Come to China, Get Mooned by a Baby...
You may find this interesting, and many visitors to China are a bit shocked and bewildered the first time they see it. My job is to explain what's going on.
If you haven't been to China, imagine seeing a fully-dressed toddler, with a split in the butt of the outfit that allows a draft of epic proportions, by exposing some of the baby's most precious parts to the elements.
Maybe you're confused because all you see is a "baby butt crack", but Chinese parents see a way to have less mess, save money, and help the environment, while making their baby smarter - If I have your attention now, just read on to find out more...
I took this picture on a very cold morning near the end of a harsh Beijing Winter. Still, this baby has his little butt hanging out in the breeze. Read the whole story to decide whether you are for or against this "crack draft" policy in China.
No Mess No Bother
These traditional split-crotch-jumpers have been around for generations. Within months after birth, these special toddler togs eliminate the need for diapers, and the associated mess, clean up and laundering or disposal. Instead of changing diapers all day, parents simply find a toilet or out house, hold their child over the appropriate receptacle, and "let fly". The secret is to make regular bathroom breaks for your toddler (every couple of hours) and have a signal (such as light whistling) to let your toddler know it's "time to go".
Also, there's no need to spend time dressing and undressing your child each time that nature calls.
Baby "Crack Draft"
Saving the Environment and Your Wallet
China can not afford disposable diapers. I'm not talking only of the high price of disposable diapers, but rather the environmental impact of such diapers.
There are around 1.2 billion people in China, and about
18 million babies are born every year.
At a conservative three diaper changes per baby per day, imagine the results of 54 million diapers being dumped in landfills every day!
Due to limited resources and landfill space, China already recycles just about everything that you can think of. They simply can not handle mega-tons of diapers filling up their small trash dumps.
Therefore, it's very hard to find disposable diapers in China, and they are seen by many Chinese people as a wasteful and expensive "western luxury" that only foreigners (mostly just Americans) would dare to purchase and use. At the time of writing, as far as I know, you can only get disposable diapers at Walmart in China.
You'll even find a few examples of this Chinese practice in some of our folk art paintings.
Smarter Babies?
Another apparent benefit of this practice is the fact that Chinese babies master the art of toilet-training much earlier in life when compared to their American counterparts.
Summing it up
Now you know this practice saves money, saves the environment, and will have your child potty-trained at an earlier age.
The only downside is having to explain to confused non-Chinese people the important reasons why your baby is mooning them.
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