I'm starting EC with a 10 month old.

[iamanewmum31]

Any tips/advice. My Mother used this technique with me (but it didn't have a name then and my Mother is not English). Why do people generally leave potty training untill children are two? When I have mentioned this to a friend she looked as me though I was mad! Anyway I have decided to follow my Mother's advice as I was trained by the age of two. I started today. My baby did a poo and wee whilst I held her over the potty! I gave her lots of praise. Any tips? Thanks

[jobhuntersrus]

She has no control over these things at her age. Good luck if you wish to try and catch them in a potty.

[jobhuntersrus]

Also being trained by age 2 doesn't mean starting at 10 mths. If a child is ready potty training will only take a few weeks in most cases. Starting early will not change the time she is physically able to control these functions.

[teaandcakeplease]

Yes my mum did that with all 4 of my brothers and me. Mainly as she used washable nappies and it was less washing.

She always knew what time of the day we did our poo's and sat us on the potty at that time and always praised us lots when we produced, however I did get the impression that basically everyday, several times she sat us on the potty until we were a lot bigger and knew when to tell her we needed the loo.

For me it seemed like too much effort and I waited until my DD was older and did it within a few days, as opposed to having another 12 months of having to sit her on the potty lots.

I'd love to know how you get on though. My DS is 19 months and I have no plans to start potty training him yet but maybe I'll change my mind if your LO does well. My mum is always insisting we were all clean by X age to me I suspect she's dropping hints to try and get me to do the same.

[iamanewmum31]

I understand that she is obviously too young to control her functions. What I hope to do is catch and associate bowl movements with the potty in a fun way. Thank you for your feedback. How old are/were your children when you knew they were ready?

[iamanewmum31]

teaandcakeplease- I will keep her nappy off in the morning and evening then put her over the potty for the first few months. I want to try and make it fun for her. I use disposable and terry towelling nappies. Will try and keep you posted. I want this to be a very gradual process. How old was your DD when you trained her?

[teaandcakeplease]

2.9 in the end. She just wasn't ready sooner tbh.

[jobhuntersrus]

Common signs a child might be ready include... being able to hold urine for an hour or so maybe a nappy still being dry after being on a few hrs. Knowing when they have done a wee or poo and becoming aware one is coming e.g. gigging about holding themselves or going off somewhere and then coming back with a familiar smelling nappy! They should also have enough comprehension to understand simple intructions and have the physical ability to pull down easy trousers. They also need enough co-ordination to sit themselves on the potty, which mine found tricky sometimes. They should be showing some curiosity and willing to sit on the potty or toilet. Some children are ready 18mths others not till 3 yrs+.

If you want to catch it in a potty before then, then ofcourse that is up to you no harm done just sounds like alot of hard work.

[Mumfun]

I semi Eced my DD from 9 months. I caught a high proportion of poos from that age. But I didnt do it absolutely properly as I wasnt home all the time and TBH DD didnt learn really to tell me. I think it is brilliant to do EC even if not fully as it gives the child a consistent message from young that it is right and comfy to be clean. It also is considerate of the child in trying to avoid sitting in poo. I did it really as my DD's skin reacted shockingly to poo especially when teething -she had to see a hospital doctor at one point as she developed chronic sores.

In the end to be honest she didnt really learn to tell me. It was me doing it to her. But it helped her skin hugely. Interestingly she didnt PT till 3.1 years as she just didnt get the ability to tell when she needed to poo and go to the loo accordingly.

[jobhuntersrus]

Sorry my own children were trained DS1 at 3yrs Ds2&3 both at just over 2 yrs. DS1 was a nightmare and took 6 months plus probably because I was stressed and fussing. Ds2&3 pretty much trained themselves with in a week.

[CoupleofKooks]

we started ec with ds2 when he was 19 months and he was able to control his bladder in order to eliminate on cue
people think babies have no control over their bodily functions but they are mistaken - we've all been told it for years so it is hard to think differently unless you see it with your own eyes
have fun with it!

[CoupleofKooks]

sorry typo - we started when ds was 8 months

i was told that over 6 months a baby would have got used to going in a nappy and EC would be harder, but i have heard loads of stories of children learning at this age

don't get fixated on child being reliably dry, just look on it as a journey and you will hopefully be amazed at what they can do

[iamanewmum31]

Thank you all for your advice. You have all given me a lot to think about. I will take a relaxed view on the subject, catching what I can!

