Better Living Show - Portland, OR Green Living               Natural Parenting                 Life Learning
Natural Life Magazine
The original natural family living magazine, founded in 1976. Reader-supported
and trusted by thinking people around the world who want positive alternatives
to high cost, high consumption lifestyles for themselves and their families.
For the Sake of Our Children

Subscriber Services

Subscribe

Renew

Free Sample

Newsstand
Locations

Books

Advertise

Contribute

Editor's Blog

Back Issues

Our Writers

RSS Feed

Return to
Home Page

Visit the rest of the
Life Media Family

Stay informed
and inspired with
Natural Life.
Type in your email address for our free e-newsletter.
Here's a sample.



Bookmark and Share

Follow us on Twitter

Find us on Facebook

Autodidact Symposium

www.holisticmoms.org

Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves by Naomi Aldort

from Natural Life Magazine, September/October, 2009
Diaper Free: There Is Another Choice
by Rashel Tremblay

When I first became pregnant over ten years ago, I read everything I could about attachment parenting and how other cultures care for their infants. One of the first books I read was The Continuum Concept by Jean Leidloff. In this book, I read accounts of how women in non-Western countries deal with the elimination needs of their infants. Parents from countries including India, China, Kenya, Guatemala and some Inuit in northern Canada carry their babies naked from birth, in slings. This closeness and intimacy allows the parents to feel and to be aware of their infants’ need to eliminate. Then they simply take them out when the need arises and hold them over a receptacle or, more commonly, into nearby bushes. In North America, this is alternately called Elimination Communication (EC), Infant Potty Training (IPT), Natural Infant Hygiene (NIH) or simply, Diaper-Free.

Related Articles

Ask Naomi Aldort: When a Diaper-free Toddler Wants Diapers

Ask Natural Life: Which are Greener - Cloth or Single-Use Diapers?

Index of natural parenting articles

I am embarrassed to say that as an environmentally aware person, I did not realize that there was an alternative to the large ecological footprint that comes from any diapering method. Just think of the impact of parents changing diapers an average of sixty times each week for three-and-a-half years (or two hundred and fifty weeks) and even more often during the early weeks.

When I found out I was pregnant with my third child and I contemplated caring for two children under the age of two, I became more receptive to the idea of an alternative to the time-consuming drudgery of changing and laundering more than twenty dirty diapers a day. I wondered – in spite of my exposure, through literature, to the stories of parents from all over the world who easily and hygienically care for their children without the use of diapers . . .

To read the rest of this article, subscribe to Natural Life's online edition.

Rashel Tremblay is a single mother to three children, ages nine, four and two-and-a-half. They spend their time life learning and growing food on the shores on Lake Erie.

Natural Life Magazine March/April 2010
March/April 2010

Natural Life magazine January/February 2010
January/February 2010

Natural Life magazine November/December 2009
November/December 2009

Natural Life Sept/Oct 2009
September/October 2009

Natural Life July/August 2009
July/August 2009

Natural Life May/June 2009
May/June 2009

Natural Life magazine March/April 2009
March/April 2009

Natural Life Jan/Feb 2009
January/February 2009

Natural Life November/December 2008
November/December 2008

September/October 2008
September/October 2008

Subscribe to Natural Life Magazine's online edition

Upwind Downwind Conference

Whole Children Whole  Planet Expo

Challenging Assumptions in Education by Wendy Priesnitz

Yoga in Motion

Bringing it Home: A Home Business Start-Up Guide for You and Your Family

Natural Life Books

Eco Family News

Natural Child Online Magazine

Life Learning: learning without schooling

Advertise with Natural Life Magazine

Copyright © 1976 - 2010 Life Media

About Us  |  Contact  |  Subscribe  |  Advertise  |  Contribute  |
|  Sustainability Statement  |  Ethics Statement  |  Privacy Policy  |