After that conference, I spent 6 months researching to see how I could help more parents.
Here's what I learned:
Before the 1960s, every child wore cloth diapers.
When they peed, the cloth stayed wet against their skin.
They felt it immediately.
It was uncomfortable.
Their brain got instant feedback:
Pee → Feel wet → Uncomfortable → Learn to use potty instead.
This is operant conditioning. The most fundamental form of learning in all mammals.
Touch hot stove → Feel pain → Learn not to touch
Pee in cloth diaper → Feel wetness → Learn to use potty
Simple. Automatic. Unavoidable.
That's why 92% of kids trained by 18 months.
Not because parents were stricter.
Not because kids were smarter.
Because the sensation itself was the teacher.
Then came disposable diapers with super-absorbent polymers.
They were first mass marked in the 1940s and became widespread in the 1960's
For the first time in history, babies and toddlers could stay completely dry - even after peeing.
These polymers can absorb 30 times their weight in liquid and convert it to gel in 2-3 seconds.
Your child's skin stays perfectly dry.
Which is amazing for preventing diaper rash.
And catastrophic for potty training.
When toddlers can't feel wetness, their brain never gets a signal to learn from.
Pee → Feel nothing → Brain registers nothing → No learning happens
This is what researchers call "sensory erasure."
The learning signal gets erased before the brain can process it.
And this is why potty training now takes years instead of months.