Elimination Communication Support Thread

[Longing2bAMum]

I like that most of you are further along in age than we are, gives me a little glimpse of what to expect, I can't wait till Loki says potty when needing to go

 

[BigLegEmma]

Subbed! Should I leave newborn in nappies for a week to gage toilet times or start this as soon as she's born? I know most likely times for eliminating are post-nap, during/after feeds and first thing in the morning.

 

[OurLilFlu]

That's pretty much when we've been offering and those times when she's making a ' about to poop face'. We've been doing this also at every diaper change since a week old since she'd hold it until she had a fresh diaper or until the old one was off, got sick of changing the change table cover and getting peed on.


AFM, my question is, we bought a potty about a week ago and I didn't really realize how watery her poops are, is that normal? Sometimes there are a few 'seedy' bits but its basically just liquid...

 

[counting]

Liquid and yellow with seedy bits? Is she breastfed? If breastfed and only just over 1 month that is perfect.

 

[OurLilFlu]

Yea I should of mentionned, EBF and yes yellow liquid. Does it change to thicker? And when?

 

[SarahBear]

I don't remember when it changes, but yeah, liquid diet = liquid poop. It can also be quite explosive! It does thicken before solids are introduced, but I don't remember how much. It really is a liquid until solids are more regular.

 

[anchor08]

Hi everyone, I just finished reading this entire thread from the beginning! (Not in one sitting, don't worry.) Time to introduce myself and join the conversation.

My daughter (first-born) is 5 months old and we have been very part-time EC for about 6 weeks now. We use cloth diapers part-time also. When I first read about EC, I think it must have been a poorly-written article because I got the impression that it was just letting your baby make a mess in bowls all over the house or wherever you happened to be outside (street/sidewalk/etc.) and I thought that was weird and maybe less hygienic than diapers. I slowly started finding out more about the "communication" and cueing aspect and was interested but knew I couldn't do it full-time or go diaper-free from an early age so wasn't sure it was worth bothering.

Then when I was pregnant I went to a baby expo and saw a product designed for infant potty training (supportive seat that can go on the toilet and a bowl for underneath if you want it to be a potty), recommended for 4+ months. The instructions suggested using it three times a day for 10 minutes to get the baby used to it, and likely you would start catching poops consistently from there. I thought I could manage that, so we got it. E loves sitting in it, and she has often pooped in the toilet (I decided to skip the potty stage since it's the same seat). I'm up and down with noticing signals, usually just going with schedule (after naps and feedings, before bed). Occasionally I get a pee, but not as often. She seems to know what to do when she's on it, so she'll go if she has to go, but I'm often too late.

I haven't yet done diaper-free observation (chicken, I know!) but it's time -- the weather is getting cooler, and she'll be mobile soon. We're about to visit family overseas for six weeks, so who knows what will happen in that time, but I don't want to delay -- I think I'm ready for a little more commitment and hopefully even better results than we already have!

Looking forward to chatting with you all.

 

[SarahBear]

Welcome! I can't believe you read the WHOLE thread, wow! I haven't read nearly that much... anyway, congratulations on joining the EC journey and good luck!

 

[xSin]

Welcome!!! Sounds like you're on the right track! I've used cloth diapers and I also had a seat similar to that one for a while except it was second hand and as Aria got older, she would "shuffle" on it in just the perfect way to fling the seat right off the toilet seat. (Just a crappy design, and weak clips)

When she was about 8 months I went and bought a "family toilet seat" which has two seat options underneath the lid, it's fully attached it just has one "smaller seat" option which Aria uses. It's been great.

Our approach was "laid back" which is probably why she isn't fully potty trained yet even though the average age is 18months for I suppose people who are more serious about it maybe? I don't want to put pressure on her, we have a few potty songs... but we have had our ups and downs for sure!

We went through a phase where she was regressing a lot, so it got easier to use disposable diapers because it was just a lot less hassle. Unfortunately that did nothing to help the regression and we went easily over a month, before we saw a poop in the toilet. It wasn't until actually putting in some solid effort (no pun intended) and going back to using cloth that I saw a difference. Now it's been over a month since I had a poo in a diaper that wasn't directly a result of one of two things (Daddy not listening when I tell him to put her on the toilet) or us being out & about. The out & about thing, I figure I can probably solve this by getting a toilet seat that I can take with me; one that I can carry in the diaper bag and hopefully one that won't flip up off the toilet. :\

Best of luck!

 

[OurLilFlu]

Hey ladies! And welcome anchor. We've been doing really well over here! I don't think we've had a poopy diaper in 4 or 5 days. For Easter we've spent the weekend at the inlaws and for the first time brought her potty... Caught all poops of course and a pee nearly every offering! And just now she had a dry nighttime diaper from 930-5! And she did her business as soon as she hit her potty! Man I love that thing. This weekend I did try holding her over the real potty when I was at my aunts and a few other times, but nothing.. I think she prefers her potty. If she really had to go though would she? What are your experiences switching up what you use to EC?

 

[SarahBear]

Hey ladies! And welcome anchor. We've been doing really well over here! I don't think we've had a poopy diaper in 4 or 5 days. For Easter we've spent the weekend at the inlaws and for the first time brought her potty... Caught all poops of course and a pee nearly every offering! And just now she had a dry nighttime diaper from 930-5! And she did her business as soon as she hit her potty! Man I love that thing. This weekend I did try holding her over the real potty when I was at my aunts and a few other times, but nothing.. I think she prefers her potty. If she really had to go though would she? What are your experiences switching up what you use to EC?

