BabiesEverywhere, come talk to me about EC

[Notanexcitingname]

when you've got two?

I didn't know about EC last time, by the time I did DS was nearly 6 months, and I was just due back to work. Intended to have a bit of a go, but never got round to it.

Wuold love to try this time, but it seems unfeasible impractical with two. Or is that my wimpy side showing? Would it work with DS still in nappies (think he'll e in them forever!)

THanks in advance!

Please can I join your thread.

Potty training an older child can be a nightmare. I can't face conventional potty training again.

Hi ReallyTired! I'm sooooo not looking forward to conventional potty training. But looks like we'll have to wait for BE. Can't imagine what's keeping her so busy

....A small bottomless pit aka newborn son ;)

What do you want to know ?

Congratulations on the birth of your son babiesEverywhere, I'm not surprised that you are busy. Don't worry about rushing to reply. I'm not due until April 2009.

Just the following questions.

a) What age did you start?
b) Do you use nappies? If so what sort of nappies.
c) How frequency does your baby wee?
d) What books/ websites would you recommend?

Notanexcitingname, I imagine that if you do EC your older child might want to join in to be like the baby.

Sorry - what is EC??

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Um how does it work??

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What is CE?

EC, even!

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LOL, oh yes, I see that now I scrolled up!!

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Annvan,

Basically you offer your little one the option of using a toilet / potty at certain times from being very little. This stage is parent led, depending on when the parent thinks the baby needs to go (after naps, after feeds and when baby seems fussy)

The babies learn to hold on until the next toilet option. Poo control happens first and then wee.

As they get older they will signal to the mother that they want to use the toilet, though parent may still ask and offer toilet options.

Eventually the child take over all elements of toileting and then they are said to be graduated in ECing terms which is equalivent to being pottied trained in a non-EC'd child.

ECing is seldom perfect, babies/toddlers will have misses for weeks or months whilst ECing is ongoing. After a certain point these misses are wee only (DD had 100% poo control from 9 months old)

Overall ECing is much more fun than changing nappies, barely dealing with poo outside a potty/toilet is fab and never having to do the hell which is traditional toiletting with a tandrumming toddler is reward enough for the parent.

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a) What age did you start?
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With my DD, 10 weeks old, She was considantly clean and dry by 12 months old.
With my DS currently 3 weeks old, we have had a few wee catches, one wee/poo combo catch this morning. So I'm starting to figure out his elimination patterns. Couple of half catches, LOL, little boys pee in arches...much easier to aim a little girl
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b) Do you use nappies? If so what sort of nappies.
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DD is in pants/trainer pants during the day at 2 years old and backup nappies at nap/night though she is dry if we get to her promptly as she wakes up.
DS is in nappies of course.

We are using Bumgenius one size pocket nappies and Bright Bot trainer pants.
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c) How frequency does your baby wee?
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DD can hold on for 4/5 hours on some days and other days wees a lot more frequently.
DS seems to be weeing every 15/20 minutes ish. But as he gets older and learns that he will be offered the potty at regular intervals, he will hold his bladder longer and he'll do more wee at each potty offering, rather than little and often like he is doing at the moment.
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d) What books/ websites would you recommend?
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Here are my favourite web links click here

Here is how we started with DD click here

HTH

So how often to you attempt catches with 3 week old DS? (big congrats, btw) Do you look for opportunities, or do they present themseleves?

How long until they're in the swing of waiting until cued to go?, and when they are, how long do you have to offer/ Have visions of having to potty every 15 mins!

And how is it going with two. Do you find that DS, or DD wees while feeding? (apparently I did. wet mummy )

Reallytired; I was hoping that might be a side effect, although really I was hoping that he'd conventionally train before then!

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So how often to you attempt catches with 3 week old DS? (big congrats, btw) Do you look for opportunities, or do they present themseleves?
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With DS I haven't tried often at all Due to having an EmCS, my DH did most of the nappy changes for the first couple of weeks.

Today I had a catch of a wee/poo when he was grizzley after a nurse and I poped him on the potty whilst changing him.

