[WikiEN-l] Re: troubled.

Wed May 12 13:29:17 UTC 2004

Erik Moeller a écrit:

> I think we've had this discussion before. I disagree. Aversion to feces is  
> fairly universal as not having it makes a culture prone to disease; it may  
> even be biological (the structure and smell of feces changes over age, so  
> the taboo may not yet be triggered in small children).

If I dare...
Kids feces smell just the same as adult feces, as soon as they eat the 
same food as their parents; And in particular meat. As long as they are 
on a 100% dairy diet, the feces are really smelling okay, which is 
possibly a natural adaptation, as mothers really have to get in the 
business of cleaning everything quite often. It also produces rather 
liquid feces, which is best, since infants do not move much (so there is 
fewer movements to make things get down the intestine).

The smells stays all right when you introduce veggies and fruits; 
especially since most kids prefer mild favored ones.

Now, as soon as the kid eat meat, things get less funny. In western 
society, quantities get really serious between 1 and 2, and from then 
on, feces are quite similar to adult ones. I suspect that is a very 
serious reason why mothers start potty training at a quite early age, 
often sooner than reasonable.

What I mean to say, is that kids are interested in their feces till a 
much older age (3-4), than the moment the feces really start to smell. 
While adults are frowning, kids are not yet. I have the personal 
feeling, that the taboo is not spontaneous at all, but the result of 
education. It is not a spontaneous taboo, triggered during natural 
developement of the child, or if a natural taboo is triggered, I guess 
the trigger time comes *after* an educational trigger.