Were you holding her in a different position? In my experience, this is a bigger factor at that age than container. If she needed to go, it is possible she would hold it if she was in a position she was uncomfortable in. Did she pee right after the diaper went on? At that age they don't have the capacity to hold it for too long.

The other thing about switching things up is that it really did have to happen at Violet's pace. As a newborn, I really couldn't hold her in a pottying position. I had to just lay her on the counter with her bum over the sink. I kept trying to potty her in a better position, but she just wouldn't let me! Eventually she did, though.

 

[anchor08]

Well, I'm not sure what to make of our experiment! I lay E on some towels with the potty next to her and sat on the floor with her. I ran a timer so I could see how long the intervals were, and I put her on the potty every so often to see if I could catch the pee before she went on the towels. I also made the "psss" noise every time she went, and put her on the potty even if she had already gone on the towels.

Apparently at some point she went in the potty, but I missed it! I don't know how I didn't notice. Other than that she went on the towels, but without any real consistency in timing, and fairly frequently. No signaling that I could pick up on.

Then the next day I put her on the potty in the morning and she pooped, and then my husband lay her on the changing mat on the floor for a few minutes before bathing her and she peed on the mat...no more than ten minutes after she had been on the potty. It seems like she is not aware of it. I think it's been at least 2 weeks since she peed on the toilet, and now I'm wondering if she was responding to the cueing or if it was just a coincidence. I know I'm not going to be able to give her an opportunity to potty every 20 minutes on most days (and her intervals in between seem to range from 15-60 minutes), so I would love to keep her aware and teach her to pee on cue for when I am able to potty her. Any suggestions? Just more bottomless time so we get more repetitions of her peeing and me making the sound? Or should I be more relaxed about it and hope to catch a few by guessing her schedule and help her learn that way?

 

[OurLilFlu]

I have no advice since I haven't been brave enough to do diaper free time. We catch 90% of poops just by offering first thing at wake ups ( morning is a guarantee usually) and at diaper changes. Pees are way harder to catch during the day, we've had the occasional completely dry night

 

[SarahBear]

Something to remember is that not all babies are consistent with their timing and not all babies signal clearly. In addition, developmental leaps can cause what is known by ECers as "potty pauses." Just keep at it and eventually she'll come back around. One thing to remember as you "keep at it" is that if you're getting frustrated, you're probably trying too hard.

 

[SarahBear]

For the last several days we've had no more than one daytime accident. Today so far we have had none (it' 5:24) and her accidents were primarily in the middle of the day, not the end. She has even demonstrated the ability to ask for the potty in distracting environments such as gyms, grocery stores, and libraries. In the store, she even went running to where the bathroom is. I think we're just about done with daytime diapers! How long before I can expect that there won't be a significant regression?

 

[readyORnot]

I hope I don't come across as a bit negative, so I'll just start by saying how impressed I am that so many little ones are doing so well!

But I think a regression can happen at any time and can last for a long or short time.

I thought we were almost done with nappies at around 17 months, and up until Christmas Angelo was doing brilliantly. But I think the holidays, plus inconsistency from the child minder just left him totally confused and we've had a few really difficult months. I think we're reaching another breakthrough now but we seem to have good days and bad days, very little consistency. And we also had several dry nappies at night for a long time but we've now had not a single dry night for two months.

Some days I feel frustrated and just as I'm about to take a step back from it all, we have a perfect day. I really wish I were a stay at home mother, I think it would make all the difference in our case.

 

[SarahBear]

No, not negative. I'm a bit hesitant to think we really could be done since this process does involve so many regressions. It's also helpful to hear others experiences so I can piece together a sense of "normal." There's so little information out there about where we're at with this. I am not a stay at home mom, but my husband is a stay at home dad. We do plan to travel in July, so I'm not sure how that will go. She does, however, have a lot of travel practice. I travel for work a fair amount and my husband and daughter come along with me when I do travel. Although it may affect her pottying, it doesn't have an inherently negative effect. I think her practice with travel may help minimize the impact of travel this summer. We'll see though!

 

[BigLegEmma]

Okay, I'm all for ECing - we have our little potties at the ready and I'm due tomorrow - though unlikely to go into labour on time ha. What I'm finding hard to find out is when I start - after a week? All the newborn articles just say 'from newborn', but I imagine I need to try to monitor some kind of toileting pattern before beginning?

 

[SarahBear]

My husband said she had a couple accidents today. I guess she'll have her up days and her down days.

 

[SarahBear]

Okay, I'm all for ECing - we have our little potties at the ready and I'm due tomorrow - though unlikely to go into labour on time ha. What I'm finding hard to find out is when I start - after a week? All the newborn articles just say 'from newborn', but I imagine I need to try to monitor some kind of toileting pattern before beginning?

There's no need to delay. Some people even manage to catch the meconium! We started after the meconium - about day 4. There are some newborn signs such as popping on and off the breast that you can respond to right away. Another thing I did when Violet was a newborn was to nurse over the sink or another container. Newborns shoot poop while they nurse and I know Violet nursed much better when nursing bare bummed over a container. Then as she got a bit older I was able to nurse her clothed and then potty her when she was done.