Advanced Elimination Communication

Advanced Elimination Communication

You've been practicing elimination communication in a limited way for a while and you're ready to take the plunge and get your baby out of diapers completely. Or maybe your baby has sensitive skin that's prone to diaper rash. How do you get there?
The first step is more of a mental step than anything. You have to determine your comfort level with having a bare-bottomed baby who could "go" at anytime anywhere. You will be catching a lot of pees and poops, but you'll still miss some and you need to be OK with that. The main reason babies are diapered is so that the messes are contained and relatively easy to clean up. This means that the baby often sits in the mess for a while and that does seem unfair to the baby. However, if you're good at changing baby right away, that's preferable in the long run to being nervous about baby's elimination. If you're the sort who gets neurotic about every spot, you may not be comfortable with going completely diaperless. You can still do EC with diapers.

You have to consider your home and the ramifications of baby eliminating on the floor, the furniture, or you. There may be limited areas in your home that are easier to clean up than others. The easiest is a lawn-grass yard, which involves no cleanup for pees and limited cleanup for poops. Next is a tile or linoleum floor that only needs to be wiped with a rag. For that kind of floor immediate cleanup is important for a walking baby so he doesn't slip in a puddle of pee. A carpeted floor is harder to clean up but it can be done with a rag and a natural cleaner. Regular mild cleaners work pretty well, though you'll need to use elbow grease for poop. Pet cleaners work well, though they're not the most natural choice. Considering and being prepared for the inevitable cleanup will go a long way towards making you more comfortable. Even if you're going the traditional toddler potty learning route, there will come a point where it's time to take off the diaper.

Once you've accepted the worst case scenario, the next step is to simply take your baby's diaper off and go about your business. It's important to be as relaxed as you would be with the diaper on. If you find yourself getting too nervous, it's time to back off and maybe put the diaper back on. You pay attention to your baby's cues and take him to the potty when he indicates a need to go. Or, you can just take him regularly and see if he goes on cue then. As you keep working with your baby, you will catch more pees and poops and miss fewer. However, it will vary greatly from day to day.

As your baby gets older and learns new skills he will be more distracted and may forget to signal his need to eliminate. Who wants to take the time to go to the bathroom when life is so exciting? You should take those days in stride and keep at it. There may also be times when baby has a potty strike. When that happens, you can back off of EC and use diapers for a few days, then try again. If you like to sign with your older baby, you can teach him a sign for going potty. With a lot of patience and persistence you may be able to have your baby out of diapers early and eliminating in the potty most of the time. It's important to always keep in mind that EC is a journey, and it should be fun for you and your baby. If at any time it's not fun for either one of you, it's best to back off for a while, then try it again when you're both more relaxed

Integrating Elimination Communication

Integrating Elimination Communication

Very few of us are going to end up being die-hard ECers even if we do start out that way because for the most part it isn't very practical considering our highly scheduled modern life. Even so, there are some very good reasons to practice EC on some level with your baby. I believe it's a skill every new parent should acquire and work on.
The first reason is that it facilitates getting a baby out of diapers for a portion of the day. At the very least, you will be occasionally holding your baby over a container for a few minutes, rather than taking off one diaper and immediately putting on another. Even a few minutes of airing out can do a lot of good for baby's skin and help prevent diaper rash that's caused by too much exposure to wet diapers. You'll also be trying to keep baby in a dry diaper as much as possible, which will also help with diaper rash. More likely, you'll be taking the diaper off your baby for longer periods at a time. If your baby does happen to develop a diaper rash, you'll find the best way to deal with it is often to just give the baby lots of bare-bottom time. If you're already practicing EC, you'll be more comfortable with that.

The second reason is that even though you won't be catching every pee or poop your baby makes, your baby will start holding pee longer and therefore when she does pee, it will be higher volume. This will also help baby stay dry in her diaper for longer, and you'll be able to gradually go longer and longer between changes. Overall you'll use fewer diapers, which can make getting around easier. Babies who are ECed will very often develop the ability to stay dry all night most of the time fairly early. You can take them potty in the morning or if you're too late, change their diaper with the knowledge that it got wet recently. Given that cloth diapers can sometimes leak, having a baby who can stay dry all night can be a real bonus.

The third reason is that when it's time for complete potty learning, all you do is ramp up what you've been doing from the beginning. Your child's potty training will become the final stage in the EC journey rather than being this brand new, possibly intimidating, milestone. This can make the potty learning time less formidable for both of you.

Finally, EC is fun. There's nothing like the triumphant feeling you get when baby is clean and dry, you take her to the potty, and she gleefully produces a double whammy. Baby enjoys not having to soak in that even for a second, and you can mentally count up the number of diapers you've saved that day or week. A diaper saved is a diaper earned, right?

Elimination communication is for everyone, not just the committed environmentalists or crunchy mamas. Even conventional parents along with their babies can have fun and benefit from a little EC.

