when did your LO start to communicate that they needed to go?

[oolongtea]

I'm basically a part-time EC'er -- I put DS on the potty seat in the morning and after each of his two naps. If he has to go, he goes. I make a cueing sound and do the ASL sign. The result is that poop always goes in the potty, but throughout the day he will pee in his diaper. But he doesn't yet tell me when he needs to go. On days when he skips a nap, I keep wondering if he needs to poop and trying him out at various times but I really can't tell. Do you think he'll start communicating when he needs to poop? Or since we do it more as a pattern, he won't be likely to tell me?

[sapphire_chan]

We did EC full time, so YMMV. DD started telling me every time for poop at 16.5 months and only started occasionally telling me for pee last month (19-20 months) and this month (21 months tomorrow) she's gone to about 75%.

We did EC by timing from about 12 months.

[theboysmama]

dd is 17 months and she doesn't officially tell me yet but we leave her nakey bottom and she takes herself whenver she has to go (she has been doing that for about 2 monts now). occasionally she will pat her croch or try and pull her pants down but for the most part it is timing or she just takes herself.
she goes to moms day out about 1 morning a week and she is there 3 1/2 hours and they won't take her(so I send her in washable pull ups). She is dry almost every time and she doesn't ask them to take her but the day care lady sais that if she pees as soon as she pees she comes up to her and sais uh oh pee pee and they change her. She probably comes home with 1 wet pull up in her bag ever 4-6 times. I don't know why she sais pee pee for them but I have never heard her say it. Oh well, whatever works

[rissierae]

We've done ec full time since birth, and I think the first time he communicated with a hand gesture was at about 14 or 15 months. He started picking up sign language at about 13 months, and one of the first signs he learned was potty. He was (if I remember correctly) fairly consistent with it, if he did the sign, we knew he had to go, but if he didn't, we'd either have a miss or if my intuition was working, I'd catch it.

[PeachBaby]

DS (almost 18 months) about 2 months ago, starting to show a sudden spurt of progress. But then we both caught a 2 week illness, resulting in us halting EC and he then lost all that progress. But he's picking it up again, little by little.

So recently he sometimes pats himself and also pulls off his diaper after he has peed in it. He also finally started using the potty sign! Most times he has already peed in his diaper when he communicates all this to me, but other times, he still forgets and just runs around in a wet/dirty diaper. Once in a great while, he actually "tells" me before he needs to go. Sometimes he signs, sits on the potty, but then doesn't go.

[seraf]

My son didn't start telling me until he could talk. Tho he would ask to go outside with signs or crawling to the door and banging on it, because he liked to pee outside.

My daughter, well, when she was 5 months old, I read about blowing raspberries being a signal that's easier for babies to use, so she started signaling in that way the same day I initiated it.

Seraf

[tri31]

At 13 months DS2 consistantly would sign for potty (my daughter taught him a few weeks prior). He had been on "potty strike" for a long time, prior to that week. I would offer to potty, but he was refusing. Then he started signing. He never wanted a diaper on him again. So if he signed in the car or at the grocery store, we had to drop everything and take him. EC is amazing.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by seraf

My daughter, well, when she was 5 months old, I read about blowing raspberries being a signal that's easier for babies to use, so she started signaling in that way the same day I initiated it.

Seraf

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[Shanny2032]

My dd is about to turn 18 months and is fully potty trained (day time, and of course we still have accidents). She yells PEE PEE, PEE PEE and has for a about 4 months. She also says this when she needs to poop. All good news, unfortunately it is often hard to tell if she is saying PEEPEE, PUPPY, BABY, PENGUIN, the list goes on and on as to the words that all sound like PEEPEE! My only savior is that after she says it and I say "you need to go pee pee?" she will say yes or no!

[lisavark]

My DD is 27 months now and was EC'd full-time during the day, occasionally at night, from birth. She still doesn't consistently tell me when she needs to pee. She started telling me when she needed to poop between 12 and 18 months, I think, but her body language was always obvious with that so we basically rarely had poop misses ever. (I joke that I still don't know how to change a poopy diaper. ) She tells me ahead of time that she needs to pee every once in a while, but if she pees in her pants or trainers she always tells me right away. I have pretty good intuition about when she needs to go, so usually I manage to convince her to go when I know she needs to.

[sdbeachy]

Right around 12 months he started signaling by grunting--for both pee and poop. He's very consistant; he'll grunt and then run to the bathroom and squat with his hand on the potty. But don't dispair if your LO isn't signaling! When we were relying on timing (from 2 months to 12 months) we still caught way over half of everything--it was totally worth it.

[hrsmom]

My dd starting telling me about poops around 17 months, and pees.... maybe at about 23 months? Consistently for poops since 17 months, still not consistent about telling me about pees, but getting moreso. There is definitely variation, and it doesn't happen very early for some kids!