Elimination communication

[LaTable]

Talk to me about elimination communication.
Have you tried it? Did it work for you? What age did you start? Was it with your first child? Did it actually help "potty train" your child earlier/less stressful? Did you do it day and night?

Following. DD2 poops on the potty due to constipation, ERIC recommended us to when she was 7 months. Occasionally she pees on there too but interested in whether/how we could make the most of this!

So we've just turned 5 months and I feel like I've got more of a hang of dds rhythm. (Wouldn't have been able to catch a wee or poop even if I tried that first 3 months - she was absolutely all over the place) and we've just started ec.
So far so good, and like pp said, we're doing it after naps and a little while after feeds when I feel like she needs to. Sometimes I pop her on throughout the day and nothing happens, others she surprises me with a poop I hadn't expected she needed.
We're using a mix of reusable and disposable nappies (we're out an about a lot and she is a heavy wetter so disposables are more comfortable for her /easier for us) and nights. But a lot of the time, especially now it's warmer, we're bare bum a lot.
Even if it doesn't turn into much (I don't see why it wouldnt) at least it's. Few less nappies to wash and change and she's comfortable on the toilet!

Mine won't sit still ever, so trying him on it before he was one just meant pee on the floor! He hates nappy changes too, because, again, staying still. He really hates wet nappies though. Since he's just turned one, he comes to the toilet with me every time and is happy to sit on the potty if I'm sitting on the toilet. I blow bubbles for him and he has a special toilet toy. I'm hoping his serious dislike of nappies encourages him to train himself now he's getting used to the pot. I think we'll go back to cloth nappies when the weather's a bit warmer as an encouraging factor. They felt too mean earlier though, given quite how much he disliked them when he had no other option.

After a really hard time potty training my eldest I gave it a go with my second child started between 4-6 months pretty much all poos on the potty wees took a bit longer but out of nappies in the day by 13 months at night by 16 months. People think you have to watch your child constantly but you learn pretty quick there signals. Made them so much more independent and helped with walking, climbing etc no bulky nappy to hinder movement Try go diaper free by Andrea Olson it's a great resource.

If you can get your hands on a copy of The Tiny Potty Training Book or Go Diaper Free by Andrea Olson they are decent guides on EC/potty training.

We did a very low key version of EC for our daughter and we followed a slight hybrid approach of Andrea Olson and Oh Crap (they're similar approaches but different pacing mostly) and she's now potty trained at 17 months. I think our EC background and her familiarity with potty and toilet sits massively helped. We also did cloth nappies though so it's hard to know precisely what made the difference or if it was all a combination or just luck!

The bowel people ERIC recommend a gradual but early approach though. Potty training is multiple skills disguised as one milestone, they have to learn a lot!

Sorry @pb1234 just spotted you've recommended Andrea Olson too. It's a good approach especially if they're young though!

My people! I started my DS using a potty once he turned 12 months, I would have liked to try it beforehand but was umming and ahhing over it. He's best at using it first thing in the morning, usually does at least a poo and/or wee first thing. I take him straight there when I can see he's about to have a poo, and usually put him on it after meals at home or when he's woken up from a nap. Sometimes before bathtime though sometimes I skip it if he seems really reluctant to go on.

My problem is now I'm working 3 days a week, I think I won't have support from nursery (there 2 days) or possibly from MIL (1 day). She did something similar with her DC but both nursery and MIL do nappy changes less frequently than I do. I'd love to try potty training in summer when he's around 18 months and I'm not at work.

@beeble347i think training at 18monts is totally doable (assuming your little one is showing signs of not wanting a nappy) my first (although we did no ec) was out if nappies by 18months but we did cloth nappy.
I think even if you're doing what you can at home he will get the hang of it.

Thank you! What signs did you notice for not wanting a nappy, if you don't mind?

My DS hates nappy changes, I give him time wandering round nappy free after he's used the potty. Usually standing up nappy changes as well especially after the potty. I do feel encouraged to try in summer.

