Does anyone practice Elimination Communication, could you help?

[milkpudding]

I have just decided to try EC with my five month old. I had heard about it before but always thought it was all-or-nothing and you had to ditch nappies, which I wasn't willing to do. Recently I found out that you can do it alongside using nappies and want to do it for the improved communication between me and baby, and to reduce the amount of time she spends sitting in her own waste.

So far it just isn't going anywhere, and I would appreciate some encouragement/ advice. Basically I am worried that five months is too late to start and that she is habituated to going in her nappy. We use cloth so she may he more used to wetness against her skin.

When we are at home I do nappy free time on a protective mat, but I miss almost every wee. When I do notice a wee I move her onto her potty, but the movement causes her to stop weeing (or maybe she had already finished) and she doesn't start again.

I have tried putting her on her potty at regular intervals, but she wants to be standing all the time and jeeps trying to stand up, then gets cross if she can't. The potty won't fit between her legs standing up. I tried holding her over the sink but she is very heavy for her age and after several mins of no wee my arms were tired! She loved looking at herself in the mirror whilst I held her but didn't wee, is she less likely to wee whilst engrossed in smiling and playing with mirror baby?

If I put a small pot between her legs whilst standing will this work? Or if she can't see or feel the pot will it be pointless as she could 've weeing on the floor for all she knows?

She poos first thing in the morning and I am too sleepy to motivate myself to get her on her potty, so I always miss them


Also we are out a lot so can only do nappy free a couple of hours a day.

I think EC is a great idea though. I know I sound negative but I really want to make this work. Can anyone experienced offer any advice?

[hooligancorner]

Hello, I started a bit earlier than you have but it should still work if you stick with it. We did it on and off since about 2months with nappies but until 9months ish I'm sure it was just good timing rather than baby recognising he was on a potty!

To begin with I wouldn't worry too much about getting the wee in the potty, just watch to she if does anything just before she wees, like pausing for a second or a shiver, then make a pssst sound while she wees, once she associates that sound with weeing you can put her on a potty or over the toilet, make that sound and she should then wee, if she wants to!

A pot between her legs will work as to begin with I think its more about drawing their attention to the fact they are weeing and giving them a cue sound (pssst) than what the wee is landing in.
from what I've read and experienced the best time to catch a wee is when they first wake up in the morning or after a nap, or if they have been in the same position for a while, like in their car seat or a carrier, when you take them out they might go so its a good time to whip the nappy off and see what happens!

My son also likes to poo first thing in the morning and it took a while for me to motivate myself to get up as soon as he was awake but once I started doing it I realised how worth it it is as I hate changing pooy nappys and now at 1yr I only get maybe 1 every couple weeks as he does his morning poo in the toilet every morning! and if I see him get 'that look' on his face I can say wait and rush him up to the bathroom and he will wait until he's on the loo! (or if he's already started the rest will go in the loo!)

I hope this helps, I know it feels like your getting nowhere to begin with but stick with it, it's worth it in the long run! X

[jazzandh]

We did a kind of EC "lite" DS2, but didn't make a massive deal about it.

Every time we took a nappy off or bathed him etc we sat him on the potty (once he could crawl it was the toilet). Almost immediately he would poo on the potty and naturally that frequently came with a wee. It just seemed automatic - initially to do with position I should think - then it became a cue!

I think we started once he could sit up by himself, and I can honestly say it was rare for us to have to change a dirty nappy. We always took a travel potty with us, and before and after a car journey etc would sit him on.

He was never forced to do this - would often sit a play with a "toilet" toy for a couple of minutes - was part of playtime really.

We didn't really push it more than that, but he was completely out of nappies by just over a year.

[RaspberryBlonde]

We started at 12 weeks but think it took a good couple of months to catch anything on a regular basis. As hooligancorner says, start with 'easy' catches like just after a nap or feed and build potty offers into your daily routines so baby gets to know when to expect them.

Agree when starting out it's about getting the association with the action and cue sound, so just watching and doing cue sound is fine. Definitely worth trying standing as different babies will prefer different things.

It is slow to start but now at 11 months we are doing well, we use nappies most of the time but only not too many misses and DD will often come and pester for a change afterwards so the awareness is there. If you are on facebook the EC UK group is very helpful.