Pls help with starting Elimination Communication

[bubbybub]

Hi - now that the weather is waming up I have decided to try EC with my baby boy - aged 4 months.  This morning he successfully peed in his potty - Yay (it's probably just luck!)  My question is in relation to pooing.  99% of the time he poos while he feeds (although which feed/feeds during the day is pot luck).  How am I supposed to train him to poo in the potty?  If we stop feeding before he is done, he cries :( And it's not very hygenic to feed him on the potty (assuming it is physically possible to b/feed while the baby is on the potty!)  Please help!

[Ma Cactus]

I didn't have this exact problem, but we do pee in a jar while nursing, and I think I saw pictures in one of the EC books of someone sitting cross legged with a sort of bowl under the baby on her lap while nursing.   When we do it for peeing, it is very necessary to sit with my back against something for support.   If you manage it, you can make a cue noise (we used 'ploop ploop ploop', but you can make up your own) and then try cuing over the potty maybe before a feed when he hasn't gone in a while. Even if you can't get the nursing/poo catching to work, if you cue him when you notice he is going, he should be able to make the connection after a while and go when you cue him over the potty.  That's the theory anyway!

Give it a try, and keep us posted how it goes!

[sosurreal09]

If you *know* he's due for a poo just place something under him while he's nursing. My DD was like that always likes to nurse through her BMs LOL

[AliceMay]

Do you notice if he pulls off more before pooping while he is nursing. When somebody mentioned this to me I realized my dd would do this...if I didn't do anything she would keep nursing (though she would have a "look") and poo, but if I offered the potty she would go there. Same thing for pees. I never did the thing where you hold a bowl underneath.... Now at 6 months I rarely miss while she is nursing, unless she is having a hard time/fussy for another reason (teething or cold) and I miss the signal because I think she is just fussy...(nothing like going diaper free for making you pay attention to this though! ;) being peed on (just pee!) was how I learned this! Good luck!

[fullofhope08]

I'm not sure if this will help at all, but we started ec'ing at thus same age- 4 months. I didn't follow full time ec recommendations but rather just started putting ds on the potty every time I changed his diaper. When he would wake up from naps, I would nurse him then change his diaper and put him on the potty. I figured if he gained some awareness of his bodily functions, I would consider this whole thing successful. He would also usually poop around the time of nursing if I remember correctly, or soon after. Pees were soon sporadic but usually at least one a day. But within a month, he started doing most poops on the potty and from 5 months to today (17 months), he poops in his potty 90-95% of the time. He seems to not do as well when he's struggling with teething or something. But the point I wanted to make is that it happened naturally. I think the alternative of no poop on their bum when it goes in the potty must work for them on some level. It may be helpful to just initially make some sound that you'll associate with pooping when you know he's pooping so he connects the two then see if he'll do it before or after nursing on the potty with this same noise. It is amazing how quickly they can pick this up.
A year later, pees are still sporadic. Although he's been signing often but then doing nothing. I suspect he's telling us that he's peeing or has peed...maybe? Overall,i consider our experiment with our version of ECing a success since we achieved our goal of body awareness. Well see if he actually ends up being diaper free younger than most kids. Just making this point so people don't think of using this approach thinking it will work as easily as 'pure' ECing. I work full time and he spends time in two other households with family through the week. I suspect he may have been diaper free by now had I been able to stay home and be consistent.
Good luck!