14 month old showing signs, not sure what to do. :)

[chellebee]

Hi mamas

I really like the EC philosophy...haven't done it in practice or much further reading on it because of a very complicated birth and start to motherhood. However, I am wondering if there is anything I can do to help my 14 month old with this right now. He signs for a diaper either before or after he has gone poop and loves sitting on his potty chair, which we have had out since he was probably 8 months old. I can't tell when he pees but the poops are very obvious...but I've never been able to get him to a potty/sink fast enough.

Is there anything I can do at this age/stage that would help him? On one side of the fence people are telling me that all kids go through this phase and it's not really a true "sign of readiness," but I can't help but think that it is happening for a reason.

Any tips for us? Is there a routine (or way of doing things) you would recommend?

ETA: Whoops, how could I forget? Last week he took off his diaper (when I wasn't looking) and peed on the floor, and today he did the same and pooped on the floor. I was gone for probably 30 seconds throwing on a sweatshirt in another room. Maybe he is wanting privacy?

TIA!

[Carlyle]

Wow, that's awesome that your son is doing so well all by himself DOn't listen to the people telling you it's not "signs of readiness..." They're just touting pediatrician folklore (i.e. based on the idea that a child should go from 0 to potty trained in less than a week if you wait until they are magically "ready". Sure some kids will do this, but why wait until then if they're ready to learn sooner?!)

One of my best friends started offering occasional potty breaks to her ds when he was about 18 months, and he was totally done by about 2 to 2 1/2 years old (on the early side for boys in the states).

Have you tried talking to him about it? Put him on the potty whenever he signs and talk about why...talk to him about how he seems ready to stop pooping in a diaper. Saying things like "oh, you're pooping! Someday soon you'll be able to poop in the potty--do you want to try now?" Put him on whenever you go, about 10 minutes after eating/drinking, right when he wakes up from naps and any other time you're inspired. Have fun!

[sapphire_chan]

cool beans about him signing!

I'd get pants that are easy to take down and fasten his diaper loose to speed up offering.

And I've been ecing from as soon as possible and only occasionally read a pee cue. So what I do is offer every 2 hours. At 14 months it was 1.5 hours.

a friend offers when the diaper is surprisingly dry, including just drier than expected.