Now What? EC going well want to take it further. . .

[pranava]

DS is 15 months and we started EC'ing about 10 weeks ago. He is doing amazingly well. He poops on the potty about 90% of the time. He pees about 75% sometimes even staying dry through naps. He has told me he needs to go maybe 4 times total. He has told me he has already gone in his underwear (he says "poop" for both poop or pee) about 10 times now.

How do I get him to tell me more consistently that he needs to go? Am I expecting that too soon? Right now I take him to the potty about every hour. He can say potty and sign potty. I just wish I could rely on him to communicate to me more so I don't have to irritate him by taking him to the potty when he doesn't need to go.

What now?

[healthy momma]

DS is a little over 2 yrs and JUST in the last two days has started being pretty consistent with staying dry during the day. We EC'd from day 1 and he used sign to tell us he had to go (only for poop) starting at 13 months. I haven't had to worry about poop since probably 15 months but peeing during the day and at night has been a different story. I've just kept plugging along, putting him on the potty (if he seemed irritated I just backed off and soon he'd be okay with it again), letting him know he can tell me when he has to go so he can stay dry, and waiting. It seems to finally be paying off. He may be a little slower than some other EC'ers but my goal was just to communicate well with him in all aspects of his life not to have him potty trained early. Enjoy the ride!

[hrsmom]

Hi- I really don't know how to teach them or get them to say something ahead of time. I think it's just something that happens developmentally. Earlier with some children apparently than with others. At your babe's age, it certainly is not unusual that he is not telling you ahead of time. He's really at the stage where he still primarily needs you to help him.

My daughter started telling me she needed to poop at around 19 months of age, after ECing from her first week of life. Pees she will tell me ahead of time maybe 25% of the time. Most of our catches still are the predictable ones. Plus she only pees 3-4 times a day in the summer, so we are mostly miss-free these days!