This afternoon I caught a wee, tried him on a potty the moment he woke up from a nap and he did a big long wee.
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How long until they're in the swing of waiting until cued to go?, and when they are, how long do you have to offer/ Have visions of having to potty every 15 mins!
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After naps and nursing are the best ones to try for with a baby. As for the rest how long is a piece of string According to my blog DD signed 'toilet' back to me at 12 months old.
DD timing were...at 10 weeks Babychair was eliminating every 40 minutes and now at four months old she seemed to have increased to around 2 hours between eliminations.
And I noted that by her fifth month...She has started using a short shout as an indication that she wants to use the potty and also when she has finished on the potty which is very useful and I hope this continues. There seems to be around a 40 minute to an hour gap between wees on average.

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And how is it going with two.
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Ask me again in a few months
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Do you find that DS, or DD wees while feeding? (apparently I did. wet mummy )
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My DD did long poos whilst I nursed her, so far DS doesn't eliminated whilst nursing. I do have a potty pot which I could put DS on WHILST nursing him. But as I am also tandem nursing I feel trying to latch on a newborn and hold him on a pot, whilst balancing a nursing toddler on the other breast, might be beyond me at the moment.

Would you hold a potty under the child while breastfeed if they wee in the middle of a feed. Or do you just accept that there will be the odd wet nappy, until lo learns to wait until the feed is finished.

Notanexcitingname, I hope that your lo does potty train sooner than my son did. Admitally my son had special needs. He had problems learning to walk and was deaf due to very severe glue ear. Even so he was a lot earlier than many of the the boys at his nursery who did not have his problems. My son was earlier than his friends because he was in cloth.

It was so frustrating because my son used to be bare bottomed around the house from two and half years old. He was great at using the potty until I put him in pants.

I think that part of the problem is that people are very intolerant of mess. Also disposable nappy company advertising has conditoned people.

"Would you hold a potty under the child while breastfeed if they wee in the middle of a feed. Or do you just accept that there will be the odd wet nappy, until lo learns to wait until the feed is finished.!"
Which ever option you want to try. There isn't one right answer and you could try and see what happens.

You could either use a potty pot or a small round plastic bowl (with rounded edges for comfort)WHILST you were nursing.

You could offer the potty BEFORE the nurse or AFTER or BOTH. Or let little one wet the nappy and offer the potty when you change the nappy ?

I have caught 3 wees in a row (i.e. He wakes up from nap, potty, nurse, cuddle, put down for a nap, repeat) and put his dry nappy back on twice...not bad for a three week old baby.

BE thanks everso much. That sounds very encouraging. I will ask again in a few months, though .

Reallytired; I'm sorry you had such a tough time PT your son. Mine is just utterly conditioned to going in his nappy; he'll wait for hours if nappy-less. He's in cloth, too, but it doesn't seem to make a difference! And he hates sitting on the potty with a passion. And I worry about the temperature of his poor little testicles. But maybe I worry too much

I just want to point out that BE is extremely lucky because most newborns wee every 20 minutes and bladder control is not usually developed until around 9 months. It's not just the practice/opportunity that's involved, it's maturation (myelination) in the brain, and you can't rush that. The myelination required for continence is the same as that for walking, so don't expect much success in "training" until your child is close to walking. cogweb.ucla.edu/CogSci/Myelinate.html

Can you use fewer nappies? Yes. Can you get your child familiar with using a potty/toilet? Yes. But will your child be "trained?" No. You will be trained for the cues, but it's going to be parent-led until around the time your child is walking, and until your child can process sequences (my bladder feels full = go to the potty = yell at mum to pull my pants down = wee in the potty).

Notanexcitingname, I got my son to use the potty bare bottomed very easily at two and half. I had a toy doll from Woolworths that weed and he had lots of fun making it wee in the potty. I had him in the garden running about naked and he would use the potty then. Nappies were just too convienent. In the end I just used bribary and he was 100% trained within days.

The problem was the terrible twos. He wanted control in his life and refusing to use the potty was one way. I am sure that Notanexcitingname's ds will come out of the terrible twos.

ches, we know what modern ideas are on potty training and maturation. We just disagree with them.

do new born babies really wee every twenty minutes? Neither or mine did, and we used cotton nappies so knew when they were wet.

ReallyTired I'm not sure if you understood me correctly. I am supportive of EC and started potty training at 14 months, should've started at 13 months but I wasn't ready. I cannot imagine waiting to 18 months to potty train, let alone 30, but firmly believe that realistic expectations are essential to having a stress-free experience. I am very happy for BE that it is going so well for her (and she seems pleasantly surprised too ) but don't want other mums to get unrealistic expectations of EC and then beat themselves up for "doing it wrong" as is too often the case when things don't go as well as expected/someone else's child/etc.