Anybody else doing elimination communication / infant pottying?

[marmoset]

We're trying it out and baby bear is taking to it like a duck to water! Anybody else? Would love to chat a bit about the ins and outs of it all.

 

[Starlight32]

What is that if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Im interested...but I just cant due to 3 other kids...but really interested to hear how you get on x

 

[Snufflepop]

Yes!! We did it with my eldest (now 2.5) and are doing it again with my DS. Hands down the best thing we did. I really don't get why more people don't do it, it makes so much sense to me.

 

[marmoset]

Basically it means assuming that small babies have an awareness of their elimination needs and will attempt to communicate them with us, as part of an instinct to avoid soiling themselves/their caregivers/their sleeping space. (Then they gradually lose that awareness as they are trained to just go in their diapers wherever/whenever, and only get it back later in what we now think of as potty readiness)

So all we do is try to learn baby's signals and offer a potty opportunity if we think he might want one - we have a little potty that he can sit on (with us holding him up of course) or he'll go in the sink too. There's a sound association we do, a 'sssss' noise, that helps cue him that it's OK to go. It's 100% non-coercive, we just say 'Hmm, I wonder if you need the potty' and if he goes, great, if he doesn't, great, if we miss it and he goes in his diaper, great, everything is fine. It's all about his comfort and trying to respond to his needs.

And he loves it as far as we can tell, he seems to much prefer going in the sink or potty than in his diaper, and will fuss and hold it for a couple of minutes while we get him undressed and in position, then go as soon as we cue. Big smile, clean diaper goes back on and he's happy as a clam.

There are lots of different ways to do it, we read the book Go Diaper Free by Andrea Olson and that got us started. (The title is misleading in that it doesn't mean zero diapers - we still have LO in them all the time we just put the clean one back on after pottying)

Anyway that's about the gist of it! I thought it would be a giant hassle and super hard but it's been so easy and relaxed. We catch some pees/poos, miss lots, take breaks whenever, it's all good.

It's been lovely for DH as well because I'm breastfeeding (and LO often feeds to sleep) so he used to feel like he couldn't really do anything to meet LO's most basic needs you know? But now he can as we're both equally able to offer the potty.

So yeah! We're really liking it and LO seems happy and comfortable, so it's a win all around.

 

[marmoset]

Awesome Snufflepop! I agree, as soon as we started I was like oh wow, this is so logical. But I would never have thought to do it if I hadn't seen it mentioned online, just goes to show how ingrained our assumptions are.

Just curious, do you do nighttime as well? We didn't intend to at first but baby bear caught on a bit TOO well haha. Trying to figure out how to dress him for sleep because getting footie PJs on and off in the middle of the night is a hassle but we don't want him to be cold.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Ah ok, I didnt think people used diapers at all!

 

[marmoset]

Ah ok, I didnt think people used diapers at all!

There are probably super hardcore people who don't use them at all, but we definitely do! Makes it super chill and low stress which I'm very in favor of.

 

[Starlight32]

This sounds awesome! I wish I would have done this. At almost 5 months, do you think it's too late? I don't know any of her pee cues!

 

[kellyc1987]

I've never heard of this but definitely.something I would have been interested in, DS is 19 months now.so definitely too late for me

 

[marmoset]

This sounds awesome! I wish I would have done this. At almost 5 months, do you think it's too late? I don't know any of her pee cues!

I don't think it's too late at all! The book we used, Go Diaper Free by Andrea Olson, had different sections for starting with different aged babies. If you decide to try it out I'd love to hear how it goes!

 

[marmoset]

I've never heard of this but definitely.something I would have been interested in, DS is 19 months now.so definitely too late for me

I don't have any experience with older babies myself, but as far as I know a lot of the same ideas apply to non-coercive potty training. Might be something to look into!

 

[Snufflepop]

Hi Marmoset! No we don't do nighttime EC. We did try it but found that by the time we stripped baby, sat him on the potty etc it was waking him up too much and then he wasn't settling back to sleep for ages so it just wasn't worth it for us. Sleep trumps EC!! A lot of people do have success with it st night though. If you are in the U.K there is a great EC Facebook support group.

 

[BunnyN]

We kind of half did it with DD. We didn't start until she could sit up herself at about 5 months. She was using the potty herself (some of the time) at a little over a year old. Especially if you let her run around without a nappy. We didn't put any pressure on ourselves or her and it probably took longer because we didn't do it 'properly' but it worked well for us. I admit there were a lot of accidents but she pretty much stopped pooing her nappy by about 1.5 and wore them less and less until she totally stopped using nappies by 3 which is not super young but it was fairly painless. Ive known other kids who potty trained later and it was a huge battle.