Both my babies were not babies by the time I heard about EC. But if I had another baby, I feel no desire to even attempt EC.
There's a huge difference between EC and BF. We are mammals. All mammals feed their babies milk from mother's bodies. Our breasts evolved for that purpose, and without it, in a "natural" state, our babies would die.
On the other hand, as any reader of "Everyone Poops" will know, mammals have widely varying methods of dealing with feces. Some of them do it in special places and bury it. Some of them do it wherever, whenever.
Among human cultures, EC may be widespread but it is not the only way to deal with the issue in the same way that BF is the ONLY way to feed an infant. Some cultures swaddled their infants and changed out the moss stuffed between their legs once a day. Some cultures "clicker trained" their tiny babies to pee and poop on command. Most do something somewhere in between.
But humans have been wearing clothes for tens of thousands of years (go look for the data on the evolution of body lice and their divergence from headlice for some fascinating theories on that). We've been living in places too cold for babies to go naked for longer than that. I firmly believe that some form of diapering is just as "natural" as EC is.
EC is a current "This is the MOST natural" fad, the way paleo eating or traditional foods is the current "Right way to do NATURAL" in the diet arena. IT doesn't mean it is the only natural, or even the truly most natural way to deal with the issue of teaching a baby human being how the other human beings in the tribe practice the elimination of bodily wastes.
The modern world in which most of us are living puts additional barriers in the way of practicing EC. IT's why diapering becomes more common as people move into a more modern urbanized lifestyle. Since a large percentage of child abuse cases have pottying or wetting/soiling accidents as their triggers, the LAST thing that a stressed out new parent needs is yet another feces-related thing they HAVE TO GET EXACTLY RIGHT to prove their parenting worth.
SO if you want to try it and it works for you, that's great! Have fun! Just don't come at me trying to prove (as some have) that diapers are abusive, that diapering parents are ignoring their childs basic human needs, or that EC parents are somehow tighter bonded to their children than diapering parents.
As someone with an infant who did not signal (and his sitter, who came from an EC culture, agreed he did not signal) and pooped once a week from the time he was 4 months old until after he was one, I believe EC would have been frustrating and confusing to us both. It is not a cure-all, not every child responds to it in the same way, and it isn't a magic answer to the question of "how long will I have to be cleaning baby poop up? Either way, you're going to be wiping butts and cleaning up poop -- either from your sink, or from the floor, or from a diaper.
this is it exactly. how many times have you heard these same exact comments about BF'ing? too hard, too time consuming, can never leave the baby with someone else, it's just not for me, doesn't fit in with my lifestyle, what would i do when i'm out of the house, i have other kids to worry about and don't have time... as Sheryl so eloquently put it, with the right information and support, lots more people would do it.
) degree turn on that perspective.
I have a friend who did it and her baby peed everywhere. I remember being at a cafe and her crawler was just peeing. She was super cavalier about it and it was a major turn off to EC. Even if your "catch" rate is 90%, you're still having to clean up 10% of messes.
Follow Mothering