April EC Mamas?

[ann_of_loxley]

Where are you?
I know a few others here are doing EC right?

We did it with DS1 - I didn't know it at the time. It wasn't until he was 11 months old that I learned about EC and we stuck ourselves right in doing it full time. It was great!

We just started part time last week. I am being very relaxed about it. Even more so than with DS cause I still have H in disposables (I have a basket full of cloth waiting to be used ...but am being really really lazy right now!)... Mind - going through only about three disposables a day so far (and doing EC part time) is just as good as using cloth full time really! lol...

Its amazing though! I never really started like this with DS1. With DS1, when you would take his nappy off, he would pee right away. He was also pretty predictable with a few poos, so thats just how we did it. This one has NEVER peed when you take his nappy off. But as soon as I sit him on the Bjorn - he pees! (I find that amazing everytime - we were doing EC for months with DS1 until simply putting him on the potty would cause him to 'go' - but this one seems to just go when I set him on it already and hes only 5 weeks old!). He also is no longer pooing every 10 minutes (which is why we started EC last week lol) - so, so far, all the poos have been in the potty! Must be nice for him - and its nice for me too! (I just rinse it out in the sink!). Unlike DS1 - he does care too. DS1 wasn't actually fussed. I am pretty positive that if we didn't do EC with him, I would have a four year old still in nappies. DS2 on the other hand - if we don't do EC with him (though we are!) - I think he would be out of nappies fast because he lets you know thats hes unhappily uncomfortable about it. He really fussed when he needs a pee! (Took us ages to figure out DS1s pees! - He never cued! lol)

So anyways - thats us! - Hows it going with you?

[Knitting Mama]

I have absolutely no idea where to start since a) I can't see any cues for peeing, and my peeful baby soaks a diaper all the way to the cover consistently, and b) 9 times out of 10 red faced and grunty means tooting, not pooping, since she's a once a day pooper (but never at the same time). But I found a woman in town who has done a ton of EC work and her son was photographed in the recent edition of "Infant Potty Training," so I am meeting with her this week. Maybe she'll give me some clues on where to start!

[dogretro]

Aimee, a great place to start is to sit her on the potty every time you change her diaper. We keep a little potty bowl on the changing table. Sit her on and say, "Pssss pssss," and see if she goes. She may or may not, no biggie either way, but it will get both of you used to it. Little babies pee so very much that it is incredibly time consuming to try and catch everything, but you certainly can catch some!

We started EC w/ dd1 at six weeks and started dd2 at two weeks. So far she is doing great! Many less poopy diapers, or just some poop starts. She is def trying to hold it, which is great! She gets unhappy & that lets us know she needs to poop. Or sometimes she farts, heehee. She is still pooping all the time, but between the holding it and us taking her pretty often, it is not a problem. Even though dd1 has been poop trained since 4 months old, I have a feeling she is going to be one of those 3-yr-old ec grads. She just does not care about peeing herself AT ALL. At the rate dd2 is going, they will both be graduating at the same time next year

[Knitting Mama]

I'll try it, but I swear, I can count on one hand the number of times she has peed without a diaper on. It's crazy! I'm used to wee ones peeing all over blankets, changing tables, etc much more often! LOL!

[LenaC]

Yep, yep, still here, still putting baby on the little potty. What is really funny is that my toddler got interested in sitting on his potty too now, even though he is still no where close to potty learning, which brings me to my next thought. I can totally relate to most of what you said. DS1 did not care at all about being wet or poopy, still doesn't! I mean, not at all. He'd be soaking wet or with a full poopy diaper and run away from me, when I suggest a diaper change. It is really quite odd. With this one, he lets us know, when he needs to be changed. He is not happy being wet or poopy at all. He wakes up in the morning, when he needs to poop for the first time, and I almost always make it to the potty in time. He still pees and poops A LOT, especially poops, so you are lucky there. He goes maybe 10 times a day or more. Even in between, he does annoying small staining, that makes it so I can't reuse the diaper. I'm not actually sure, that I'm saving any diapers, although I probably am some. I'm taking it very easy, just putting him on the potty in the mornings and maybe a couple of times during the day, when I think he might need to go or when he starts pooping since he can spill out of the diaper, if it's a big one. He grunts a little before peeing, so I can tell he is about to go, but I don't always catch it cause it can be so subtle. All in all, I'm not worried about it right now, and quite happy with catching his explosive morning poops. I feel almost obligated to put him on the potty sometimes during the day too though, as he seems like he wants to go on the potty, instead of in his diaper. I'm still going through 15-20 diapers every day. I use mostly cloth, with occasional disposable thrown in there, still left over from baby shower. If I didn't have those, I wouldn't. As it is, I feel a bit of a buyer's remorse thinking how much I spent on cloth diapers lol So no more money on diapers

