EC with an older kid around

[Moonchild77]

Hi,

do you think it is harder (too) to EC with an older child around?
I sometimes really miss signs( am not even sure he HAS them anymore?? teething and standing up byhimself, etc) ds2 is now 9 mo and ds1 is 3.5 y.

I let ds2 naked bottom around the house, a lot, but he almost always pees on the floor. I catch not a lot anymore, he does only a pee and poop in the morning on the potty and then I catch like 1 to 3 at most the rest of the day!

He doesn;t even seem to be bothered by a wet nappy, when he DID like a couple of weeks ago??

He is not in the carrier that much at home , he wants to play and crawl and such, is it because of that?

sigh....

[pixiepunk]

there is often a loss of focus on potty when newly mobile - i'm sure that is probably it. sometimes their signals also change as they grow, so it may also be that he is signaling in a different way and it will just take you some time to figure it out.

i actually found that my older two kiddos are awesome at reading baby's subtle potty signals, and are often the ones to tell me that baby needs to pee when i'm not paying attention. but i also used full-time diaper/trainer back-up until very recently ('baby' is now 16 months old) because sometimes even when i knew she had to pee i was in the middle of dealing with something i couldn't stop for one of the other two. diaper back-up helped me take misses in stride and stay relaxed about the potty. of course if the misses don't bother you that's another thing, i think nakey butt is probably best for EC purposes, but i cleaning up misses stresses me out as we have mostly carpet in our house, and i needed that layer of protection to stay sane

[Moonchild77]

yeah, exactley, when I am dealing with ds1, I do miss a lot :-(

ds1 tells me after the fact that ds2 has peed ;-) and is flopping around in it, trying to get totally wet :

I do use cloth diaper backup, away from home, but also, it is going to get colder, so...??

at home he is naked a lot atm.

in winter, I fear EC will stop, how on earth am I going to do this outside?? : holding onto a baby, undressing, holding nappy, trousers, baby, and redressing again, in the snow/rain??? :
othertopic I guess

using nappy backup, makes me go quicker trough all my diapers when I am ECing than when I was not.....

[pixiepunk]

i didn't find winter EC to be too much trouble. i put a pair of leggings on the baby and kept her in diaper and leggings and shirt at home, pulled a pair of stretchy waist pants over it when we went out. i keep a little potty with a fleece cover on it in the car so we can potty there in the warmth when out and about if we don't have an indoor spot that's convenient. really it's not that different than diapering when you're out and about - you've got to find a place that you can lay them down to change them. some folks will carry a plastic container with secure lid in their diaper bag, so there's always a receptacle handy to hold baby over. i also found that my baby liked to be worn more when we were out, and it was more convenient anyway so i'd have hands free, which mean her signals were a lot stronger and more obvious because she was so close.

a really good inexpensive option for at-home diapering are prefolds with a prefold belt or a snappi. no cover (so you know right away when baby has peed). you can get dozens of them for what like 3 'fancy' diapers or trainers would cost, so you don't worry about laundry as much. and with the prefold belt (which you can make with a piece of elastic and a bit of fleece) potty opportunities are super easy. you can also use flats which are even cheaper, or old receiving blankets for that matter. then you can save your nicer diapers for when you go out of the house, and not have to stress over cleaning up misses or fear running out of diapers or doing laundry every day.

[Moonchild77]

thanks, for the tips, I am going to look into the prefold belt :-)


I do think I have to wear ds2 a bit more, I wore ds1 at this age (9mo) like all day, ds2 just out and about and maybe 1 to 2 hours at home. Because he is already so mobile and wants to explore! (crawling, standing, etc) and he is already 26 lbs (11.5 kilograms)!!! ds1 was 16 months when HE was that heavy!! (so already a lot more mobile)

I think wearing him more, will make me more in tune, definitely.

[EdnaMarie]

It's hard. Mine are 4 and 34 months. I go on instinct and timing.

"how on earth am I going to do this outside?? holding onto a baby, undressing, holding nappy, trousers, baby, and redressing again, in the snow/rain??"

I don't EC outside in winter. It's too cold for the baby. Well, maybe sometimes, but not in the rain, are you nuts?!? We just go inside. If baby can't wait, oh, well. Next time!

EC for us is about gradual potty training, not infant potty training. Babies have misses, period. If that's due to the rain or a sibling, that's life. It's okay.

[WiseBirdsMom]

I have two sons, 13 mo and 3yo. My DS1 will tell me after the fact, or while my DS2 poops (that's pretty rare, thankfully)! I found that I had great success in the morning when my DS2 was awake, and my DS1 was still sleeping. It was a nice time that I could just focus on him, and I would let him have some nice nakey time. If you have a dedicated time during the day that you can do this, it can help a ton.

[Moonchild77]

thanks again for replying, ladies :-)

@ Ednamarie: thanks, I like what you wrote about what EC is for you.
If I can get that into my mind, the misses will be less "distrubing", I tend to be a perfectionist.