Elimination Communication Support Thread

[BigLegEmma]

Newborns shoot poop while they nurse

Oh my days Yes, we bought the potties to hold under her while feeding or to hold her over if we don't make it to a basin in time hehe. Thanks, we're going to try to start asap

 

[SarahBear]

Anyone have a potty-pause at 19 months? I feel like this is "wonder week" related but since we're past 18 months, I have no idea when this "wonder week" is expected to be over. Anyone else experience a cognitive leap and a potty pause at this age? She had a month of regular potty use and now it's pretty hit or miss lately.

 

[readyORnot]

We definitely had a setback around 18-19 months but every child is different.

Currently we're having a really rough time and I'm looking forward to spending a couple of weeks at home alone with my son to try and give him some consistency and see if we can crack this once and for all.

I'll never regret doing EC and fully intend to do it with my next baby. But it's been a rough ride since my son turned one and started going to a childminder 5 days a week. He has gradually grown more and more used to going in his pull-ups at the minder, and this eventually started to impact on the success we were having at home.

The last three weeks are the worst we've had and I'm hoping to reverse some of the damage next week. Today he happily weed in his underpants and then removed them and put them in the laundry bag as he doesn't like being in wet clothes. Later on he had no pants on at all and weed on the floor. 6 inches away from the potty.
And with a few random exceptions he no longer goes to the potty of his own accord, instead going only when I ask him to (and even then he often refuses).

 

[SarahBear]

Violet actually seems to be getting back on track. She did all her elimination in the potty today, after getting up for the morning. She even held it in the car while we were on our way to a restaurant. She then held it long enough for me to wait for the person at the register to finish with a customer so that I could ask where the bathroom was. There was one point where she started walking funny. It's this kind of walk she only does when she has to pee. So, I snatched her up and put her on the potty where she went right away. Most of the others pees were initiated by her. We'll see if she keeps up with it.

 

[OurLilFlu]

Hey ladies. I can't remember which ones have EC'd since early on. I'm just wondering what tips you can offer, I'm worried all our work will change once we start solids. What changed for you, what cues became the 'for sure' ones. Also anyone use baby sign language? Honestly, I feel like she doesn't cue me but its mostly just timing, and offering often... Any pointers for around 4 months?

 

[SarahBear]

Hey ladies. I can't remember which ones have EC'd since early on. I'm just wondering what tips you can offer, I'm worried all our work will change once we start solids. What changed for you, what cues became the 'for sure' ones. Also anyone use baby sign language? Honestly, I feel like she doesn't cue me but its mostly just timing, and offering often... Any pointers for around 4 months?

We didn't start solids until the recommended age of 6 months (actually she was just short of it), but 4 months is hard in general. There's a major "wonder week" at that point which can really throw things. It's ok for it to be mostly timing and offering because you're still helping your child learn where the expected place of elimination is. One thing about EC is that you just have to be persistent and trust your child. As for baby sign language, I finally gave up with it and then after a while, she started using the sign for "more" and "milk." She never picked up "potty," but she can say it pretty well now. As for "for sure" signs, she didn't necessarily have them. There were phases with good signaling and a lot of other times where it wasn't so clear.

 

[OurLilFlu]

Yes, we haven't started solids yet! Just to be clear! Sounds like its just gonna be continues persistence and hoping for some good signalling periods. Hopefully it continues like it has been... We catch about 90% of poops, and a fair bit of pees...

Another question I thought of is how long can they hold pees, I was offering every half hour at home and she seems dryer for longer...

 

[SarahBear]

I think you really have to go by your kid.

 

[SarahBear]

So, Violet was out of diapers at 18 months, had a bit of accidents around 19 months, but getting better again toward the end of the month. Then we went on a month long vacation and things got pretty bad (except for poop). I figured things would get better again after a couple weeks, but we've had a bit of mixed results, but have ultimately had diaper dependence. Even poop has started to become less reliable. She's 22 months old. I was hoping to be pretty much done with daytime diapers at this point. Not sure if there's anything I need to do other than wait for her to start pottying consistently again?

 

[counting]

Update, LO has been out of diapers except at night(And he does NOT have night accidents, but we cosleep and I have a new mattress so scared to take the leap) since just before 13 months. He is almost 14 months now. We have the occasional accident but I'd basically say, at not yet 14 months, my child is done with diapers forever. We only did EC very part time, followed his queues for readiness and it WORKED!! SO proud of my little man. I'm cautiously expecting #2, and despite the fact I'm having 2 under 2, I'll definitely only have 1 kid in diapers. Amazing!

 

[Feronia]

Update, LO has been out of diapers except at night(And he does NOT have night accidents, but we cosleep and I have a new mattress so scared to take the leap) since just before 13 months. He is almost 14 months now. We have the occasional accident but I'd basically say, at not yet 14 months, my child is done with diapers forever. We only did EC very part time, followed his queues for readiness and it WORKED!! SO proud of my little man. I'm cautiously expecting #2, and despite the fact I'm having 2 under 2, I'll definitely only have 1 kid in diapers. Amazing!

