Anyone else EC'ing? or Planning to?

[cc_mama]

I ec'd my dd from 10wks on and still can't believe it works. Started with ds this weekend - 9 days old. Just offering at diaper changes but he's already getting vocal about not liking to be in a wet cloth diaper. It'll be interesting to see differences between ec'ing a boy and girl. My dd likes to help cue and if ds is passing gas she always says he needs to go potty :-) I've also been able to have a couple of hours in the afternoon of diaper free time with ds - after he's already gone on the potty.

Anyone else ec'ing or planning to? With my 2nd degree tears I understand why some cultures wait until 3 months to start - just for mama to have recovery time.

[marinak1977]

Mememememe!!! We've been ECing with our DS (7 weeks now) since about 1 week old because he naturally wanted to pee when his diaper was off and we started offering. Nowadays I catch about half of the pees, but still miss some when I'm slow to offer.
At 7 weeks he will give very strong signs for poop and we catch most of them. We hold him over the bathtub and then just rinse everything off.
The amazing thing is that he knows that's the place to poop and always gives his best effort. He's not yet as happy to poop when we EC on the go. (I've just been using bathrooms, not a container as I haven't figured that one out yet)
I just love it!!!! I find it so amazing after hearing from everywhere that children stay in diapers until after 2 years old in this culture. I just love taking him to potty and taking off a dry dipey.

[nola79]

What exactly is EC? I kind of figured it out from reading posts, but what does it stand for?

[marinak1977]

EC- elimination communication, learning to recognize LO's need to potty cues and offering an opportunity to go outside the diaper. I think that's it in a nutshell. It's really fun!

[hakeber]

I don't go diaper free yet, but we have been at it since we came home from the hospital at 2 days. I leave her on an open diaper flat most of the day, for misses but we catch about 70% of her pees and now that she is down to one big poo it's easy not to miss. First thing after her first morning nursing we go potty...but at night we do cloth diapers and swaddle because she will sleep for 6+ hours swaddled and I sleep too....sweet precious gorgeous REM sleep...I just won't give that up. If that makes me a bad mom, I will just have to live with that.

I love the look on her face and she is already mimicking my poop cue, z

she grunts and gives me her very adorable attempt at a raspberry noise and then she goes #2...and when she needs to pee, it's so obvious to me. She's all kicky and squirmy like she's doing the oh so familiar pee pee dance that every woman I know has performed outside of one restroom or another ...and dh is all how do you know? and I'm like Helllooooo? It's so obvious, Just LOOK at her!

I like it a LOT. I don't think I can convince other family members or friends to try it, and I swear my mom was actually ANGRY with me for even thinking about it! She was all "Give her a break, she's only a few days old what is WRONG with you, why do you always try to be this supermom?! " and I just sort of sat there like:

I don't get that reaction at all. I understand why people laugh or think I'm making it up but the anger thing is for me.

[mlwlovell]

We just started about a week ago with DS who is now 7 weeks old. When we got up to change him overnight, and he was still dry, we took that as a cue to start pottying him. We hold him over the regular toilet and he grunts to pee or poo. During the day, his cues are grunting, squirming in the wrap, and general fussiness. I always take him when he wakes, too. I would say we probably catch about half of the pees and poos. Sometimes, he just doesn't give me enough of a warning to get him to the potty in time. It's cold here in upstate NY right now, and going diaper free would just be too chilly!

I didn't learn about EC until my older DS was around 14 months, so this is all new territory for us. It's amazing to me how much he can already communicate at 7 weeks. I just needed to learn how to understand!

[VroomieMama]

It is amazing that you guys are ECing! My 10 mos. old twins are using cloth diapers and they are very communicative but it never came across to me that I could have tried ECing with them. Is it too late to start now? Not that I would actually do it but its under consideration.

[paxye]

We are ECing... started on the day she was born and now catch about 90-95% if pees in the day and all poos... I also EC at night and she stays in the same diaper all night without a problem..

we use prefolds with a prefold belt to hold it on in the day but I am starting to go diaperfree in the day also which is so fun!

Outings are also really easy... she stays dry the whole time we are out, and I offer the potty in the car or wherever I am and she is content the whole time we are out...

This is the third baby I have ECed and even now it still amazes me

[NSmomtobe]

Is it very time consuming? It seems like it would be.

[paxye]

not at all!

Though it is true that you need to be more aware (which is not a bad thing at all imo) it is not more time consuming than changing a diaper, it is actually quicker when you think about needing to clean poopy bums etc... instead of waiting for a child to be wet or dirty and then changing and cleaning, you are aware of the child's communication and offer the potty and that is it...

Then of course, you have less to no diapers to clean, no diaper rash to take care of and in the long run you have a child that is out of diapers completely at a younger age...

[b_light]

You ladies are inspiring me to try! I have her coverless some at home, but have never tried to hold her over the potty or anything. I tried today after she woke up after reading this thread. She peed on the way to the potty

...but I did learn that she pees quickly upon waking. My son has always had 10-15 minutes or so before he's ready to pee.

[mlwlovell]

I don't think it's ever too late to start. As I said before my older DS was 14 months old when I learned about EC. We started then, and he caught on pretty quickly. He was completely out of diapers and in regular underwear just before his second birthday (including overnight). During the summer he spent a lot of time naked bum, and that helped to increase his awareness, and helped me to recognize his patterns.

[csekywithlove]

Wow. I have honestly never heard of this. It sounds very interesting. We have an 18month old DS and I have been wondering lately if there was an alternative to diapers at the start. Maybe we will try with our next one. Good luck ladies. I think this is great for the kiddos!

[Happiestever]

We started at 2 weeks old. He's communicating, but I am too slow sometimes.

[Kidzaplenty]

[Dea]

I started a week ago and we've caught all of his poos. (I just realized that, whoo hoo, I love not washing poopy diapers!) And most of his evening pees. My infant potty is waiting for me at hte post office, yay, so far we've just been using a little ziploc container, but I don't find it comfortable for me to hold and he doesn't like it either.
We started ECing Trixie at 6 mos and I didn't have poopy diapers for a long time, but when she learned to walk she had a lot less interest in the potty, so here we are at 2 and she wears panties half of the time, and still has accidents. SO EC semi fail? (can't be a whole fail, I didn't have to wash so many diapers!)

[Astraia]

we've been at it or about a week now, and he'll be a month old on the 29th. I can't get a grip on doing it full time so I only offer if he's being VERY obvious about needing to go or when he wakes up from a nap. For a few days we caught every poo (and missed basically every pee, but whatever) then I got mastitis and couldn't bring myself to move, let alone hold him over everything, and we're starting from the beginning again

[Faliciagayle]

hate to be a party ... pooper... () but it doesn't always work perfectly.

We EC'd DD will amazing results from 2 till 11 months when she started crawling and never looked back. We had many outings that were diaper free. She went on public potties, in containers, on the Pottette... and now she's nearing 2.5 years she's still in diapers. She is very aware of her body and when she has to go and yet no desire to leave the diapers behind.

I've cued a couple times with DS and I'd like to go for more diaper free time with him, but honestly, I just don't feel like motivated at this point.

Anyhow, may you all enjoy a beautiful level of communication with your little ones

[Kidzaplenty]

I once EC'ed with my Gabbie. But, I have not even tried it since then. At first it was because I had Gabbie to take care of, then I was just tired. Now, I really want to try with my WO as well as maybe even try and get my LO to start using the potty.

I just hope I have the energy to devote to it. It would be so very nice to get two out of diapers at once.

[marinak1977]

I have to say I just love announcing to people "Excuse me, I have to take my son to go potty" and see the .
and everyone wants to hear more about it.