[Conservomax]

From the country that brought you sars:

[subterfuge]

Mind boggling. But the Red Chinese support Kyoto don't they?

[aShepard]

OK! I give up!
What's the purpose of wearing slit diapers if they don't hold anything???

[DWPittelli]

I have an antique wooden (19th century, I believe) toy hobby-horse from China. It too has a split in the middle of the seat, so the toddler can poop without getting up (which would of course leave the toy pretty disgusting).

[dandelion]

It's thousands of years old, and far more sanitary in rural areas, where a child would be potty trained as soon as they could squat down and go naturally on the ground, like everyone else. In reality, the Eastern method makes far more sense in a rural setting, and is far easier to implement.

It is a HELL of a lot more sanitary than some western traditional methods.

The History of the Diaper

WHEN BABIES WORE DIAPERS FOR DAYS

"It's hard to believe, but in Elizabethan times, babies were treated to a fresh diaper every four days! Little sons and daughters of royalty were more fortunate - and changed once a day. The diapers themselves were squares of cloth held on with string tied around the baby's stomach. When the pioneers pushed westward in covered wagons, mothers made all their children's diapers, carefully rolling and hand-stitching the edges. Wet diapers were seldom washed, just hung by the fireplace to dry. The first all-cotton diapers were made in America. A 21 by 40-inch rectangle was folded and tucked and pinned. Mothers might buy six to seven dozen diapers to keep up with their baby."

The truth is, most mothers in early America put their baby/toddler boys AND girls in dresses for a reason - because they could just go bare underneath and lift up the skirt to go on the ground or to the outhouse later. Most children were potty trained by one year.

These women would have been horrified to learn that we now let our children carry their own waste, smeared on their skin, covered by sacks of cloth or paper...

[Prodigal Son]

You know, a fellow soldier from my Army days had a father who caught dysentary while fighting in Vietnam. He apparantly got tired of pulling down his fatigues to squat every few minutes so he just cut the bottom of 'em out so he could squat without the in between of loosening his belt and buttons. My friend had a picture of him carrying the M60 like that and it looked a lot like the picture of this baby.

[b4its2late]

Picture Ted Kennedy in one of those "diapers"....

[petitfour]

This is pretty funny. We have some Oriental neighbors (not sure where they're from. they don't speak English) who have a 3-year-old daughter. I went outside the other day, and a teenaged neighbor started telling me about how gross the other neighbors are because they took the little girls pants off and let her squat on the front lawn. There were at least 15 children playing in the area. The 13-year-old was appalled and "grossed out" and could not believe those "weird" people did that. I told 'em it was probably a cultural thing.

[Enterprise]

Now all the homeless in San Francisco will similarly alter their clothes.

[SamAdams76]

There was a book I read long ago from the library about how people dealt with bodily waste through the centuries. It was sort of like a history of sewage. I forget the title and author but it was a fascinating read. If anybody knows what book I'm talking about, please post the info here.

Anyway, I remember reading how as recently as the 1800s, it was considered "normal" for city dwellers to empty their chamber pots out their tenement windows, dousing whoever was unfortunate enough to be walking down the sidewalk at the time. Literal rivers of crap and piss would flow down the gutters of the streets of New York and Paris. Added to that, of course, was the prodigious output of the horses and other draft animals that routinely clopped up and down the streets of those days.

In fact, according to the book, one of the reasons the Prohibition movement gathered momentum at the turn of the last century was because men in saloons would often stagger out to the curb, relieve themselves, and stagger back in for another drink, oblivious to whoever might be walking by.

[Calpernia]

I know I will regret this; but I have to ask.

What is the practice for women once a month?

[stylin19a]

I don't see "disgusting" in the original title.