[reallytired]

EC is a different way of coping with baby poo and wee. It isn't toilet training as we know it. The important thing is to relax and not worry too much.

I suggest that you get your baby to sit on the potty at nappy changes. I suggest you put him on the potty on waking, after meals and before bath time. Have a good supply of baby books and toys to keep your lo amused.

EC becomes next to impossible when your child discovers mobility. Many children just do not want to sit still. Being able to walk is so exciting.

I think its important to relax and not worry too much if your baby refuses to sit on the potty. We have had weeks when my daughter has not used the potty. My aim with my daugher is to show her that there is an alternative to using her clothes as a toilet. I also think its important to keep her clean and dry as possible.

I think she has some bladder control, but not enough to be toilet trained. She is 16 months old and her body is very immature. I think bladder and bowel control take time to develop, just like controlling any other muscle.

I am not expecting he to be toilet trained super early. Even on days when we have caught nothing, EC has done wonders for getting rid of nappy rash.

[ches]

Actually research has shown that bladder control changes from being an involuntary relex (wee as soon as fluid in blader) to a voluntary relex around 9 months, and most children have some form of bladder control around 18 months. That does not mean they can reliably take themselves to the toilet at 18 months... big difference. If your goal for potty training is no more nappies, you can have tremendous "early" success. If you would rather change nappies than prompt your child to use the toilet and clean up the odd accident, then wait until they're 2, 3, 13.

I know people who haven't changed a pooey nappy since their child was 10 months old or less. I haven't changed one since my son was 15 months old -- we just started putting him on the toilet for his first morning wee at 14 months and all it took was one month before he preferred to poo on the toilet and held it in ALL DAY at nursery. He was out of nappies and in undies that were stuffed up front at 15 months and the stuffing went at 18 months. He didn't reliably take himself until 2.5 years. However, that was what worked for us.

[NellyTheElephant]

My SIL did this with both her children. No pooey nappies from about 9 months onwards. I have watched her doing it and it really isn't a huge big deal. Her little ones were still in nappies but sat on potty about 4 or 5 times a day (after meals and naps). They soon developed a reflex reaction so always wee'd once put on potty and would generally do a poo after meals - she also became adept at spotting signs of when a poo was coming - the babies definitely had some ability to hold on to the poo - I could see it myself with them too really easily - much more obvious than my babies in full time nappies - so i guess you could say that even pre 1 they were sort of telling her / making it obvious. They would wriggle and squirm in a certain way and as soon as she took them to the potty they did the poo. Her DC2 is currently 17 months. She hasn't yet tried to potty train properly (i.e. out of nappies completely), but she likes the fact that he almost never has a dirty or wet nappy. Her DC1 is same age as my DC1. Both potty trained fully (i.e. completely out of nappies) around same time (soon after turning 2), but whereas i'd been dealing with stinky nappies for years she hadn't had to since her little one was 9 months.

I tried this with my DC2 at 8 months, but i think i left it a bit late as she had just started to crawl and would not sit still for an instant!! So i gave up but i then used similar techniques from about 18 months - v relaxed regular potty trips but still in nappies / pull ups and it worked well as she got the hang of it and was totally out of nappies at 22 months

[iamanewmum31]

My baby hates being in a nappy with faeces in. She screams to be changed straight away. At one point she kicked off her clothing in disgust! I now recognise her 'poo' face and have usually changed her not long after. The potty will be an extension of this hopefully.

[AlbertaStarr]

Yeahhhhhhhhhhh
Please give me advises on early potty training.
Tommy is 15 months, he used the potty twice, he knows when something is happening, but calls everything pee.
SInce he tried teh potty is calling me at night to be changed if he pees.
Can evryone suggest a good book with old fashion early potty training advises?

[MoonFaceMama]

EC is great. We've done it since DS was 13 weeks and have had only a handfull of pooey nappies since as he chooses to poo when I offer the potty. He wee's on cue too and has done since the start. I would never try and say this is continance but there is a degree of control there definatly. For more encouraging stories see this thread

Approach it in a spirit of inqusitive fun. Ec is not for getting stressed about.

