Will son consolidate pees if we keep ECing?

[bugorama]

Hi there! I'm new to the Mothering forums! Came here because this seems to be the most active conversations about EC on the web...

My son is just about 6 mo old, and we've JUST begun trying to catch pees and poops. Literally, we started today. For some reason, I'd been resisting the idea of EC so far, but our baby has a pretty persistent diaper rash. Even when I clean it up, it comes back. I think he just has sensitive skin, so we'll be battling this forever if we don't change things. I finally read "Diaper Free Baby" and was amazed at how many of his potty cues I was already noticing but more or less ignoring. How many times have I held him for ten minutes after waking so that he doesn't pee on me while I'm changing his diaper? D'oh!

Anyhow, I started today and immediately caught a pee in the toilet. It was AWESOME! Then we caught a bunch more. A BUNCH. Just as I suspected, my son pees frequently. In just two hours, I think he peed about 10 times.

So, my question: if we keep on with EC, will he begin to become more comfortable with holding his pee and then fully releasing? In other words, will his pees become 'consolidated' in a way?

I sort of think he might have been not totally relaxed over the toilet yet, because each pee was smaller than what I've seen him do before (on the changing table or during naked time). Thanks!

[emmaegbert]

my girl definitely did start "holding" her pee more. Bigger pees, less frequent. Not sure if it is from EC, if its developmental, if its b/c she is also consolidating sleep and eating... ykwim? (Though, she also started "holding" it when I wanted her to potty...)

There are also times of day where she pees frequently (mornings) and times of day where she pees a lot less.

She is 13mo right now and has had very occasional no-miss days, but mostly we expect 1-4 pee misses a day.

[GoldmanBaby09]

I'm sure every baby is different but I definitely think as my EC baby gets older he is consolidating pees a lot more. At almost 11 moths old he stays dry all night most nights and longer stretches of dry during the day. I do think they get accustomed to holding out for the potty and I think my son doesn't like to go in his cloth diaper if he can help it.
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[hrsmom]

One thing about EC'd babes in general (of course there are differences) is that they do "hold it" for a long time. My 2 year-old sometimes only pees 2 or 3 times a day! Many a time she has gone 14 hours or so without peeing. It's crazy!

[Nicole730]

My 2 cents, but not sure how they'd relate to a baby. We started DS on the potty a few weeks ago now, and he was peeing all the time, like 15-20 times a day, but little bits each time. Two weeks into it I noticed he is peeing a lot less frequently with more pee, as he learned to control the pee, he learned he doesn't have to be peeing all the time. I remember as a young baby he would pee 6 times in an hour.

[sosurreal09]

my DD used to go every 20 mins at 3 m/o at 6 months she was going every 1.5hrs now she goes every 2-3hrs at 8 months

[lisavark]

Children who are exclusively in diapers become "diaper-trained," and part of that is that they usually learn to "dribble" bits of pee out throughout the day instead of releasing it all at once. So yes, EC'ing will teach your son to release it all at once and thus consolidate his pees. Although you also have to factor small bladder size in. As they get bigger and their bladders get bigger, they go less often anyway--which is why even "diaper-trained" children eventually start staying dry for longer period. I think when my daughter was six months, she peed about every thirty or 45 minutes in the morning and every hour in the afternoon. Something like that, anyway. It's all a blur now.

And yeah, Kim, my two year old is averaging every four hours now! Although I think the heat is a factor in that as well. There have been a couple days when she went five or six hours in the afternoon without peeing...which totally freaked me out! I think she was a bit dehydrated though.