Four-month-old Loren Stare isn't old enough to sit up on his own, so his mom is helping him sit on the potty. It's part of a trend that new moms like Adrian Stare say is worth trying.
"'Elimination communication,' which is definitely not a concept that I came up with -- it's been practiced probably forever by other cultures around the world -- is something that I discovered from a friend of mine," said Adrian. "And when she told me that she would cue her baby and her baby would go potty in the potty and that she was using less diapers, I thought it was magic."
Adrian has done it successfully with her older son. And now she's teaching other moms at her baby clothing store in Brooklyn.
"After coming to the meet-up, I thought to myself, 'Why don't I try to see if I can take her over and take her out of the diaper, and if she'll go' -- and she did," said Leah O'Donnell.
The practice involves learning to read your baby's cues and then getting them to the potty as soon as possible. Adrian also like to give "cue" sounds to her son.
But some pediatricians are against the concept of potty training so young and hope parents don't take adopt the practice on a wide scale.
"There are potential psychological stressors for the baby," said Dr. Deb Lonzer. "If you misread the signals from the baby and you're constantly putting the baby on the potty, then you're not allowing the baby to develop the sorts of skills that that baby should be developing."
Like the abilities to sit, crawl and develop language skills. This method of diaper-less child rearing is not a new concept, and is practiced in countries where access to diapers is limited.
Moms like Leah say it's not just about saving diapers, it's about improving communication with her daughter.
"And she really took to it and it seemed like that's what she'd been asking for all along, was she needed to go," said Leah.
Parents who have embraced the method say they recognize it's not for everyone, but they claim it's a great bonding experience between mom and baby.