There is a ec yahoo group that has just sort of turned in to this forum it is only days old so no threads yet exist re late starting...yours could be the first!

I believe ther is an american ec late starters yahoo group you can join (as well as a non late starters one)

The nappy free babay site is a good starting point.

There are similarly tittled books but I havn't read any. I have no doubt that they are interesting and informative but I haven't needed them (as yet!)

Hope that helps and good luck.

[AngelDog]

I'm after some advice too - pleased to read this interesting thread.

I'm thinking about starting a bit of EC with my 7.5 m.o. He has started to get distressed immediately after he poos, and he now seems to be reliably pooing halfway through meals. Sitting him on a potty when he shows signs of straining has to be less work than carting him upstairs for a nappy change part way through every meal. And since we use cloth, it would be one less pooey nappy to deal with.

Should I just buy any old potty, or is there a sort which is particularly good for littl'uns?

And how do people manage to get the clothes/nappy off fast enough? Should I sit him in his high chair with no nappy on? We have the Ikea Antilop, so it's easily washable, but still...

At this stage I'm not too bothered about trying to catch wees.

Thanks!

[reallytired]

AngelDog, buy a cheap potty. we got ours for 99p from Wilkensons.

[paisleyleaf]

Angeldog, I used a potty shaped like this for DD as she was only 6 months and thought it would be good to have a bit more support than the other potties.

[Lionstar]

Agree it's not potty training, but potty learning or potty timing. I'm a big fan though.

My DD started on potty at around 10 months and was fully clean and dry by 22 months (clean by a year in fact)

I started DS at 9 months. He is now 10.5 months and totally knows what a potty is for. We put him on the pot at every nappy change, especially first thing in the morning. This is really successful because he used to wee himself out of every night nappy, but now often it is obvious he has only wee'd once in the night and we even had one dry nappy one memorable morning. This is a boy who still has at least 2 night feeds!!

In the last couple of days he has started using the potty sign we use (he is a big fan of baby signing and already has at least 10 recognisable signs). He isn't really able to hold on, but has given the sign when pooing at least so it's a start.

We use a big potty/seat/step thing. He can't get on and off by himself, but is more than happy to sit for 5 minutes+ and sing/read books/chat etc. To be honest though we usually don't have to wait that long because he now relaxes his bladder/bowels almost as soon as we put him on it.

BTW I'm not mistaking this for real potty training - it could be months/years before he is out of nappies. However if it gives him the opportunity to stay clean and dry and he is not protesting; and it gives me less nappies to wash - then I'll remain a big fan.

One of the most important things to remember doing it this way is to make sure it is entirely done within the babies own comfort zone. There should be no coercion, cajoling, anger, shouting, blame. If they don't want to sit or maybe they start using nappies again then so be it. All you are doing is giving them an opportunity, it is up to them to accept it or not. To do otherwise might risk giving them a big complex about training.

Trust your baby!

[Nannytwotimes]

I think this is great and hope all goes well for you. Your little one will make the association between sitting on the pot and doing wees and poos. Nothing scary just a normal event.

It's what we did in the 'old days' and it worked.

[AngelDog]

Thanks for the replies.

I got a potty - there must have been inflation: £1.19 from Wilkos.

DS was happy sitting on it during a 'trial run'. He wasn't particularly happy about sitting on it during lunch or tea, although as it happened, he only had wind.

I'll keep trying every so often and if he doesn't like it, that's fine and I've got a potty ready for future use. If he does get used to it, it'll be nice to make things more comfortable for him and more convenient for me I'll have achieved my aim.

Even if he never uses it, it's been good to be thinking more about the signals he gives when he goes so I can take prompt action. We've had 3-5 poos every day for the last few days so there is plenty of action to be taken!

Lionstar, did your DS often wee during nappy changes before you started using the potty? I'm just thinking that it's been very rare for my DS to wee during nappy changes for the last few months, so maybe he'd be less likely to do anything on the potty then IYSWIM?

Nannytwotimes, I think we have a lot to learn from the 'old days'!

[reallytired]

"I got a potty - there must have been inflation: £1.19 from Wilkos. "

Lol.. I did buy my potty 7 years ago, so I suppose its not surprising that prices have risen.

I suggest you put your lo on the potty just after waking from a nap. You will be more likely to catch something.