Thinking about EC...some questions.

[acornrevolution]

My wife and I are considering EC for our 8 month old.  We had read about EC before, but never had chance to start.  I was reading an article (http://simplemom.net/how-to-potty-train-your-infant/) which inspired us to start, but we have a few questions/concerns.

Our may concern is with the signs that babies show when they need to pee or poop.  The article talks about signs, and a basic premise of EC seems to be knowing the signs before a baby poops or pees - but our baby shows absolutely no signs!  When she was young, she used to grunt a lot, but since three months she makes no signs, and does not cry when her diaper is wet or full.

Do you have any ideas or tips for this concern?

Thanks!

[Daffodil]

My kids never showed many signs either.  I mainly used timing, and that worked well.  (I found that I didn't need to watch for poop signals or think about when they might need to poop, because they would usually just poop during one of the times when I took them to pee.)

[Geist]

8 Months might be a bit old. Most sources I've read recommend starting before 6 months old otherwise the baby gets diaper trained---used to going in their diaper so they don't bother telling you when they go.

If you really want to try EC-ing, I'd say take a few days and just keep your baby diaper free and watch her like a hawk and make a list of when she pees and poops. Then look at it and see if you can find any patterns in there. Also, if you use disposables, switch to cloth! That will help make her more aware of when she goes.

[emmaegbert]

Originally Posted by Daffodil 

My kids never showed many signs either.  I mainly used timing, and that worked well.  (I found that I didn't need to watch for poop signals or think about when they might need to poop, because they would usually just poop during one of the times when I took them to pee.)

This has been my experience too. And with both- at very different ages! (see below)- they quickly "organized" their pooping to meet the potty times I offered.

And I don't think 8m is late at all. Start with some predictable times, perhaps (upon awakening in the AM and after nap?) or other times you notice your baby often goes. Or, just start putting baby on the potty when you go to the potty. Or something else low-key, and don't start with the expectation that you'll be "diaper free" anytime soon. Think instead of how each catch is one less diaper-- that way 4 catches a day feels great (even if there were 6 misses)

that said 8m was not a great period for us b/c my daughter was very mobile then- she started crawling at 6m but was very agile and active at 8m, not super interested in sitting on the potty for long.

FWIW I didn't know about EC and started baby-led potty learning with my first around 15m, very low key, and more in earnest towards 20m. He was done with daytime dipes by 22m. I started EC with my second at 2m and had her pretty much in full-time undies (tolerating a fair number of misses) by about 15m.

[jaronsmom]

I literally discovered EC when my babywas 8mos. old.  I part-time EC (at home, sometimes if our travel arrangements are conducive) and it has been a great success for the last 4 months.  The setbacks we experienced were related to motor skills development like walking and such.  I don't believe it's too old.  I offer pottytunities based on timing like this:  upon waking, before nap, before car trip and when I can determine no other cause of fussing.  Because of the consistency of the timing we use it is easy to convey how/when to offer to other caregivers.  We cue using "psss" sound and grunt for poo.  Hope this helps!

This board is really my only support-- I wish I knew other families doing this.  Best of luck!

[Perdita_in_Ontario]

I use timing too. I started when DS was about 4 months old, and we do EC part-time. 

It's quite possible that he shows signs of wanting to go but I just miss them - I'm not very intuitive. My husband can sometimes predict a poop and say "he just has that look" and I"m oblivious! Yet we've managed to do pretty well with the EC anyway.

Like others have said, is there a time when your daughter pees a lot? For my son it's in the morning - he'll pee quite frequently in the first couple of hours. So that's when I started offering the potty, simply because it upped the chances of catching a pee and being able to cheer and let him know it was a good thing. He caught on VERY quickly, and I would think that at 8 months it would be even quicker.

Because I made the decision that we are part-time ECers and use diapers as backup almost always, I don't even think of wet diapers as "misses". I change my son hourly - I need to anyway because he has very sensitive skin - and I just offer the potty at that time. Some days we go through 2 diapers with lots of pees on the potty, and other days I get the timing wrong and he has quite a lot of wet diapers. On some days I'll even catch a dry diaper when we're out and about, and he'll now pee in a public toilet!

You may want to consider whether you want to use a potty or a toilet seat. We use a toilet seat because my son is quite large and because, well, I hate cleaning potties. It works really well. But won't be as convenient when I want him to take himself!

[acornrevolution]

Since writing this, we have considered your advice, and taken the first steps in ECing.  So far, my wife (stay at home mom for now) has been taking our child to the bathroom every hour or so, and she successfully had her pee in the toilet!  In fact, yesterday, she pooped in the toilet!  We are still trying to figure out timing and rhythm.  Right now, it's guess work.  We think (but aren't sure) the "psssssst" sound works for getting her to pee.  And if we see any sign of a grunt or fart, we immediately take her to the bathroom.  We are trying to give lots or praise when she pees or poos, and are working on a poop song to sing while she is on the toilet.

Thanks for all your responses.

[Daffodil]

Originally Posted by acornrevolution 

We think (but aren't sure) the "psssssst" sound works for getting her to pee. 

The thing to do with the "psst" sound is to start out making it only while your baby is already peeing.  After you've been doing that for long enough that it becomes associated in her mind with peeing, then you can try doing it at times when you want her to pee. 

Congratulations on your success so far, and good luck!

[sapphire_chan]

And it works surprisingly quickly. We were only able to make the sound while she was peeing less than 10 times, and dd peed on cue at 6 weeks. (Probably would've done it sooner, but we didn't think to try sooner.)

[sapphire_chan]

As for poop songs, Zoebird had a great technique where she took regular songs and put "potty" or maybe "poop" not sure which in key places.

(I always imagined it went something like "DS had a little potty, little potty, little potty, DS had a little potty so he could poop")

[acornrevolution]

So far its been four days and we only had to change 1/2 a poopy diaper - we caught it late, but the rest went in the toilet.

She's using cloth diapers during the day and disposable at night.  We just got the cloth diapers, so are still getting the hang of them.

We will try to only do the "psst" sound while shes peeing to build up the association.

Thanks for the tips!