Just wanted to post my EC story as reading similar posts from others really helped me to give it a go. I had read about EC while pregnant and thought it sounded great but rather time consuming. And then DS (my first) was born and everything was a bit of a haze for the first 12 weeks or so. When things started to get a bit easier I felt a bit sad that I hadn't started EC, and wondered whether it was too late. I also was really not keen on the 'let your baby go naked for 3 days and watch their patterns etc', mainly because DS is not the sort of baby that lies happily around for minutes at a time. He is a wriggly, wants to sit or stand, sort of baby, and had reflux so couldn't lie down much anyway.
But I read someone starting at 5 months, taking a very laid back approach, but still (at about 9 months) mostly clean, and I thought why not? DS is in cloth nappies, and I am fine with using them, my main objective (if I had one) was to avoid him sitting around in mess and getting used to soiling his nappy and then needing to unlearn it.
It was easy to see when DS was doing a poo because he went bright red in the face. And he seemed quite regular, generally around 10am.
So I borrowed a potty from my mum (last seen in use for my sister who is 21, my mum never throws anything away), and sat DS on it (with my help) when he was around 4.5 months.
Well it was amazing. He wasn't spending much time sitting up at that stage, and the very first time he sat on the potty I made an appropriate sort of grunt and he performed! And continued to repeat for around 2 weeks. Almost straight away about half his dirty nappies now were replaced by the potty, just by putting him on the potty at every nappy change.
Then we went on holiday, and the potty came too (DH thought I was mad). After a few wobbles with jetlag and my change of diet leading to different nappy habits, we were back to around 50% on the potty.
We had a bit of a wobble for a week at around 5.5 months when DS started to be able to sit unaided, and so spent more time upright so the potty was less of a 'difference' (I think). But now we are back again with probably over 50% success. Weaning has made things a bit easier because things are a bit more solid, which means if he starts in between nappy changes I generally have time to get him onto the potty. We get quite a few wees as well, but I really cant tell whether he knows what he is doing in that dept (and cant tell as easily to praise him until after I look in the potty).
And I don't mind if it stays this way until he is ready to be completely potty trained. I hope he carries on being happy to sit on the potty (at present he just grins away on there, but when he can walk/crawl off it might change...). Saving 50% of wiping up mess, and saving quite a few washes of nappies, is just fine by me.
So anyone who is thinking of giving it a go - just do it!