EC'ing woes with an infant

[daniandquin]

I have maybe 5 minutes to get this all typed out, lol

short version: I have 5 kids and EC'ed 4 of them- two from birth. with my youngest son- now almost 5 months old- we've had a few bobbles along the way- moving house being the biggest interference. At about 3.5 month my milk supply started to drop, and by 4 months it crashed totally. discovered that my EBF baby was seriously tongue tied and that while early on I had lots of milk so his poor latch didn't cause him to go hungry, but at the usual reballancing of supply in the third month with him having a very poor latch, my milk suply went down the tank. Saw Dr. Jack Newman (luckily he's a friend and got me in to the clinic ASAP) and my son's tongue tie was released and started on the herbs and Dom (Domperidone, for boosting milk supply),and started him on solids, and slowly we are working on making his latch better and getting my supply up . again. So..... now we're having potty issues I think that it's due to all the confusion and changes of the past month and a half. his cues have all changed, and manytimes he's giving no indication at all for pooping. it's beeen getting worse and worse, then yesterday I put him onthe potty, nothing happened, so I took him offf and laid him on teh floor and 2 minutes later he peed everywhere.

...What do you think? Should we take a complete break from EC'ing and let him get settled? or will stopping using the potty just make it all worse?

I open to listening to anyones personal experiences and advice

[daniandquin]

oh and please excuse my terrible typing/spelling- I'm bouncing a toddler on my knee while typing this out, lol!

[Jaimee]

I'm certainly no expert as we just started ECing a few months ago (my ds is 6 months old now), but I wanted to say if it were me, I would keep at it, but maybe just more casually and with little expectation. If his cues are confusing, maybe offer based on timing until he develops consistent cues again. Based on my own questions that I received answers for here, it seems any amount of EC is beneficial. So catching just a little is still great and I'm sure things will settle in soon. Congrats on continuing to work on bfing despite all your challenges! I know that must have been extremely frustrating!

[hrsmom]

My dd did that exact same thing at about that age. I think if you just keep up part time or whatever you can do is just fine!

[isabchi]

I would take an EC break for a week, two weeks, a month, whetever you feel like. I'll start over after the break. It's good to through away all the stressful times. Renew yourself, set yourself in a good mood it's always positive for every one.

[pixiepunk]

that is a common age for starting to gain more control and holding it then peeing right after the potty is offered. so that in itself doesn't worry me too much. we had plenty of that it's also a common age for kids to develop new ways of signaling. like going from squirming before eliminating, to suddenly getting very still.

i think if you feel like you need/want a break you should absolutely take one. but often EC bobbles can simply be a signal that we need to slow down and spend time reconnecting with the baby - nursing a lot, wearing a lot, and trying to relearn baby's communication. sometimes when we take a break from EC by using diapers it takes us further away from that connection instead of deepening it. but sometimes we just simply need the break and at that point the rest really doesn't matter, the mental regrouping for mama is necessary in order for everyone to stay happy and that's way more important than EC IMO.

so i guess i just advise you to think about why you're considering a break, and go from there. breaks can be very restorative. But don't feel like you have to take a break if you're just feeling like you've lost some of that connection - i think can absolutely reconnect with baby, learn new ways of communicating, figure out what's going on with him and work through it together.