Can a 6-Month-Old Be Potty Trained?

Goodbye Changing Table?

For many parents, the absence of a changing table in a restroom is reason to grumble. But when nature calls her 11-month-old, Vivienne Palmer doesn't have to find the cleanest spot on a grubby floor for a quickie change -- or worse, make her son sit in a poopy diaper all the way home. She simply takes her tyke to the toilet, unsnaps his pants, and encouragingly whispers "pssss, pssss" until little Casey does his business.

Palmer is part of a growing wave of American parents who are trying infant potty training, teaching tots too young to walk, talk, crawl, or even sit to deposit their doings in a toilet or infant potty.

Reasons to Try It

While some experts object to the practice, parents who support infant potty training say it's cheaper, more sanitary, and more environmentally friendly than traditional training, in which toddlers typically rely on diapers until age 3. It also builds bonds between parent and child, as they learn to communicate about baby's bathroom needs, proponents say.

"When you catch a good pee or poop, you feel great -- I'm communicating with my child and I save one more diaper from landfill," says Palmer, who's from Boulder, Colorado.