It's call elimination control or whatever. I have thought about doing that (just so I'd save money on diapers) but it be annoying to take the infant potty out in public and it's socially inappropriate to take it out on the bus and put my baby on it for him to go and it be even annoying to run to the bathroom every 20 minutes to put him on the jon while at home it be so much easier and if I used the potty at home and then diapers out in public, it might confuse our baby because he won't know when to use his diapers and when not to. Babies are black and white I assume because they won't understand if they are supposed to use the potty or go in their diapers because I kept expecting them to hold it in at home until I hold them over the jon but yet expect them to release it in their diaper. So diapers 24/7 are so much easier and if society made it easy for ECers, then it wouldn't be a problem to take the potty out in the middle of the mall and put him on it but then it be annoying to carry the used potty with me to the restroom to dump it and then wipe out so forget it. But this is still common in the middle east and Africa and it was more common here too but over the years we got more and more lazy to do it and now almost everyone thinks babies have no control over their bodily functions and don't know how to hold it but that is false. If you google infant potty training, you be surprised by what you read. Infants from birth are actually aware of their own waste and they do try and hold it in when they need to go but we ignore their body signals and because their bladders are so small, they can't hold it long as we can so they have an accident and we just let them sit in their urine. Then after a while they learn that is where they are supposed to go so they quit trying to hold it in and just go and then they need to re learn the control when we potty train them and being aware of when they need to go and how to hold it. So we actually train them to use their diapers. Diapers were intended for in the first place for accidents but instead we use them for something else. Over the years EC got less and less common here and now it's rare.
Sometimes I still think about doing it and I am in a Babycenter group about it.
I hear that disposables diapers slow down potty training as well for kids because many of them don't want to give them up because they are so comfortable to wear and they absorb the wetness. But cloth diaper kids are potty trained sooner because they feel wet more and it doesn't absorb the wetness that much. I have heard that kids are potty trained later and later these days. Now it's normal for four year olds to still be in them if I remember correctly or is that three now? I think back then when I was still wearing them at three, it was still uncommon for kids that old to still be in them. Now today it's not uncommon.
Some parents do use diaper soakers in cloth for the poo and they just throw it out but to me that is still like spending money on diapers because you have to buy them. I am not sure how much a pack of diaper soakers cost but if I have to use those or have to buy sheets to toss out, forget it. I already have to spend money on laundry.