[Paigekitten]

Hiya, I am trying to ec two right now but mostly I feel like I just clean up the floor after them. Although today was a great EC day, my two year old took herself outside to poo once and only went in her pants two other time (food allergies ARGH!) and my 12 month old sat on the potty seat a couple of times which is great because she has only been in arms up to this point and is much more interested in the world then potty lately.

[Paigekitten]

OOOPS! I clicked onto this from the front page and didn't realize it was a due date club thing. I saw EC in the title and started thinking about how our day went. Sorry!

[Pepper44]

We're doing EC too! It's hard right now because DD pees so much, like every 15 minutes. Crazy. I change her after each pee, thankfully we're using cloth or I would be broke.

We have good luck with sitting her on the little potty or holding her over the sink after she wakes up--she always pees and sometimes poops then. She keeps her diaper dry all night long, sometimes 12 hours!! Then she wakes up to pee. But during the day we have tons of misses. I'm just trying to take it casually...I think it will get easier when she pees and poops less often.

[tri31]

That's us, too. Doing EC again with our new baby. Going great. It's so much easier now that the summer weather is here (to stay I hope). I have noticed a few new cues, with more naked time. By the way my LO won't do the little potty. It was that way, back when I was pottying his brother, too. He prefers to be held in my arms (with his weight against my body) as I sit backward on the toilet. What ever works right? I can't believe how fast time is flying by! He is 9 weeks this week. So cool to see this thread.

[Shazer]

DS pees all the time, so I mostly try to catch the poop at convenient times like first thing in the morning or after a nap. I am really relaxed this time around with EC. As long as I signal once or twice a day, I'm OK with that. With my first, I became obsessive a bit and it was tiring.

[dogretro]

Lena, IDK what kind of diapers you are using, but if you are using prefolds, you can always refold the diaper so that the lil spot of poo is on the inside or the back & then reuse it. Those lil poo farts are known as "sharts" (s#!t farts), haha!

I do not think we ever went through less diapers. B/c of ec, I checked dd1 more often to see if she was wet. If she was, she got changed, so it was often after just one pee. If we were not ecing, we probably would have used less diapers per day b/c I would not have checked as often. As it stands, w/ two in dipes, I wash them every other day no matter what, so it really does not matter if we use 40 diapers or 20, they are getting washed in one load. That means we are still saving a lot of money and resources in general b/c the same dipes are getting tossed in the laundry pail, not thrown away b/c of one tiny pee or shart.

[Pepper44]

Originally Posted by dogretro

Lena, IDK what kind of diapers you are using, but if you are using prefolds, you can always refold the diaper so that the lil spot of poo is on the inside or the back & then reuse it. Those lil poo farts are known as "sharts" (s#!t farts), haha!

I do that too! If there's one tiny poo spot or streak I just overlap the diaper right there when I fold the prefold so that the shart is on the inside of the fold. She pees so often it's not like it will stay on her for very long anyway at this point.

We probably go through 20 diapers a day, sometimes more. I had to get out the box of bigger diapers to start using the premium prefolds because we didn't have enough newborn prefolds! I change her a lot more often since we're doing EC. She hates to be in a wet diaper and squirms right before she pees then is angry afterward, lol. We also wash every other day regardless of how many diapers we've used, just so that they don't stink and end up stained from sitting for longer than that.