Getting Started with Elimination Communication

Getting Started with Elimination Communication

It is generally believed that little babies have no control over the muscles used in elimination functions. The truth is that a newborn baby does have control over those muscles. Whether baby pees or poops in a diaper or in a container, the baby often does so consciously and deliberately.
An observant and in tune parent can work with her baby on the timing and location of those elimination functions. The result is another way to bond with baby and the use of a few less diapers.

People who practice elimination communication (EC) do so on a number of different levels. You have the people who believe diapers are evil and get their babies completely out of diapers within a few months of birth. On the other end, there are parents who keep their babies in diapers for pretty much as long as is normally expected and they work on elimination communication on a part time basis. It is my belief that most of us will fall into that second category. While it is possible to completely potty train an infant, it is a rather time consuming process and you will have a lot of misses, and therefore messes, along the way.

I want to establish right now that elimination communication is not an all or nothing proposition, and it does not mean you have to dump your diapers. You can successfully practice it part time. Any amount of time spent working with your baby on elimination will benefit both of you and will lay a good foundation for future potty learning. In other words, you have nothing to lose by trying.

You can start working with a baby on potty functions at any time. However, it is easier if you start before the baby is four months old. I'd recommend beginning somewhere around ten days to two weeks after baby's birth. In my experience any earlier is overwhelming, though more die hard ECers say it's best to start with the baby's meconium movement.

In the time that you're not ECing your baby, you're most likely noticing when the baby is wetting and soiling his diaper. Maybe baby pees right after nursing, or poops at ten every morning. A real good time for elimination is first thing after baby wakes up and right after a nap. When you start noticing a pattern over a few days, you can anticipate your baby's elimination and be ready with a container of some sort.

The container can be a small potty, your sink, bathtub or toilet. It can even be a dry diaper. Remove baby's diaper before he goes, hold him over your chosen container and wait. You can hold baby gently by his thighs and allow him to rest on your forearms. When baby eliminates, give him a cue. It can be a "psss" sound or a phrase. You will use the same cue each time you see baby eliminating. At first, you wait until baby eliminates to give him the cue. After a while, you can use the cue to encourage baby to go.

Once you catch one pee or poo, EC can get pretty addicting because it really is a lot of fun. Here are some important points to remember: This should be fun for both you and your baby. If it stops being fun, it's a good idea to take a break for a few days. It's not about catching everything or seeing how quickly you can get baby out of diapers. It's about bonding and learning with your baby. It should never ever be punitive in any way. While some of us may indeed find we can confidently take our baby out of diapers much earlier than what's considered normal, most of us will just steadily EC our babies a little here and there and one day, that ECing will morph into gentle potty learning for our toddler.

More on Elimination Communication

More on Elimination Communication

It's surprisingly easy to start elimination communication (EC) with your baby. It's really a matter of being observant about the times your baby naturally eliminates, then anticipating those times, cuing baby when he goes and catching his offerings. Here are a few more pointers about the process.
Part of getting baby to pee in a container, rather than in his diaper, is to reinforce for him the dry feeling, and how that feels so much better than being wet. This is the part about EC that does take more work. An infant can pee as often as every twenty minutes, and if you're using prefold cloth diapers, it doesn't take much wee to wet the diaper. You won't catch every pee, and that shouldn't even be a goal. But you do want to get baby out of his wet diaper as soon as you can, preferably immediately after baby wets it. You want baby to be dry most of the time, so even during times that you're not trying to get baby to pee in the potty, you want to be checking his diaper at least every half hour and changing it as needed. If you happen to catch baby in the act of wetting his diaper, you should cue him to strengthen his association between your cue and his elimination.

This brings up the question of whether you can successfully EC using disposable diapers or even some of those more high tech cloth diaper systems that try to keep baby feeling dry even when the diaper is wet. You can EC with disposable diapers, but the challenge will be that since wet disposable diapers don't feel wet your baby is less likely to develop a strong connection between peeing in a diaper and being wet or feel much difference between "wet" and "dry." You can still observe baby's elimination functions and work with him on EC when you know he's likely to go.

Once you start ECing your baby, you will tend to find more times that he's likely to go and be able to anticipate those times. You may have gotten started on a pattern of peeing right after nap. But then you noticed baby also likes to pee right after nursing. As you see more patterns, go with them. You can also start trying to encourage baby to go by using your cue. At first, you're merely anticipating what he was going to do anyway. But by using the cue, you create an association for him between your cue and eliminating, and this allows for you to encourage baby to eliminate at times he might not otherwise. Some babies are really sensitive to the association, and others are less so. Still, if you EC baby regularly throughout the day, most babies will begin to hold it at least for a few minutes.

Another thing to note is what your baby does right before he goes. Maybe he squirms or wimpers. Newborns especially seem to get their entire bodies involved in the process of elimination. That can become baby's way of communicating to you that he needs to go, and you can then take him to the potty. Elimination Communication is a journey, not a destination. It's a fun way for you and your baby to communicate about an important function. It's another way for baby to let you know what he needs. You should do it as long as you're both having fun with it and it's enhancing your relationship.

Elimination Communication

How You Can Reduce Your Baby's Use of Diapers by Learning How to Do Elimination Communication (EC) with Your Baby.

