Infant potty training / elimination communication / toilet timing

[ReallyTired]

Before you shout me down, I have a six year old son who potty trained easily the conventional way at 3 years and 3 months.

I found this page

www.timl.com/tt/

Anyway I have been reading strange webpages on the internet and I was wondering if anyone actually practises elimination communication and what it is like?

My feeling is that we probably do condtion our kids to poo in their nappies. Children probably could be trained soon. Certainly my son used to scream for his nappy when he was two years old and playing naked in the garden.

My son definately had both bowel and bladder control long before he was potty trained. He was just stubborn and prefered to mess his nappy.

If you do practice elimation communication how do you manage out and about? Do you work? Can elimination communication work in a modern fast moving country like the UK?

I agree entirely with you about the conditioning to wee/poo in the nappy, and being aware long before 2 years. I work full-time and didn't want to do EC, but I did start toilet training at 14 months and have had a very casual, laid-back, child-led approach to it. At 18 months he's close to accident-free during the day, but consistently wets a nappy or two at night (after a very long nursing session at bedtime) but is usually dry midnight-waking. We used pull-ups when out and about until about a month ago. He's a boy, so I stuff a soaker in the front of his undies that saves his shorts through 90% of accidents. He holds a wee for a good half hour and holds a poo for several hours, preferring to poo on his home toilet. (Just like his Daddy.) We're still having poo accidents at nursery, though, but when he poos before nursery he will have an accident-free day.

You need BabiesEverywhere. She did EC, and I think she's got a blog on it. I'm about to post asking for her, since I want to find out how she's finding it with two!

Thank you for your post. I was expecting to be flamed for even considering it. I am planning to take a year off with my baby and return to work part time.

How do people get on with part time EC?

ches, what do your nursery think about you potty training your son so early? Were they coperative.

When my son was three years I was told by a pompous young teenager that my son was nowhere near ready. A bit of bribary with a chocolate easter egg did the trick within days. Still for a long time we found my son was just too stubborn to go near a potty.

I want to avoid the same senario next time. Can you do EC with a child in nappies. I don't think I would be brave enough to have a newborn baby without a nappy. Lets face it establishing breastfeeding will be enough of a challenge.

Actually the nursery start them all as soon as they move up to the toddler classroom between 15 and 18 months. We started a month ahead because I was ready and his daily requests to feed the dog at the same time told me that he was ready too. As far as I'm concerned, the magic mix is parents who are ready, children who can process sequences and realistic expectations.

My son went to nursery very part time from the age of 22 months. He was in the baby room for a long time because they discriminated against him for having walking problems. We had our community paediatrian intervene to get him to move up to the toddler room.

By the time we attempted potty training he was well into the flow of the terrible twos. He had it ingained into his head that the nappy was the right place to poo and wee and nothing would change his mind.

I knew a lady who did this - she did really well but it did take a long time out of every day. For instance she would go to a music class and spend more than half of it holding her baby over a bucket. It requires a lot of time and I'm not convinced that time wouldn't be better spent having a cup of tea and enjoying your year off.

I think holding a child over a bucket for half an hour is a bit silly. But there are certain well know voiding reflexes. For example many babies go straight after a breastfeed or just after they wake up. I met one lady who did EC through La Leche League and she just accepted that sometimes there were wet nappies.

Seriously potty training is getting later and later. For example my son was 100% toilet trained at three years and three months. (Ie. properly in that he would make the decision to go toilet indepenedently, and had very few night accidents.) I met a lot of boys who have been later, however my mum and elderly neighbours thought it was disgustingly late.

Children are so different. My DS used to go midway through a bf when he was small. As for having a cuppa and enjoying a year off... I wish! Holding him over a bucket for half of every hour would be more relaxing than trying to keep up with him and doing damage control. I go to work M-F to relax! If it weren't for the fact that all babies are different and there's no guarantee the next one would be the same, I'd have my tubes tied.

My son is almost 6 month old now, we started infant potty training about 2 months ago. I have to say it works. He had only a few poos in his nappy, all the other went to the toilet. He wears disposable when we go out, but I try to take him to the toilet if he signals. Usualy he is ok with peeing in his disposable but he always let me know when he needs to poo.
He stayed dry during the night in the last couple of days. He always signalled when he had to go. It is amazing!

Our daughter was born on Thursday night and we have been using EC since Friday morning. the only time baby has pooed in a nappy is the one the hospital left her in overnight.

funny story: the first time we tried it, we held baby, less than 24 hours old, over a plastic pot and made psst- and shh- noises for about thirty seconds. Nothing happened, although baby did stop crying. I put baby on my lap and wife and I started to talk about how maybe it was too early. The second I put baby's bare bum on my leg she let out a warm stream of wee all over my leg and down onto the floor! We took that as proof of concept - she had understood the positioning and noises we had made, we just hadn't given her time to relax her little bladder.

Since then we have held her over a pot before and after feeding and after a long sleep and have caught lots of wees and a couple of poos and have had no misses.

the method works - babies know what to do, it just takes some commitment and bravery from parents to help them.

good luck to everyone trying this and enjoy the savings on nappies

It's so good to hear that others think as well that it works. When I talked to mums about it, they stared at me as I had three heads!
I'm sure I'll try it from the very first day with my next child.

Well our kid is 4 days old now and so far its still going ok. EC can definitely seem difficult. My wife was on her own this morning and couldn't move baby from the nipple to the potty quick enough to catch a poo, for example. But for every miss we've made several catches. And while each miss means a bit of poop somewhere you didn't want it, on your clothes for example, every catch means a nappy that doesn't need washing, a bum not caked in poo or wee, and a happier, cleaner baby.

