Elimination Communication - Page 6 « Back to Group Discussions

[Jaimee]

We are missing more and more.  This is how it went with ds1, too.  We started out really well and then it just declined slowly until we decided it was time to potty train.  I still catch almost all poops and most after sleep pees, but catching pee in between almost never happens.  Oh well, at least he gets changed really frequently with all the offering.  I wish he had a cue, but no such luck.

[LunaLady]

We have good days and bad days. Catching almost all poos here, too. If we are home, I catch almost all pees, but if we are out we catch only pees he has when we are doing diaper changes. He's peed in quite a few parking lots! 

But, he's in training pants most of the time we are at home. If I have to put him in the ergo to get something done, though, I put a diaper on him! Don't want to risk getting peed on and having to wash the ergo! 

[Jaimee]

Yes, Avery has graced many a parking lot over the last few months! 

[MrsKatie]

We just moved in to an apartment building with coin-op laundry a few floors below us. So I think EC is going especially well cause I am pretty damn motivated to do as little laundry as possible!

[MrsKatie]

So I have a couple questions for you more experienced ECers... Miss KJ has been fighting the potty these days.  She still poops pretty much exclusively in the potty but only pees in it about 50% of the time (up until a couple weeks ago she was going pretty much 100% in the potty, with only 1 wet diaper a day, if that).  Now when I sit her on the potty, or hold her over the sink, a lot of the time she will arch her back/squirm/screech.  Then she'll pee in her diaper 5 minutes later.

At the moment, if she resists, I don't force the issue - I just put her back in her diaper and go back to what we were doing.  My instinct is just to wait it out/not make a big deal out of it, but is there something I should be doing? Is this likely just a phase?  KJ is also exponentially more assertive/vocal/opinionated in general these days, so it's not surprising that this is happening with the potty as well.

[seraf]

You're doing just fine. It is a phase.

Shay does the same thing right now. I offer the toilet and then stand him in the tub. He goes there for now. Today he used the toilet a couple of times again, but last week was a no go. I figure he is working on walking and he will be back to normal soon.

[Jaimee]

We're even starting to miss poops b/c Avery will crawl off in a corner and I'll miss his cues while tending to other children or tasks.  Argh.  From my experience it's not necessarily a phase, but my kids are part time EC, not full time.  When crawling and then walking came along, Austin was much less predictable or compliant and it stayed that way until we full on potty trained when he was 20 months.

[Jaimee]

But I should add that I continued to offer the potty regularly and tried to catch cues whenever possible despite the setback and potty training was very simple.  I figure it will go similarly for Avery, but I can hope that we catch more along the way.

[seraf]

Even full timers have more misses once they start moving.

Do you remember TCC? They chase them outside when they go on the floor?
We're just not set up for that. Most of our poop misses are on the bathroom floor or on the way to the bathroom, so I know he knows where the poop goes, but he's less interested in telling me.

Once Avery is good at crawling, he may come back around more than Austin did.

[Jaimee]

Avery was grunting this morning after nursing so I asked him, "do you need to go poop?" and he said, "poop!" clear as day!  It was hilarious.  He doesn't really have any words, so it was surprising to hear.  And sure enough, he pooped in the potty.

[seraf]

Yay "poop!"