Need Fresh Ideas

[LorenaAZ]

We've been doing EC with DD since birth. We took a few weeks off at the beginning but got right back to it. DD has only had a few days with no misses and she's almost 11 months old. It seems like now she doesn't care if she wets/soils herself. We go through soooooooooo many underwears and pants every day it's ridiculous. She usually pees herself, waits a little while, and then comes to me because she's uncomfortable/cold. When I take her potty, I make the cue sound, and most of the time, she goes potty. We very rarely miss a poop because her face gets really red, so it's easy to tell when she needs to go. She simply doesn't ask to go potty. Unless we take her and she happens to need to go, she'll go. She also gets extremely irritated if I try to potty her through the night, so she sleeps with a diaper on. I stopped trying to potty her through the night months ago because it wasn't working for us. I'm a full time student, single mama, so I do need the little sleep I can get. We co-sleep. We also use a diaper when she's in the carseat as she will not tell me she needs to go and it's a pain to have to take off 2 pants, socks, underwear, remove the carseat cover, clean her, etc....just to drive down 3 minutes to the store. We only have 1 carseat cover. I catch the "expected" pees consistently (right after naps, 1st thing in the morning, etc.).

Do you have any fresh ideas I could try? It used to be so much easier when she lived in her sling.....now that she's mobile it seems like she just doesn't care if she pees herself because the world is much more interesting! Help mamas!!

[sgmom]

Originally Posted by LorenaAZ

now that she's mobile it seems like she just doesn't care if she pees herself because the world is much more interesting!

That'd be it! We EC'ed from 4.5 months old and didn't have many misses until she started crawling at 7 months. EC then turned to part time (because she would refuse the potty), and when she started walking at 12 months, EC pretty much went straight out the window. Now at 15 months, it's nothing BUT misses. But I have a VERY busy child.

The world is a pretty stinkin' interesting place to the littles, there's just no time to stop and think to pee! My suggestion would be to back off a little and not worry about it. Continue to offer the potty at regular intervals, or when the likelyhood is high (ie immediately after meals, waking, etc) and not worry about the rest of the times.

If you want to keep her aware or her elimination, you can always try using gerber training underwear (they're like a thick waffle cotton underwear with a sewn in pad). We use them here, but because we have SO many misses and they will leak once the cotton absorbs to it's full capacity, I only use them when I'm really watching.

I also suggest making the potty a VERY interesting place. Bring toys, books, things that will keep her sitting on it for at least a few minutes at a time. You can also leave the potty in places where she's likely to go sit on it herself (if she's able to).

11 months is a hard age for EC. Hang in there!

[hrsmom]

That sounds VERY familiar!!!! And my baby definitely does not care if she wets herself. (She finally seems to care about soiling herself, but that took awhile.) All good suggestions from sgmom!

[pixiepunk]

for me personally, a lot of misses in undies/clothes stress me out. so when we had that amount of missing we were using trainers pretty much all the time, and changing immediately when wet.

i feel like i always suggest this (i guess because it worked very well for my second child), but i watched him and kept track for a few days of when he went (and when he slept and ate and nursed) and then offered at the times he was most likely to go. after a while, he started holding it for those times, and was quite consistently dry by about 20 months when i took him. gradually between that time and when he was about 2.5, he took more control (and then gave it back, and then took more control, and then gave it back...) until finally he was totally initiating all pottying. but it was a very slow process, and i lead the way for a long time until he let me know he was ready. he was the one of my 3 kids that signalled the least and seemed least bothered by being wet, so timing is what worked best for him.

[LorenaAZ]

We already use the gerber undies. They don't really hold 1 full pee, but at least it doesn't all end up on the floor/carpet that way. We always bring something for her to play with in the potty or she starts to scream. She is so active! It's like she needs something for her always-moving-hands to fiddle with. She's so cute....she claps for herself every time she potties in the toilet.

I am going to try logging information as suggested by pixiepunk and see if I can find any trends to follow and draw from.

It's good to hear we're not the only ones going through this. I was starting to wonder if something had gone wrong somewhere. Thank you Mamas

[zoebird]

my guy is similar.

he's very busy, so when we are at home, he's unlikely to signal. my method while at home is to take him every hour after his first potty inthe am (the only one he signal's for). and any time he's very fussy.

he also does the cutest thing. because we have laminate floors,s i let him go diaper free most mornings. usually, i catch, but if there's a miss, he comes over to me and points it out. so adorable!

when we are out, the bathroom is part of the adventure, so he'll signal just to go in there and flush and wash his hands. LOL

i don't have to take anything into the bathroom with him because flushing and washing hands "rules."

i alsos find that new teeth tend to push EC to the background for him, so when that's happening, i don't catch as much.

[emmaegbert]

This board always cheers me up. Because misery loves company perhaps? Just kidding.

I've been feeling bad about my EC-- or lack of it-- lately. We catch almost all poops (which I am very glad for!), and catch a couple of pees a day. But lately I'm going through so many diapers that it hardly feels like I'm doing anything differently than with my first. And I sometimes wonder... am I even doing EC??

My little girl never seems to tell me if she has to go, doesn't seem to care if she's wet, and as far as I can tell never holds anything. She just turned 8m yesterday, I started EC at 2m. When she started crawling (right before 6m) I really noticed a decrease in the amount of catches and started using diapers a lot more, even at home (also b/c misses started getting all over the place!).

But anyway, I try to focus on the positive. (she poops in the potty and definitely knows what the potty is for and how to "let go") But she's pretty much in diapers all the time (cloth), sometimes these padded trainers I made. I find that the regular trainers don't do much. And we have all carpets, so cleaning up constant pee on the floor was getting to me.

I pretty much am assuming this is how it will be until she's very good at walking and doing a little more communicating (for now she babbles and gesticulates, but as for clear communicative stuff, she only says "hi", signs for milk- sometimes, and says "em" when she wants me).