Starting out with a 11 month old

[Ava's Mama]

Hi, I would like to start EC with my 11 month old DD. I will be doing it on a part time basis as I work 4 days a week. So, do I need any supplies? Do I need a small potty or can I use a regular toilet? Just not quite sure what I need. From reading some of the other threads it seems like a good method is to just put her on the potty upon waking, before/after naps, diaper changes, that sort of thing. She poops VERY inconsistently, so I need to work on figuring out her cues. Any thoughts are welcome.

[zoebird]

you definitely have all the right ideas.

my boy just uses a regular toilet all the time. he won't use little potties of any kind. he's getting heavy though (at 16 months) for the holds that we normally do, and i'm shopping around for a good toilet insert that i can use where ever i go (and at home). he likes consistency.

the main thing is to take her frequently and not worry about misses. we do the common times (coming and going, before/after naps and meals), and in the am, every hour. in the afternoons, he goes every 2-3 hrs instead of each hr.

it will be ok; you'll be great. you'll learn her signals pretty quickly.

[dogretro]

At 11 mos, I might get one small potty, but I would first try going straight to using a toilet insert and having her sit on the big toilet. We use the Munchkin padded seat w/ handles at home (& there is even one at our church, heehee). It is v cushy, fits well, and the handles are nice. It easily fits into a plastic grocery bag or tote bag to take out and about, but we keep a folding seat w/ Sesame Street characters on it in the diaper bag.

You can most definitely keep her in diapers during the day (which I would if there are going to be frequent poop misses) and still ec. At her age, you really do not need anything "special". Good luck and have fun!!!

[Ava's Mama]

I tried putting her on the regular toilet tonight right before her bath. She fussed a little, but seemed fine...but no pee. I am going to try it again in the AM and try to find a seat to put on the big toilet. Another question: do you make the signals (ie psssss) when they actually pee/poo or when you sit them down to indicate that that is what they need to do?

[dogretro]

I dont signal w/ pssss anymore, but dh does. At this point, she knows what to do so I say "Go pee-pee". She will often say, "Get the poopy out" or "Get the pee-pee out" lol. For a newbie, I would definitely say something like "You are going pee-pee! You are getting the pee-pee out." Something simple and straightforward so that she can begin to make the connection between the words and the action. I swear, half of potty training is getting them to understand what you mean by peeing!

[Shanny2032]

dd is 13 months and we have started to ec much more regularly in the last couple weeks. I have a potty chair in every room of our 900 sq ft. May seem extreme but when this girls poops it is "grunt-scrunch face-poop" FAST so I learned it was worth it to put the cheapy ikea potty's everywhere.

I just started reading diaper free baby and feel it is a great resource for some of the questions I have had and some things I didn't even think about.

We started the day with a pee and poop on the potty and it was pretty cool! I am doing it much more so at home than at work (she comes to work with me as a Nanny) because I am much busier at work and don't want to ruin any of their things so I have bought some "panties" from ecwear.com for her to wear there. That way she has something on but it is easier and faster to get off than a diaper. And I love them - they are so cute!

[Ava's Mama]

I bought a little potty to put on our toilet seat. First I tried out just holding her over the regular toilet and she peed twice there in one day! So, I went and bought the seat to make things easier. I am just being casual about it, only putting her on it 3 or times a day. But having her pee twice certainly gave me more motivation. I am more nervous about the pooping part. I will start working on that more this weekend when I am with her all day! Thanks for the suggestions!