Nice! My daughter was out of diapers by 15-16 months (though I don't risk night yet even though she's dry as well), and everyone told me it's because she's a girl and "girls are way faster" and not to expect that for a boy. We did part-time EC, watched her for cues, and put out a little potty for her as well. I'm glad to hear that boys can potty train early because I was starting to worry about my second possibly being a boy and being in diapers for much longer...

 

[counting]

Yup, it's an individual child thing I think. Last night he DID have 2 accidents, but to be fair we were in hospital emergency for HOURS, poor kid. Today no accidents, always telling me if I ask if he needs to go- He is just amazing. People underestimate what young children are capable of. (PS. I was actually wondering about the difference if this baby is a girl!)

 

[Feronia]

Lol people were telling me horror stories about their girl learning early but their boy learning at 5! Seriously! I'll just have to find out the personality of this little one to see whether the same gentle techniques will work, regardless of the baby's sex. Sometimes I've heard older kids can help teach! Yeah, my daughter definitely still had accidents at 14 and 15 months, but her potty usage rate gradually improved.

 

[readyORnot]

sarahbear, my son was pretty much toilet trained at about 18 months but after Christmas, where we had a change in routine for two weeks, things basically went downhill.

I believe I made some mistakes by not trying harder to get the child minders to support what I was doing with him. It's been a long hard road but starting around his 2 nd birthday I decided to just take a leap and his new child minder is completely on board. He is now approaching 27 months old and is 100% nappy free, including at night. We do have the odd incident now and then, but we never use nappies any more at all. I'm even brave enough to have him nappy free at night in my bed occasionally.

 

[SarahBear]

Good news! Violet seems to be over her potty hiatus. We're still a long ways from where she was at at 18 months, but we're no longer diaper dependent. At 18 months, she was telling us when she needed to go, just about every time. Lately, however, it's more about reading her cues with her sometimes asking for the potty. So not quite where we were, but I'm happy with where we are. Hopefully it won't be too long before she's more verbally communicative.

 

[readyORnot]

sarahbear, glad things are looking up!

I'm sorry you had a similar experience to mine. But it does make me feel better to know that my situation was not unique.

The thing that I found a bit frustrating was naysayers like my mum saying it was a total waste of time just because he wasn't fully toilet trained any earlier than usual. I've tried to explain that early potty training is often a benefit of EC but is not the primary objective, but it falls on deaf ears.

 

[SarahBear]

Yeah, certainly are not alone! I do wonder when we will be officially done with diapers, but we have no big trips planned in our near future, so hopefully we can stay on track. I am due with my second child March 22nd, so I'm hoping we can stick with the potty and phase out of diapers and be out of diapers long enough to not go back to them when the baby comes. She has been out of diapers while at home and awake and been doing well with it. When we went out yesterday, she used the public rest room once while out and had one "accident" in the car on the way home. If I remember correctly, she also used the potty in the car once? Can't remember if she did or if she just said she needed the potty, but then didn't go. That's not bad for a kid under 2 being away from home for several hours.

 

[readyORnot]

hopefully by March things will have settled down for you.
If you feel brave enough, I would try having a couple of days out without nappies. Angelo tends to actually be better when we're out! He loves using different toilets even though I personally hate public restrooms and can't wait to get out of there asap!

Also, when I put my baby girl on the potty it makes Angelo want to use the potty too,which is pretty useful! So even if you're not quite there by March, pottying the baby might provide additional incentive for Violet.

I think doing ec adds a level of added pressure to try and have the little one potty trained sooner than average but this doesn't always happen and I think it's important not to lose sight of the other benefits!

 

[SarahBear]

hopefully by March things will have settled down for you.
If you feel brave enough, I would try having a couple of days out without nappies. Angelo tends to actually be better when we're out! He loves using different toilets even though I personally hate public restrooms and can't wait to get out of there asap!

Also, when I put my baby girl on the potty it makes Angelo want to use the potty too,which is pretty useful! So even if you're not quite there by March, pottying the baby might provide additional incentive for Violet.

I think doing ec adds a level of added pressure to try and have the little one potty trained sooner than average but this doesn't always happen and I think it's important not to lose sight of the other benefits!

Well, she's been out of diapers during times that she's home and awake (so not naptime or bedtime). She also is out of diapers when playing outside. I think if she keeps up how she's been, we'll venture into diaper-free outings soon as well. Well stick with diapers during sleep time for a while though.

I could see the baby using the potty as being a incentive to use the potty... good point!

As for pressure to train sooner, I've always seen that as a big plus for EC! Being about a month short of 2 and being on her way out of diapers isn't so bad though.