The self-proclaimed expert argues that this practice isn’t meant to wait for a verbal “yes” but to encourage a two-way communication path between parent and child.
Pediatricians and early childhood experts often emphasize the value of responding to a baby’s non-verbal cues, like coos, giggles, or movements, as part of healthy communication. Incorporating consent into diaper changes aligns with this by making babies aware, on some level, of what is happening and involving them in the process.
‘Left lunacy’
But not everyone sees this approach as practical or necessary, and critics argue that infants are far too young to understand the concept of consent.
Rowan Dean, editor of The Spectator Australia said the idea of asking a baby’s permission to change their nappy is “lefty lunacy.”
And John Rosemond – a psychologist, columnist and parenting expert – writes that Carson wins the title of “the Weird and Even Weirder for the Most Bizarre Idea of All Time.”
“Once upon a time, and not all that long ago, a person who proposed that parents should ask infants for consent to change their diapers would be regarded by everyone except herself as deranged,” Rosemond writes in the Reno Gazette Journal. “In this paradoxical fashion, Carson’s ‘culture of consent’ becomes instead a family culture of confusion, mistrust, denial and all-around dysfunction.”
Online, Carson’s remarks set off a firestorm of conversations, with many on social media mocking her ideas and criticizing her credentials.
“Pretty sure when a baby is crying due to the discomfort of a full diaper…that’s consent. In fact, I would go further and call it a demand,” writes one onContinue reading…
