The Innate Elimination Instinct: What Babies Are Born Knowing

51) The Innate Instinct for Elimination Control
What babies are born knowing

The elimination reflex is physiologically one of the earliest infant reflexes.
It is biologically programmed, unconditional, unlearned, innate, and fully developed at birth.

A baby’s behavior follows a biological developmental plan that is identical in all infants.
From the very first day of life, when a baby is placed in a specific position (the so-called holding or elimination position), the infant instinctively attempts to eliminate.

This reflex usually fades between the 3rd and 4th month of life.

In medical terms, such early or primitive reflexes (also called neonatal reflexes) are predictable and reproducible responses to specific external stimuli. These reflexes occur without involvement of the cerebral cortex.

Their purpose is survival: they instinctively regulate essential behaviors during the first months of life. As the nervous system matures and the brain develops, these reflexes are gradually replaced by higher neural control and eventually disappear.

Stimulating the elimination reflex supports biological networking and coordination of this complex process.
Infants quickly develop awareness of their bodily signals and learn to influence elimination voluntarily.

In my book “Your Baby Can Do It!” (first published in 1997), I described this neurologically as a sensitive phase—open from the first day of life and closing toward the end of the third month.

A Highly Complex Biological Process

Our elimination organs must be completely sealed, yet become permeable at exactly the right moment.

There is hardly any physiological task more complex that is governed by the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the enteric nervous system (ENS)—while still requiring readiness and coordination for elimination.

Biology initiates this process through the elimination reflex.

👉 The good news: Every newborn is capable of this.

My Call to Action

We urgently need prospective studies on the elimination behavior of newborns during the first three months of life—the most critical period for this fundamental developmental step.

Why is this so important?

Because all known parameters change dramatically when babies are held out for elimination from birth, for example:

What is considered normal stool frequency:
from 12 times per day to once every 3 weeks

Babies who are held out:
typically eliminate 5–6 times per day

If you are interested in participating or supporting this research, please contact us.

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