Does diaper free mean miss free to you?

[Paigekitten]

It's a familiar sight in my house to see my 2 year old and 10 month old playing naked in the kitchen. Unfortunately me cleaning up a pee or poop miss is almost as common (really? on the COUCH???). Does diaper free mean pee free to you? Or am I just "gross" as my younger sister thinks (who lives with us). DD2 wears trainers and a wool cover out and about and sometimes a diaper. DD1 wears regular panties, but I still have to keep spares in my bag.

What do you do? When did you decide you were grads or diaper free?

[zoebird]

no. for me "diaper free" means that we attempt not to use diapers as the main method of handling baby elimination, but rather that we are actively attempting to not use diapers and to handle the elimination by catching it in a toilet (or sink or what have you).

we use diapers for back up--training pants now--and we have misses in diapers. we also have diaper-free or naked time each day to air out the skin and just give us even more practice, and i sometimes miss then too. it's rare to miss a poop in a diaper or when having naked time, but it's not unusual for us to miss a pee or three.

for me, EC is about missing/catching. that's it. a catch is "yay!" and miss is "oh well, next time."

[blackbird2]

definately not. diaper-free means I can see what's going on and keeps DS's skin healthier. it also means i'm relaxed/paying attention enough, and in the right place (physically), to not be stressed about misses or fed up about cleaning. misses happen. it's ok. (although it's a lot better when you stop having poop misses!)

I agree with the PP. on the simplest level, diaper-free just means you don't use diapers, regardless of whatever stage you and your kid are at.

Nice job doing EC with two

[karika]

nope. diaper free means not using a diaper for elimination needs. What they use for elimination and how is up to the individual child apparently. I used EC with both dds and dd1 was diaper free from 4 mo. She would still pee, but was wearing pants with undies a lot of those times and she would stop herself and finish on a toilet (of course this is once she was mobile, prior to that she was in arms so we didnt miss as much... also I live in the now so I can not say for sure how it was with dd1) but she never pooped anywhere but the toilet. She just knew to wait until she was on the toilet. dd2 (15 mo) has been different. I had no idea it could be so. I actually kept her in diapers a lot when she was younger because I just could not deal. Now I have been committed to diaper free with her for several months and I clean up pee and poop every day. I don't bother with pants for her because they will just get wet and need changed, there is no hope of keeping them dry. She is so random. But is she is diaperless, she will go to her BBLP and use it sometimes. Many days (or nights to me, as sometimes we are up all night instead) she uses it consistently, like every time. Other times, she squats n floor right beside it and goes... and she never sits on it to poop. She has started to tell me when she is going to poop and I have gotten her signs down well, though she can start showing signs hours before the event... Tonight, she let one log and then made noise to attract me so I could help her to the potty. We caught the rest in the potty! I think I got too wordy... ooops I do that a lot.... so no, to me diaperfree just means no diaper... and I don't think it is 'gross' it is not the baby's fault that we live in houses and have carpets instead of mud huts with dirt floors. pee and poop is just natural and so is EC. Yay for us for listening to our babies and being primal!

[mom2knj]

I agree with all the others. We have been "diaper free" for 4 days now, that to me is Jena wears padded trainers at home, wp trainers when out and right now we are using easy ups at night. Now she still has misses, 2 today already but we just clean them and go on our way, but we are diaper free...

[Paigekitten]

Originally Posted by blackbird2

Nice job doing EC with two

Thanks. : )

Today my 2 year old told me she wasn't going to use the potty today, she wanted to go on the floor. On the other hand she will clean up most of her misses herself, so I figure that counts for something.

The 10 month old has always been all over the place with her poops, I've always had a hard time catching those with her, but before she crawled we would have days with almost no pee misses.

EC changes so much for each kid, each stage, each day really. I find I don't like when I use diapers because we miss so much feedback about what is going on.

[zoebird]

it definitely is a constantly changing process. every day, every developmental stage, every curiousity, changes things.

[contactmaya]

Well, ds2 was diaper free from 10mths on, when i ditched them altogether (except for occasional nights) because i noticed that when he wore a diaper, he peed in it delibarately. He wore split pants with training pants over them. Or nothing at all. I cleaned up a fair bit, and changed clothes a fair bit.

But i didnt consider him a grad, until he was about 20mths,when he would say 'pee' when he wanted to pee, wait, and then pee when i held him over the toilet, or alternativley, went to the potty himelf. He even pulled his own pants down. We have misses about once a fortnight/every 2 weeks.
If we are out, and dont have a potty, i take him to the bathroom, and say 'hold, or sit?' And usually, he wants me to hold him over the toilet, but sometimes is eager to sit on the toilet himself. He has also eagerly climbed on the toilet himself, and even attempted to wipe.
Maya

[claddaghmom]

No.

It used to mean a dry night and poo-free. But now DD seems to have gone off the crazy anti-potty end of the pool. *sigh*

[hrsmom]

It doesn't mean miss-free to me, either. Like others have said, to me it means that we aren't relying on diapers as the first choice for elimination. Diapers or trainings pants as back-up. I kind of thought it was going to mean miss-free when I was pregnant, actually! I think you can have a "diaper free" mindset and still use diapers!

[boigrrrlwonder]

To me, being a grad means potty independence: no misses, can go to the potty completely by himself or herself.

That said, I don't wait until a child is a 'grad' before I take a kid out of diapers. Taking the kid out of diapers is part of the path to graduation.

[sgmom]

Diaper free means "more miss free" for us. Much more.

I've discovered that so long as I leave her naked from the waist down, she'll often take herself to the potty, or go as soon as I offer it. But if she's wearing even just plain underwear, she'll wet right through it.

For a few weeks, we were averaging a couple misses a week when diaper free. But as soon as I put something back on, it would shoot back up to several misses a day. She's 17 months, if that helps.

[lisavark]

Originally Posted by karika

it is not the baby's fault that we live in houses and have carpets instead of mud huts with dirt floors.

:



Haha! Yep, exactly! Seriously...if you think about it, it's even grosser to have pee/poop held up against your baby's body than it is to have it on your floor. I mean, I care more about keeping my baby clean than keeping my floor clean. Heck, the only reason I even care about my floor is BECAUSE of my baby...so why would I let my baby be temporarily but deliberately dirty just to protect my floor? Ya gotta clean it up either way...

[rissierae]

it definitely is a constantly changing process. every day, every developmental stage, every curiousity, changes things.

Exactly!

And no, diaper free is not miss free for me either! We started doing diaper free at home at about 4 months and entirely diaper free at 9 months. To me it just means that the misses are few and far enough between that you don't get frustrated when you have to change some wet pants or wipe the floor up a few times. Also, it just got easier and quicker to take him to the potty without dealing with a diaper. Just pull the pants down, go, and pull them up .

[fruitlove]

No. I wish!

Diaper free means less laundry for us! Also dry nights and poops in the potty.

[theboysmama]

diaper free means cute little baby bum all over the house..... and pee and poo misses too. It means exacdtly what it sais, no diaper.