Elimination Communication

[makesachange]

I know it's been discussed a bit, but,

Anyone actually doing this? Properly, full time, sort of thing? Or done it?

Emma

Bumping for you, because I would be interested to hear, too.

Hi

Dont think I do the total thing but do it my way.

Works brilliantly. DD from 9 months on potty. Does all poos on it. She loves it. Keeps her skin clear which is why I started it as had terrible problems with sore on her little bot due to teething poo. I pop her on before and after breakfast and after lunch and tea. Also watch her late afternoon and pop her on if her little face shows she is going to go. She looks at me to tell me, little love.

Must read up to see if I am a totel ECer or not.

But its good for us.

hi

for info also see the mumsnet thread below this about potty training early - the baby whisperer that covers same subject

thanks

What is Elimination Communcation?

You don't use a nappy, you start potty-training from birth or at least in the first few months.
You learn to watch for signals that your baby needs to wee or poo and take them to the toilet/potty when you see the signs. Allegedly, some bables are potty trained by 12 months using this method and can let their parent know in advance when they need to "go".
Haven't tried it myself, but am interested in the concept. I know that babies were potty-trained a lot earlier in the past than they are nowadays, and apparently that is also the case in many parts of the world even today. I wonder whether we have all been a bit brain-washed into believing that it simply isn't possible before the age of, say, 2. That's why I am interested to hear whether anyone has any real-life experience of this.

Very interesting. I've always disliked nappies and the fact that they are swaddled in the things for two years.

My 7 month old DD is ECed, has been since she was 10 weeks old.

We EC full time at home and when we are out and about. DD wears cloth nappies when we are out for a distance or for naps. If we go at locally or we are home she is wearing no pants or trainer pants.

Some days we have 100% catch rate and on other days we have several misses. She has been clean for months and is often dry.

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For Example
We went to see MIL yesterday. So we offered her the potty before dressing her with nappy and putting her in the car. After a 40 minute car journey and a nap at the other end of our journey, I went straight to my MIL Toilet and held my DD over the toilet and she wee'd (She always seem to do a wee straight after a sleep)

Whilst we were at my MIL house she did 2 further wee's held over the toilet and one poo on the potty over a 6 hour period. We then drove to a home where DH grandma was having a her 100th birthday party, for a couple of hours and again DD did one wee held over the toilet, I offered one more toilet option before we left the home...no wee as expected.

DD slept all the way home and again offered the potty when she woke up at home , resulted in another wee before I took her to bed.

That was 5 wees and one poo and NO nappy changes !!! Believe me the other mum (DH's cousin) spend a lot of time that day changing her DD soiled nappies, whilst I spent 6 times 1 minute ECing my DD.

Also interesting to watch the difference between the cousin and her DH spending two meals trying to spoon feed their crying daughter mush she clearly didn?t want to eat. Whilst our BLW daughter self fed steamed vegetables whilst my DH and I ate our own lunch in peace.

I believe in the easy all around path and ECing is the easiest and lazy way to keeping your baby clean.

Any questions ?

Wish I had tried it!
Toilet trained dd1 at 2.6 pretty easily, but have noticed lots of mums have a terrible time training older (3 years plus) toddlers. People claim that toddlers will "train themselves" if you "wait until they're ready" ... but I have seen numerous instances of mums virtually pleading with their pre-schoolers ones to use a toilet and having to put up with a lot of resistance.
DD2 is 16 months at the moment and I intend toilet-training her this summer.

Hello, I'm only 3 months late in joining the thread but I was really pleased to see it as have been feeling rather alone in ECing my DD (who is 5 months old)

It works brilliantly for us too, so much so I can't understand why it's more mainstream especially as people are otherwise so environmentally aware a lot of the time.

I haven't changed a nappy all day, and yet we've been out and about to the shops, the park... And have dealt with 2 poos and quite a few wees!!

Only one question though BabiesEverywhere, if you're still there - if you're at home do you just put your baby straight in trousers? This is what I do and the same if I'm going out, as I doubt I can buy underwear for a baby?! None of my friends would even know what I'm talking about so I have noone to ask

Hi looseleaf,

We use Bright Bots Trainer pants under clothes...Small fitted DD from 5 months to date and we also have some medium which are fitting now also.

You can get real tiny underwear from this site but I am not brave enough to risk real underwear yet

We kinda having an interesting time in that DD has decided she doesn't like her potty, so I am lifting her on and off the big toilet upstairs all the time

Oh, my DD is 10 months old now

Thanks so much BabiesEverywhere

I'm really pleased to have a fellow ECer!! and will try and get some of those trainer pants as they sound a good idea.

I mainly use a potty but had better keep up using a big toilet occasionally too as more useful if you're out I imagine!

