The Motherhood Circle

The following is a question that was asked and answered in the November, 1926 issue of Modern Priscilla. It is part of a monthly column called "The Motherhood Circle" written by Mary S. Haviland, Research Secretary of the National Child Welfare Association. Women wrote to her to have their questions about childcare answered.. I thought it humorous and wondered how many hours women sat with their tiny babies over a chamber pot in their lap trying to potty train them when they were only a month old.

Question. I am much distressed because my neighbor tells me that it is wrong to keep my month old baby dry. She says that diapers should be changed only at feeding time. Changing her every time I find her wet necessitates too much handling and will make her "bad" when she grows up. I'm sure this is an important problem for many young mothers, if as she says, it's a new theory, and I hope you will find room for the answer in next month's PRISCILLA. M. C. B.,Penn.

Answer. This may be a new theory, but if so I strongly suspect it originated in the brain of someone who grew tired of changing the baby every ten or twenty minutes or so.

There is not a grain of truth in the idea that making the baby dry and comfortable is likely to start bad habits,--quite the reverse. The urine is salty, is sometimes acid and will set up an irritation that is certain to be injurious. If a baby's sex organs are not kept clean and free from irritation, the habit of handling them is very likely to develop. Therefore, I beg you, when your baby is wet, remove the diaper at once, wash and pat her dry, especially in the creases. Do not use powder unless necessary. If she is chafed, put on albolene or zinc ointment. Then put on a clean, dry, warmed diaper folded oblong and fastened at the sides. This prevents too much bulk between the legs.

But if you have not yet started to do so, you should begin training your wee daughter to keep dry. Use a small, warmed chamber or cuspidor, held in your lap and set the baby on it with her back leaning against you. Do this in the early morning or late afternoon whenever she seems most likely to have a bowel movement. Also, about twenty to thirty minutes after feeding or drinking, remove the diaper and try to forestall her before she wets it. If you keep this up faithfully, it is quite possible to train a baby only a few months old to keep almost entirely dry. But if she does get wet, by all means change her at once, no matter what your neighbor says!


Hope you got a chuckle out of this as I did. If I get my printer hooked up in the next couple of days (just moved recently and everything is not all together yet) so that I can scan pictures, I will share a knitting or crocheting pattern with you next. Happy New Year!