@beeble347 you don't have to wait for "signs of readiness". Some kids literally never show any sign before they've started training. But if he hates nappy changes I'd say he's trying to tell you he wants a bit more independence and privacy - an ideal springboard for training you might as well capitalise on.

Thank you! He does use the potty a lot at home. I'm a teacher though so was thinking summer holidays would be an ideal time to start as I can keep him off nursery if I need to. My worry really is if they'll be supportive when I send him back in, or if it would be confusing if I teach him not to use nappies at home but then nursery won't accommodate taking him to the toilet from the baby room.

I've been trying to teach him to take his trousers up and down but he's not quite getting that yet

@beeble347 depends on the nursery. You are right that some are more supportive than others! But every child needs to potty train at some point, and many don't take the whole summer off, so they must have at least some experience of kids on the early stages of training needing more focus or more frequent changes etc. it's in their interest to support as well! Fingers crossed for you

She just flat out refused to get a nappy back on after taking it off one morning for a change, we usually did some bare bum time but it was a fight to get another on, so we didn't! We had to explain we still needed to have night time nappies on though and she accepted that.
2nd wasn't too fussed about having nappies on or not, but they both got trained at the age they knew they'd just done a wee, so it was just about teaching them the feel of needing it just before doing a wee instead of just after having a wee.

Thanks so much to you both!

Do you mind me asking what method you used or what you did? I was thinking of maybe starting bare bum in our kitchen/garden in summer for at least a couple of days, potty nearby - we have a downstairs loo.

But then to date potty has always been in the upstairs bathroom, and I've heard they may need to wet their clothes to realise what's happened?

Edit: at the moment I take him to the potty when he wakes up for the day or from a nap, after meals and before bath time usually, but he has a nappy on in between. I have noticed the last few naps he's been dry when I've changed him right before and when I've taken it off right after, so he's had the wee on the potty instead which feels really positive.

I was thinking of maybe putting a Bambino cloth in his nappy before properly starting potty training so he could get more of a sensation of being wet after a wee

@beeble347 we used Andrea Olson's potty training book. She comes at it from an elimination communication background but it's a similar approach to many others in approach. It may take some weeks but it is so worth it to be done with nappies and for their confidence and independence. Took about 6 weeks for us to be at maybe one accident a week at most.

Thank you so much, googling now!

We do this! I tried it with my first because she had nappy rash, starting from 6 months. At about 15 months I saw her walk to the potty, sit, pee, wipe and put the wipe in the bin. Thanks to full time nursery she didn't make much more progres after that though so we didn't take nappies away completely until just after 2.

With my second child, at about 7 months we airlifted her to the potty when we saw her start to grunt and she seemed to understand the idea after only 4 or 5 times. We offer the potty after sleep and meals and we've had virtually no poo nappies since 9 months, only when travelling or with babysitter. She started nursery now though at 13 months so I'm expecting progress to stall again.

Honestly I find this method so much better and cleaner than just using nappies. As soon as I realised my baby didn't need to poo in a nappy I felt bad any time I let her.

I started with DD1 from newborn. Went really well and we used cloth nappies and caught most of her wees and she only ever pooed on the potty (me holding her). She was out nappies by 1.5years and dry at nights by about 2.5 years.

I did start with DD2 but life got in the way unfortunately, so didn't manage to repeat it as well second time around.

@beeble347didn't really use any method? I'm not sure hahah I don't read any sort of help books, normally just wing it and do what comes naturally! But we went bare bum around the house and outside. We live very rural so the kids ended up peeing and pooping better outside than on the potty (because they could just squat and go when they needed to), but when inside at I used to just take then every half hour/hour to see if they needed it. One child understood it better than the other so they didn't take as long to be fully dry.
Introduced knickers after about a week or two so they could get used to the feeling of those. I found there was no difference in frequency of accidents with or without the "wet feeling" vs bare bum