go.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The idea is to, you know, sort of get in touch with when your baby needs to go and then just hold him over a receptacle.</s>COHEN: This whole concept was so mind blowing that I joined Eric and Cory Lynn at an elimination communication meeting in New York City. It's part of diaperfreebaby.org and they say their Web site is booming, coordinating meetings in 37 states and around the world. This woman hasn't even had her baby. She's four months pregnant and wants to learn how to start elimination communication or EC, right at birth.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have actually just housebroken my dog, and I know there's no comparison.</s>COHEN: The group leader's advice.</s>CHRISTINE GROSS LOH, DIAPERFREEBABY.ORG: Just plunging in and take your baby's diaper off and seeing where that takes you is a really important first step.</s>COHEN (on camera): Why does it matter when a child gets out of diapers?</s>LOH: It really does not matter when a child gets out of diapers. It's about communicating with your child about something that he is trying to tell you from the time he's born. They are born with that instinct not to soil themselves.</s>COHEN (voice-over): But this is where doctors think parents may be a little off base. Famed pediatrician Dr. T. Berry Brazelton says that this is more about the parents.</s>DR. T. BERRY BRAZELTON, PEDIATRICIAN: Why, as a culture, are we so uptight about when a child gets toilet trained? I keep wondering why parents feel under so much pressure.</s>COHEN: Dr. Mark Wolraich is a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics and wrote their guide to potty training. He doesn't think EC is necessarily harmful, but he worries parents could get too pushy.</s>DR. MARK WOLRAICH, PEDIATRICIAN: I certainly sense some element of this is a parental achievement or achievement in their children as a reflection of how they are doing.</s>COHEN: Maybe so, but these parents point to some of the practical aspects of EC. Consider these statistics. In a year, a baby goes through roughly 2,500 disposable diapers. Multiply that by three and it's 7,500 at a cost of $3,000 before the baby is toilet trained. And every year, according to the "New York Times," 22 billion disposable diapers end up in U.S. landfills. (on camera): So here's the big. Why?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I think why we do EC is we do it because we feel like it's good for our Nashama (ph).</s>COHEN: Lamell (ph) and Nashama Ryman (ph) are EC veterans.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The current stats are something like 90 percent of poops and, I'd say, 75 percent of pees ...</s>COHEN: End up in the potty?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... in the potty.</s>COHEN (voice-over): Lamell watches for a sign that 9-month-old Nashama is ready to eliminate.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, that was a nose rub.</s>COHEN (on camera): That was a nose rub. So what do we do? (voice-over): This nose rub was a false alarm. Lamell keeps watch. In the mornings when Nashama needs to go more frequently, she ends up on the potty every 20 minutes or so. That's right. Every 20 minutes. Many new, overwhelmed parents would find that daunting.</s>DR. MICHEL COHEN, AUTHOR, "THE NEW BASICS": You see a lot of parents are actually pretty stressed out with taking care of babies because of this performance-oriented way of doing things.</s>COHEN (on camera): But to do this, what happens if you are cooking something or you had to answer the phone or if you had another child. Could you really be paying attention to little signs like that?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do the very best I can. And when I'm not able to catch it, like I can't even see her right now, so she could be making a puddle on the floor right now for all I know. So I just go wipe it up. It's not a big deal.</s>COHEN: Why should she have to communicate her eliminations. She's nine months old. Why can't she just be sort of free and easy and use a diaper?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's a great question. I mean, I think that really cuts to the core of why I bother with this altogether. I actually really feel like she's happier now as opposed to when she was wearing diapers, up until she was four months old.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good job, kiddo.</s>COHEN (voice-over): And that's how Eric and Corey Lynn feel, too.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Usually he'll, you know, he'll sort of have a big poop and then, you know, look up at us in the mirror and just grin and smile, which was not the case when he -- before, when he was going in his diaper most of the time.</s>COHEN: Any place apparently is better than a diaper.</s>ZAHN: That was pretty obvious from that picture. Elizabeth Cohen reporting. Let's get a second medical opinion on this one. Joining me now, Dr. Laura Popper, a pediatrician, a mother of two. Would you ever try this when the kids were younger?</s>DR. LAURA POPPER, PEDIATRICIAN: Would I ever? Never.</s>ZAHN: Does it work?</s>POPPER: I think it probably works. If you don't work. You have to spend all of your time doing this.</s>ZAHN: At one point someone was saying every 20 minutes she had to be mindful what her child was going to do next.</s>POPPER: I suspect if you don't have to work outside your home, if you don't have to raise other children -- it seems a rather self- centered way of living.</s>ZAHN: Does it create unrealistic expectations? Is there a way this could be harmful to a baby?</s>POPPER: I don't think it's harmful on its face. Now, the question is, what are the needs of the parents who are doing this?</s>ZAHN: Brand new mothers and fathers are very tired.</s>POPPER: Very tired. I imagine -- I can't imagine. We had a puppy a couple of years ago, and it reminded me of having young children, having to get up every two hours as he whined and whimpered and had to go to the bathroom. I would never want to do this. And I took a survey in my practice and not a person thought this was something they'd be interested in doing.</s>ZAHN: But when you hear these moms talk about this bonding experience, we don't want to denigrate that. I mean, that might be part of this whole shared experience.</s>POPPER: I don't want to denigrate anything that someone is choosing to do. I think it's a very sideshow kind of thing. It's very small number of people. I would bet the ranch that this will not become a big deal in this country. It is so very much against the way we live our lives.</s>ZAHN: And yet, of course, there are societies where diapers aren't readily available. And isn't this sort of what they do to survive with their kids?</s>POPPER: Yes, and it makes sense. It makes sense if you're out in the field and you have your child strapped to you and you are really sort of at one with your child. You don't have a disposable diapers. You probably don't have regular diapers. It makes a great deal of sense. It's part of what your life is like. But how would you feel if your kids were little and they were on set with you and you had to do this every 20 minutes. I don't think the audience would be happy.</s>ZAHN: No, I don't think they would, and I think we'd hide that from them. But finally, there are so many things that conspire to make brand new parents feel insecure and inadequate. Could this potentially be one of the effects of this?</s>POPPER: Sure, I think that's possible. I think parents have to really depend on their gut and more than on people and experts. This probably will not fit into most people's lives. And it certainly shouldn't be a competition. I did it at two months, you did it at three months.</s>ZAHN: Sure, I can see the trophies already.</s>POPPER: That's right. That's a horrible idea. That's not why you want to be doing something like this.</s>ZAHN: Well, we appreciate your viewpoint, Dr. Popper. Good to have you stop by. We're going to change our focus now. Supermodel Kate Moss' career is still reeling from some sensational pictures allegedly showing her using cocaine. But is she the only one?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's everywhere. It's all around us. You keep an eye on those girls coming in and out of the bathrooms, and they are just wiping the noses.</s>ZAHN: Stay with us for an eye-opening trip into the world of glittering fashion and open secrets.</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ted Rowlands in Northern California, and this is Honey. You're not going to believe what this little puppy did after her owner's car fell down this cliff. She ran to get help. It is an amazing story. We'll have it coming up on PAULA ZAHN NOW.