Is anyone doing any form of EC?

[spilttheteaagain]

DD is 5 months and after being intrigued by EC I thought what the heck, I'll see what happens if I sit her on the potty. And I've since "caught" about 8 wees in the last couple of days. It's fascinating.

Yesterday she was very fussy and so I tried putting her on the potty and cue-ing her. She weed and then was fine and calm afterwards. Very useful if it helps with the mystery fussy times! It had never occured to me before that they could be to do with full bladder uncomfortableness.

I'm not aiming for nappy free or anything really, just reducing my washing, and reducing the amount of time she sits in wet nappies, and building a potty association for when the time comes.

Anyone else doing anything similar and want to share tips/stories?

[ReallyTired]

We did attempt to do EC with mixed results. We used nappies as a I wasn't tupid brave enough to be nappy free.

I found that with dd as an immobile baby it was surprisingly easy to catch her poos and wees. For example babies often poo after a feed/ meal and almost always wee just after a nap. It did drastically cut down the washing, but it wasn't potty training in modern sense. I was doing the thinking for my baby.

When dd started crawling she didn't want to sit on the potty at all. The world was just too exciting. I could get her to sit on the potty for about a minute by reading her stories and singing. I found the work involved just wasn't worth the benefits.

Getting dd to sit on the potty got better at 18 months. She was good at using the potty bare bottom, but pretty hopeless while wearing a nappy. At two years old she was very keen on the potty, but her muscles were not strong enough to hold the wee. I kept DD in nappies until 2 years and 8 months and then allowed her to wear knickers. She was dry both day and night within 2 days. DD decides when she goes to toilet/ potty without much help.

I think its a good idea to introduce a potty into a baby's routine at 6 months, but you need realistic expectations. You need to be loving and patient and never force a baby or a child to sit on a potty. I believe that introducing a potty early makes it part of life and the child accepts the potty more readily. I don't believe it made being properly toilet trained that much earlier for dd. Its a slower and more gentle method than the Gina Ford boot camp potty training method.

A lot depends what is right for your family.

[girlywhirly]

I haven't done this myself, but do remember relatives DC being sat on the potty from babyhood, especially if it was close to the usual poo time. I think in addition to keeping nappies drier for longer, it gets them used to sitting down to poo, the number of older children who stand to poo in their nappies and refuse to sit is astonishing. Also, you will probably encounter less fear and anxiety about the potty, because it will be a normal part of daily life with positive associations.

I gather DC who have been happy to use a potty can have times when they refuse, especially when they are going through big developmental changes like starting walking when they don't want to sit at all for anything! I think you just offer the potty anyway and don't make an issue of refusal, they go back to it eventually when they realise it's more comfortable, which I suspect your DD will.

[DitaVonCheese]

Hello! We (or just me really) are doing it very part-time with 6 month old DS, started when he was 6-7 weeks. I am not brilliant at reading cues etc but generally just hold him over the loo every time we do a nappy change and 90% of the time he'll wee and I catch a fair number of poos too, mainly relying on timing (ie knowing he hasn't done one for a while and when he's most likely to go) rather than cues. It really does help explain some of the fussiness sometimes though, agree with you about that.

I'm finding it interesting and fun and a lot easier than expected. DD was fairly late to PT so I'm keen to keep the awareness there with DS. It also means I'm less likely to get peed on during changes if I know he's just been :)

I'm also sure that he has the ability to hold it - eg quite often he'll be peeing when I open the nappy, then stop, then carry on when I hold him over the loo, or start peeing and stop when I squeal and then carry on over the loo again.

Haven't tried sitting him on the potty yet, just hold him over the loo (he weighs a ton, it's killing my back!).

And it's so much nicer wiping his bottom when he's pooed in the loo than in a nappy! :)

[spilttheteaagain]

Thanks, good to hear some other people's thoughts. I'm a bit nervous discussing this with RL friends as I think they will think I'm insane!

DH caught the first poo yesterday which was a cause of great excitement But it was so satisfyingly easy to clean up compared with poo in a cloth nappy which is just grim. Definitely with you on that one dita!

And yes there is the pleasing side effect of not having such a nappy roulette thing going on. If she wees on the potty I know she won't wee on me during that change as she's just been, and if she doesn't go on the potty then I know she doesn't need to so also safe.

Reallytired interesting that it didn't particularly speed up toilet training for your DD, I will remember your caution about expectations.

girly I didn't know that about toddlers standing up to poo. Hopefully we can help her not get into that habit, that sounds really stressful.

dita like you we're going for timing more than cues. I recognise the poo face but only as she's actually bearing down and poo will be about 4 seconds later so no time to get tights/gro off! Just catching wees based on timings - waking from naps, 20mins post feed, and nappy change times. She loves it when I make the "psssss" noise though, massive grins!

[LadyLotty]

I did EC with my DS from 4 months - very part time though. I didn't even know what it was called/never read up on it, just did it coincidentally and caught all of his poos from and some pees til about 13 months when he lost interest and started confidently walking. We kept talking about it, some days he still did it other days (weeks months) he wasn't interested. But then he was VERY ready for potty training around 20 months. I delayed him then because was heavily pregnant, but he wouldn't have it and potty trained himself by 24 months.

Now with my DD who is 6 months I'm doing exactly the same thing. Its so easy to start them when they are young, she 'tells' me when she needs the toilet and I just open her nappy for her to do her stuff. Needless to say she is very clean, no nappy rash wahtsoever, and going out and about is so easy too. At times when I forget to bring a nappy & wipe, I just get a tissue out, she poos onto the tissue, I flush it down the toilet and that's that :)

I'm also reluctant to elaborate on what I'm doing with my mum friends - for those who have not tried EC they tend to think its some freaky practice that may cause long term psychological damage to children and only embraced by tree huggers and/or super pushy mums :)

[LadyLotty]

By the way on yahoo there is an EC group - fantastic source of information and support if you are at all interested ;)