In a previous blog, I discussed the concept of elimination communication. Elimination Communication or EC is a way of learning your baby’s signals so that you can take him to the bathroom when he needs to go. It’s much more comfortable than diapers, and it involves a lot less laundry and expense. You also avoid many of the toilet training trials of the twos!
However, hands up – who felt a wee bit overwhelmed with the very presence of their first child (or subsequent additions), let alone with the idea of taking this new being to the potty. Ok, probably the lot of you! I know I did. I was also quite sick after my daughter was born, so all of my ideals about having the perfect nursing, sleeping, slinging and EC-ing relationship went out of the window for a little while as I focused on making it through each day. More about that in another post!
By the time my daughter was six months old, I had a much better feel for each day, her cues, and her needs. By this time, we’d dabbled in EC, but we weren’t regular practitioners. However, I didn’t want her to lose the sensations of elimination and get totally used to diapers, so I decided to try EC for late starters.
What did we do? Well, first of all, we got some baby legs, little baby leggings. We also got some thin cotton diapers, thick enough to hold one pee. Then I let her crawl around with a naked bottom or a thin diaper a lot of the time. Trust me, this made me very, very aware of when she was going to pee! When she did pee in her diaper, I’d make a pee noise like “Shhhhh” and change her right away. Sometimes I’d see the signs before she actually went, so then I would take her to the potty.
Speaking of potties – we had them all over the house. We used very tiny and inexpensive ones so that we could keep them in each room. When a baby’s got to go, you don’t want to be running down the stairs!
Did it work? Well, in a short while we were catching almost every time she wanted to go – when we were at home. In public, I was still a little nervous. I had visions of being at the grocery store with pee dripping down my back. Yum. So for a while we used diapers with a nylon cover when we were out. As she grew, I switched to thin cotton. Then I used small panties that had a thicker bottom, enough to catch a little accident.
By age one, we were doing really well at home. It took her to age two to be fully potty trained, mostly due to my concerns about what we would do in public if we couldn’t find a washroom. However, my daughter never had problems using the toilet or abandoning her diapers altogether, and I feel that this is mostly due to listening to her cues at an early age.
Would you try EC? Or is it too crazy an idea for you to consider?