Hi Whiteleaf777, How is your potty training going? I guess it's much better than at the beginning as your daughter gets older... My son is 9 month old now, he hasn't had a poo in his nappy for a long time, and there are days when he stays totally dry during the day. I don't take him to the toiler during the night though...

I haven't read up on anything officially but saw this thread because I need help with 2.7 DD who is secretive with poos and wees in nappy, occasionally does wees in potty. However, 8 month old DS seems to have taken to squealing to be held up (he also now pulls up on some things) and does standing up poos. today I even managed to catch one while he stood barebottomed next to a chair. I heard him hold his breath and i knew what he was going to do. We started it with him in a way to show my DD that it is ok to talk about poos, she seems a bit phobic. we blew raspberries at him, he would blow one back and then do a poo straight away. Is that EC? It changed a bit when he started teething again and had a cold, as he obviously couldn't feel the pressure of a solid jobbie, it just squirted out as a liquid. I hope to read more about this and get him out of nappies quickly. Very exciting!

Hi!
We are practicing EC with my baby girl who is almost 10 months old since she was 2 weeks old.
It definitely requires a lot of dedication and patience but we would not have it other way though.
I put her on reusable nappy at night time only. The rest of the time she nappy free, even when we are out and about. We travel a lot so it can be tricky sometimes when we are in long journey buses, trains or planes but we managed somehow. We bring a few plastic bags and spare trousers(just in case).
I noticed my baby girl was starting to have some control over her bladder since she was about 3 months old??
Another important thing is try to not have expectation, take one day at a time. It is normal for babies to be inconsistent with their cueing or willingness to eliminate when they are ill, teething or a change of environment. It is usually just temporary. Keep at it and you will not regret!

We've been encouraging our 9 month old to use a potty for about five weeks and he usually goes in it successfully around 4 times a day (wees and poos). Take a look at BabiesEverywhere's posts and blog as NAEN suggests.

Also, The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems recommends starting 'potty training' around 9 months so you may find that useful reading.

I started both mine as they could sit unaided- I popped them on the potty at regular intervals and logical times (straight after waking up, after a milk feed, 1/2 an hour after a meal).
DD1 was then fully potty-trained at 21 months (though she was definitely ready months before to get rid of the nappy, but we just had too much on our hands- building works and DS2 on the way). The nursery were compliant with our request to sit her on a potty at regular intervals from 14 months. (Though she does only go there 2-3 x a week.) I can count on 2 hands the number of "accidental" poos she's had in a nappy from 8 months old.
DS2 we started a couple of months ago when he was about 6 months old. I think he is a child that 100% supports the motion that children naturally hate "pooing in their own backyard". He was a once a week poo baby till we started on solids, then I noticed that he started doing his poos in small lots and upto 4-5 x a day. The couple of times that I got him on the potty on time he did a massive poo in one and no more that day. So that convinced me that he hates having the poo in his nappy and to start him on the potty as well. He wears washables suring the day and we can often go through a day with 1 or 2 nappies just a tiny bit wet. At night I put on a disposable, but that is often just a tiny bit wet.
I have all the admiration for those that start this process earlier! Amazing!
On the other hand, I have felt it has been easier when they could sit on their own and yet early enough for them not to get used to dirty nappies on them. (Even before potty-training I have also always changed them the moment they were soiled... my smell since having a children has got extra sensitive, so I pick up the whiff of a soiled nappy even in a crowded room. )

I thought that I come back to this thread as my daughter is 7 months old now. I have been sitting my daughter on the potty for about two weeks now. Everytime I change her nappy I put her on the potty for about 2 minutes.

I was so tired when my daughter was a newborn I didn't even attempt ec.

She does poo and wee in the potty and definately has some control. However I am not brave enough not to use nappies. I am not particularly good at reading her signals yet.

DD is 8 months old and I've just ordered 'diaper fee' from amazon. I'm not sure if it's too late to bother trying but we'll see. Nice to haer all the other positive stories.

I think the nicest thing about it is how intune you have to be with your child. I'm often guilty of ignoring DD when she's happily crawling about while I read/MN etc, but don't think I'll be doing that while she has a bare bum .

In my opinion it is good practise to introduce a potty as part of the routine, whether it is to catch an early morning nappy off & the cold air hits wee, a poo when your baby starts to grunt after meal times, or a wee when you take the nappy off for bath times.

Then when you decide it is the time to potty train (whenever that is be it 9 months or 3 years 9 months) then it's familiar and comfortable for your child to use it, and an easy transition from nappies.

I suggest this to every new mum I meet and advise them to look on the potty training forum here for horror stories if only to convince them to get going with the potty early on!

I did EC very successfully with my daughter, and I was so keen to spread the word, that I've put together a website with the basics on it.

www.nappyfreebaby.co.uk

I also organise a support group in Oxford, and am trying to help other parents do so elsewhere.

Do get in touch if you want more info.
Amber

Hello Amber I came to your group once nice to see you here.

Hi BertieBotts!

I was wondering how you are getting on. Do you still EC?
Bub must be a big boy now!

Amber x

Yes, he is 15 months now and never sits still

We don't really do EC any more as I never quite got the hang of noticing his signals, but I let him run around nappyless quite a lot and if he does a wee I tell him that he is doing a wee, same if I notice him pooing (in a nappy). As he is starting to get more communicative I was thinking of getting him a potty just to have around - if I try to hold him over the toilet he doesn't like it, so I stopped. I am using disposables full time now though as I found the washable nappies leaked too much when he started to crawl.