Yeah, it's great until he takes a dump on stage at his graduation

Raising babies without diapers is a weird new trend.

Thirteen-month-old Dominic Klatt stopped banging the furniture in the verandah, looked at his mother and clasped his right hand around his left wrist to signal that he needed to go to the bathroom.

His mother took the diaper-less tot to a tree in the yard, held him in a squatting position and made a gentle hissing sound prompting the infant to relieve himself on cue before he rushed back to play.

Man, when this kid gets older and his friends discover his training, he's dead meat. "Hey, Dom, have you seen thisssssss? Ha ha ha! Stop relieving yourself. Stop relieving yourself."

I just can't believe that an infant has that much control over his bladder and bowels. Also, encouraging kids to just squat and dump wherever they happen to be doesn't seem exactly hygienic and dignified.

Isis Arnesen, 33, of Boston, has a 14-week-old daughter, Lucia, who is diaper-free. She said it can be awkward to explain the process to people, such as when she helped Lucia relieve herself in a sink at a public restroom.

"Sometimes I don't know what's gonna happen and it doesn't work, and sometimes I feel a little embarrassed," Arnesen said. "It makes her happy though, right? She smiles, she's happy."

I'd be happy too if I could just relieve myself in the sink in the Men's room, or better yet, the water fountain in the hall. It would certainly save me a lot of time walking all the way down to the restroom and getting in that cramped stall. And what if there's a United States Senator in the stall next to me? Do I really want to take that chance?