'Not a joke': Mums floored by potty-trained baby on TikTok

The US mum began getting her son to go on the potty from six months of age. At one, he now uses his potty 90 per cent of the time. Photo / TikTok/@montessori.mothering

Most parents just have to accept that changing nappies is going to be a big part of their baby's life for the first few years.

But not one mum in the US, who has gone viral on TikTok after revealing how her son began going to the potty by himself from the age of 6 months.

TikTok user @montessori.mothering says the baby, now aged 1, is able to go "on the potty 90 per cent of the time".

The woman uses a technique known as elimination communication which involves putting a baby on a potty from an early age when they signal that they need to go to the toilet.

The woman, who has the handle @montessori.mothering, and is raising her son in a "Montessori-ish childhood", said it was "not a joke" and very possible to train your child to use the potty from an early age.

In a video explaining how she trained her son, the mum said she began by putting him on the potty "every two to three hours" and "at least every time they wake up and after eating".

She also made sure toilet time was fun and there was "no pressure" by giving him a "special toy/book" and making "grunts/shush sound".

She said it was also important to "look for cues they have to go potty" and use only cloth nappies or training underwear.

This was so the "baby feels wetness and knows when they peed".

In another video @montessori.mothering explained that elimination communication toilet training could start "from birth" by "observing your baby's cues to go" and by introducing a "sound or cue".

Her TikTok videos on the toilet training method have gotten more than 1.5 million views, with many parents expressing disbelief – and jealousy – that @montessori.mothering didn't have to worry about nappies.

"How? Mine just turned one and I need to teach him asap," one person wrote

"Too much work … I rather buy the diapers," another commented. "They'll get potty trained one day."

The technique is known as elimination communication - eliminating nappies by getting your child to communicate when they need to relieve themselves. Photo / TikTok/@montessori.mothering

Other mums said they too had used the elimination communication method with great success.

"Same with my kids, So much easier than a toddler with his own opinions," one said.

"My boy was pooping in the toilet at 3 months old," another commented.

It's not the only toilet training method to go viral on TikTok. Back in October, US mum Alice Bender revealed she wouldn't be training her then 14-month-old son at all.

"We aren't going to potty train him at all," she said in one video. "When he asks how to use the toilet we'll show him how."

Alice's stance on toilet training is actually similar to a well-used method known as "child-oriented toilet training".

Using this method involves parents talking about using the toilet and offering it as an option to children aged between 2 and 3.

Rather than pushing children to begin using the toilet within a set time, it encourages them to move away from nappies at their own pace and because they want to fit in with the people around them.

What is elimination communication?

The method is fairly self-explanatory – parents eliminate the need for nappies by listening for when their children communicate their need to go to the toilet, Healthline reports.

While many cultures have been using this technique with infants for hundreds of years, it first rose to prominence in the US and Australia when Ingrid Bauer labelled it "elimination communication" back in 2001.

Bauer has also written a book on the method called Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene.

Benefits of elimination communication include less waste and cost as well as an easier transition to actual toilet training later on.

The drawbacks are that it does require quite a lot of time, planning and periods spent at home – it will be hard to implement if you're a working parent.