Has your baby changed her signals as she's got older? It must be interesting as they learn to express themselves more clearly; I still have to be quite in tune to everything but find it amazing how easy it all is and how natural it feels!

TBH it was very easy to catch all the poo and the majority of wees until DD started crawling and then she would crawl off the potty when she had finished often tipping it !!!

Now she has started walking a bit, she doesn't want to use the potty ever...so that is why we started using the big toilet.

Her poo sign is very clear...several loud farts. But her wees we work on mainly by timing. Some days we catch nearly everything but if I am not paying attention we miss. i,e, Yesterday, I has very tired in the morning and we had two pairs of wet trainer pants in an hour in the morning but then we caught everything else that day including 2 poos thoughout the naps and everything.

I do find it much easier to EC outside of the house, we feel more contacted somehow.

Sounds like you are very contacted with your daughter

Am thinking about starting ECing from birth or 2 weeks at the outset.

Am currently 38+5 weeks, so if anyone has any tips I'd be really grateful. Should I leave it longer and start later - is it unreasonable to assume that this can really work from birth, or am I setting myself up for a lot of trouble?

We only started at 10 weeks old but it should work from birth. I have heard of people starting straight away.

I wished we had started straight away and if we were to have any other children I would definately start at birth, it is such a rewarding thing to do for your child and increases your closeness

I seem to remember my DD always eliminated when she was being nursed, so that way it would be super easy to catch those wee/poo's.

I would suggest you find a plastic pot/bowl big enough for your newborns bottom and place him/her on it whilst you breastfeed and the rest of the time keep them either naked on a terry nappy or wearing a terry as a loin cloth with a prefold belt, so it is super easy to potty him/her and observe when they wee/poo.

Can't find these in England but to show you what I mean by pot (use a plastic mixing bowl) and prefold belt (make yourself out of a fleece tube with buttonhole elastic....
USA Potty Pot

USA Prefold Belt

Couple of my blog enteries which you might find interesting....
Here are some EC Links

How we started to EC
Good luck and let us know how it goes

We started at around 2 months simply because I hadn't been aware of EC before and I found it quite amazing how quickly we took to it. We started just by holding DD over the toilet as soon as she woke and making a 'ssssssss' noise when she peed which she then learnt as a cue.

DD did seem to have constant runs as a newborn and BabiesEverywhere's advice sounds really good about putting a pot or something underneath while feeding but anyway 2 months worked brilliantly for us as a start time and by then her toilet habits had calmed down a bit!

Also you need to really not mind if you miss pees as you'll always have misses and they didn't bother me.

BabiesEverywhere that made me laugh about your daughter crawling off the potty! I left a full potty right by our bed and stepped into it a couple of days ago - nice. Luckily it only had pee in it!

CaraLondon I hope all goes brilliantly in the next few weeks! How exciting for you!

Thanks Looseleaf and Babieseverywhere - I am so excited, as you can imagine. I hate the thought of a child sitting in their own waste, which is what got me started on the idea.

I then discovered that my mother had EC'ed both my sister and myself, and had assumed that I would be doing the same (we are of Indian extraction - apparently it is quite normal there). However, she had a bad start with both of us, so wasn't able to help on when the best time to start might be.

The links are great, Babieseverywhere, and I'll definitely let you know how it goes. DH and my family are really positive about the idea - seems to make sense to them - but everyone else's response has been "So when did you start to be such an Earth Mother, then?"!

I'm currently 32 weeks and thinking about doing this after reading Diaper free by Ingrid Bauer, this thread has been really great, babies everywhere-your blog is really interesting

mistresstara I read that book too and found it a good help. Hope everything goes well!

Thanks

This is a good book ...click here

Thanks, that does sound a good one!
Incidentally, have you ever had problems with EC at night? As I sometimes feel a bit mean sitting DD up on her potty - she objects when she's half asleep before or after a feed and I don't really blame her! So we usually leave her without a nappy for the first half of the night (when she's usually dry) and put one on later which seems to work best

She is now in her own room, but I do take her to the toilet if she wakes up during the night and she normally is very grumpy but often does a wee (never a poo overnight)

I'm slow to slow in the morning, so she'll often have a slightly warm (i.e. Just done) wet nappy but will normally still wee when put on the toilet.

I am going to make more of an effort to put DD in trainer pants outside the house and we are going to start wearing real pants in the house...
What do you think of these cute pants !!! They are tiny baby pants for over a nappy and they fit my 10 month old baby perfectly :)

Aww, how sweet is that photo! Those look lovely!

I think it's a good idea you've had to start on real pants as I find I catch far more pees when don't have the 'backup' of nappies - today we haven't missed anything and it's been so hot DD has just worn shorts. Although I did have to get up for DD to poo at 4am!!

I've just heard her wake so better go

LL, You sound so connected to your DD