I had heard about
Elimination Communication last year when I stumbled upon a blog written by a lady who designed and made her own infant/toddler carrier called the
Kozy Carrier. The blog mentioned "ECing" a couple times, so I had to google the term to discover what this meant.
And then, WOW. Going without diapers and instead taking your infant to a toilet starting as early as infancy?! This sounded crazy, and totally awesome at the same time. I was up for the challenge and knew I had to try it. (Note: well, I was up for the challenge of my version of EC. I still used diapers while taking her to go potty when I noticed her "signs" that she needed to go. If I missed it, no big deal.)
So at the end of August, at the age of 7 months, I started taking Audra to the potty for all her #2s and a few #1s also. By that time I could pretty easily predict when she would need to use the potty (always right after nursing), so I just started offering her the potty instead of letting her use her diaper.
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| Audra's first week on the potty - 9/8/13 |
I purchased a tiny Baby Bjorn Smart Potty, but soon discovered that she did better with being held over the regular potty instead. We fell into a routine and pretty soon she was consistently going #2s on the potty! About 50% of her pee still went into her (disposable - tsk, tsk) diapers, but I've changed less than a dozen poopy diapers over the last 10 months so that was a huge benefit.
And, to be honest, sometimes I really had to cling to that benefit, since I had moments of regretting this whole crazy EC journey! (It is a LOT of work. I'm not sure if this happens to most children who use EC, but when Audra became aware of her peeing she would wake up in the middle of the night just to use the potty. Unfortunately she often thought that being awake should mean having a snack, which would then lead to more potty-wakenings. We were in a rough cycle every night for quite a few weeks - or more. My memories are a bit fuzzy, probably due to the sleep deprivation that I suffered. What's more, we had weeks where Audra would seem to regress in her potty abilities and she'd be peeing in her diaper right after insisting that she didn't need to go to the bathroom. This had me doubting myself and the whole process and/or dwelling on what could I be doing wrong.)
Anyway, I took a huge leap of faith this week and started putting Audra in training pants all day during the daytime... even when we went to the park, even when we went to church, even when we spent a few hours out shopping, even going to the grocery store and even during naps. Yes, we've had a number of accidents, but thankfully they have all happened when we've been at home. Besides, I expected and planned for accidents to happen, so it didn't make me stress.
Please note that I'm not trying to praise myself or my baby for this accomplishment. All of this is to praise the practice of Elimination Communication, because, guys, it WORKS. All David and I have done over the last 10 months is reinforce the idea that pee and poop go in the potty. It's no different than teaching anything else to a child. Practice makes perfect, and habits are formed through repetition.
Yes, it's true that Elimination Communication takes enormous amounts of time and patience.
But then again, changing diapers for 2-3 years takes time and patience also.
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| Wearing what we call "big girl undies" on 6/3/13. |
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| Sitting on her "Elmo seat" at 17 months. |
