teething & potty strike! ( 8 mos)

[zoeart]

We've been using EC since 4 days old... he's now 8 months, and was doing great - he was doing most poops and many pees in the potty, didn't mind being held over the toilet or anywhere else, and when he was naked seemed to be holding poops until offered a potty-tunity.
THEN.... his first two teeth starting coming through at the same time, and it's been downhill ever since. He will tolerate being held over the toilet maybe once a day - usually will cry and arch his back like crazy... when I leave him with nakey butt, he'll just poop on the floor without warning (this NEVER used to happen). It was really bad the first few times this happened since I wasn't expecting it. I had gotten used to leaving him nakey in the playpen for a few minutes here and there, and I came back to find him eating poo... ACK!!!
Now that he can sit really well, I'm starting to try to sit him on the potty instead of holding over the toilet. We have ikea potties and I just ordered a BBLP which looks like it will be more comfortable for him - he's a very little guy.
SO.... any advice? commiseration? this is normal, right?
Thanks!

[Heidi74]

I am really new to this, since we only started EC two months ago when DS2 was 7 months. He is now 9 1/2 months, and we've been having some similar issues to yours for the past two weeks. A couple of weeks ago, he started pulling up, and ever since that time he has not wanted to sit on the potty for more than a second or two. He used to love sitting on the potty, and for a while all the poos and maybe about 50% of the pees were going on the potty. We use diapers (often without a cover) as almost full-time backup, and over the past couple of weeks all the poos except maybe 2 have been in the diapers. Ick, ick, ick.

He is also teething-his first four teeth in rapid succession over the past few weeks, so that may also have something to do with it. His poop is also more runny than usual, so I'm thinking he may not be able to control it as well.

I'm honestly not sure what to do, so I would appreciate some advice as well. I try to entertain him with new objects/toys on the potty, and that often works, but I don't want to force him to sit there if he doesn't want to. He has never learned to pee while I hold him, as we started putting him on the potty when we started EC. I've tried holding him over the sink/toilet, but he just looks at me blankly.


I'm tuning into your thread for advice, because I need it too.

[hrsmom]

Totally normal!! Those little pauses last for varying degrees of time, usually just a couple of days or a week. We had a very extended potty pause when my dd was older, but for my dd and what I've read, at that age they don't last very long! Teething relief might help. And the cool thing is, you'll know when your babe is feeling better, because you'll be back to having pee and poo go where you want it to!

[emmaegbert]

both crawling and first bout of teeth = poop on the floor at our house. luckily big brother is pretty quick to point it out so no eating happened (though the first time it happened she was really young and it was runny, and he said, I quote, "I thought she put on some pants" ...it was all on her legs... was also funny b/c there is no way she could have put on her own pants either!)

It hasn't happened since (yet) and she's back to poop in the potty almost always. Though little girl just really started walking and has been a bit more fussy about using the potty so we've had some more pee misses than I prefer. But then again she's 13mo and has been more fussy about everything.

I am not sure there is much to do- wait it out? I am sure things will settle back down eventually. Wear a coverless dipe at home to contain misses? We had to back off the all-day nakey-bum when our girl got mobile (was crawling at 5mo) b/c I just couldn't clean up after her all the time. IMO coverless cloth dipes are fine for being able to change them right away and maintain communication/awareness but maintain your matter-of-fact attitude about misses.