Discover How Parents Practicing Elimination Communication NEVER Return to Full-Time Diaper Use.
You Can $ave 100's of Dollars a Year on Diapers, and Reduce Your Washing Load.
You Can Become
Part Time Diaper Free!
Baby Pottying is FUN!
Welcome to Part Time Diaper Free!
On this website, you'll find lots of tips about practicing part-time elimination communication with your baby. In the free resources you'll access a lot more! Be sure to sign up right away.

Your baby can be wearing a diaper for your peace-of-mind (as this may help you to relax), even though they don't always use it.
You offer your baby a potty break at certain key times they are likely to need to go at first, to begin learning together how to do 'Baby Pottying' together. Give it a shot! You'll save a few diapers.

'Diaper-Free' is the destination, not the start of your EC journey, remember that!
Good News! You will use less diapers in time as you discover how to easily fit some 'potty breaks' into your day!

To help you begin, I have a variety of resources built from my own experiences practicing EC with my two babies from birth.

From 100% Diapers to Diaper Free - when YOU and Your Baby or Toddler are ready! Elimination Communication is NOT an 'all-or-nothing' exercise - you can do it a little bit each day.

Potty Training Elimination Communication

Potty Training Elimination Communication

Elizabeth Parise of Concord, Mass., is mother to six, so to say she has her hands full is probably an understatement. But this mom also has found the time and commitment to essentially "potty train" the youngest three children from birth, in a method called Elimination Communication.

"When I first heard about Elimination Communication (EC), my first thought was that it would fit well with my parenting style," Parise says. "I already had three children and I was pregnant with my fourth and had always practiced natural or attachment parenting. I breastfed, co-slept, carried my babies in slings and other carriers, and I thought EC would fit right in. I especially thought it made sense because I breastfed 'on cue,' now I could potty 'on cue,' too. This meant that just like I fed my babies when they showed signs of hunger I also offered the potty when I noticed signs of needing to eliminate."

How Does It Work?

In EC a caregiver simply offers the infant a potty whenever the baby exhibits signs that he or she needs to go to the bathroom. Signs differ for each child but moms and dads closely observe their little ones until they can spot the telltale signals, such as squirming, fussing, passing gas, unexplained crying and a look of concentration.

"As the potty is offered, communication with the caregiver is reinforced and the baby may start to purposely signal the caregiver," Parise says. "As motor ability and independent behavior increases, the baby then takes over toileting."

Baby Sign Language and Elimination Communication - How Do I Introduce a Sign About Pottying?

Baby Sign Language and Elimination Communication - How Do I Introduce a Sign About Pottying?

Baby sign language is an excellent tool for communicating with your pre-verbal infant or toddler.

Even babies under one can enthusiastically recognise simple signs. This enables communication!

A sign for potty time offers your baby a way to tell you they need your help to go to the potty or toilet. Initially it will be recognition of the needs of their body, perhaps as they go, moments before or after.

Sign language is a 'bridge' between our pre-verbal babies and our verbal culture. You are giving them a 'tool' they may use to communicate with you. Our visual memories are older, so babies readily recognise signs as soon as they are able. Around 12 months is common for signing to really pick up, though earlier and later are just as possible. Keep practicing, look for recognition of signs before your baby will use them to 'talk' to you.

Choose an appropriate sign or natural gesture. It should be simple, so your baby can crudely imitate it, and always be used with the spoken word and loving eye contact.

These 3 tips will make it easy for you to sign regularly in your day so that baby sign language and infant pottying are simply integrated and normal parts of your lifestyle.

3 Strategies to Remember When Combining Infant Pottying With Baby Sign Language:

1. Make your chosen sign each time you approach the potty

2. Make your sign whenever your babe is on the potty

3. Use the sign to 'ask' if your babe wants to use their potty- respond to their excitement, respect their reservations.

With these 3 simple strategies you'll be adding baby sign language to your elimination communication (EC) moments with ease. Sometimes your infant will display great awareness and control. They'll sign clearly and in a timely way. Other times they won't - being a little person is busy work!

Expect your practicing of baby sign language and of EC to ebb and flow. Like any natural process there will be flashes of amazing communication, the reason families get hooked on elimination communication.

See this as a wonderful and fleeting sign of the future, not an expectation they'll be toilet independent at a very early age. EC is something you *practice* regularly, part of your lifestyle, rather than a 'method' or results based activity like conventional potty or toilet training.

Give it a go - Baby Sign Language and EC are great partners in helping your child to communicate with you as soon as they are able. You'll gradually reduce your use of diapers or nappies, helping the environment, saving you money and best of all, enjoying a new dimension in the bond you share with your baby.

Pop over to Charndra's website on part time Baby Pottying. Discover more insights into Baby Sign Language and EC. There are 2 versions: either http://www.PartTimeDiaperFree.com or http://www.PartTimeNappyFree.com.au - you can join to receive a free e-course introducing you to the Secrets of Confidence in Elimination Communication. Over 40 Potty Songs, plenty of tips, resources and helpful ideas to make your journey easing into EC very smooth indeed.