Can we make EC faster?

[escher]

At the moment our EC routine looks something like this:

Take off pants, unsnap and pull up onesie, pull off wool diaper cover, socks usually come off then too, un-snappi and take off prefold, put baby on potty. (At night: Unzip and pull up sleep sack, pull up gown, pull off wool diaper cover, socks usually come off then too, un-snappi and take off prefold, put baby on potty.)

Hold baby on potty as long as he seems interested, usually about 10 minutes (and yes, sometimes he uses the potty quickly, but he does often pee or poo after sitting on the potty for quite a while).

Put baby down, wipe with wet wipe, dry with dry wipe, put olive oil on his bum, put on prefold, snappi it, put on wool cover, put socks back on, put clothes back on.

The whole routine take about 20 minutes.

Can we make it faster? How?

Thank you!

[goldenwillow]

Gosh, I totally remember those days. 

We rid of the onesies by cutting them at the lower part, where the leg opening starts.  Also found little t- shirts, which was tough.  Baby Legs helped a ton, kept his legs warm. 

We put olive oil on him like every other change because he seemed to still be moisturized. 

Hope this helps a little.

[flyrabbitfly]

We just didn't snap the onesie.

If you have moolah for more dipes, go with ECA pants- so much faster/easier.

When it was warm out we just wore the open onesie and dipe.

When cold we used chaps style pants (some from continuum family, the EC store and some homemade) with a prefold tucked in. Looks funny to non-ECers but ESP at home makes it so fast and easy. 

Good luck!

[flyrabbitfly]

Actually come to think of it we are done with our chaps and I would sell th for cheap if you are interested- how big is your babe?

[nstewart]

We're in Canada, where it's cold and still found we didn't need pants.  So, I'd suggest this:

- skip the onsies, get long sleeved shirts instead (and layer for extra warmth if needed)

- skip the pants.  Get babylegs and use with socks or those thigh-high socks (can't remember what they are called, but they're great too)

- skip the wool cover.  Just use the prefold with a snappi at home

- skip the 10 minute potty time routine.  Look for cues instead as to when baby needs to go (akthough DS was/is brutal for cuing pees and we had to go on timing) especially for poop.  Offer maybe 60 seconds for a pee (max) while cuing (or run water in the sink) and maybe a bit longer for poops while cuing.

- Do you really need the dry wipe when the prefold will absorb any moisture?  Do you need to moisturize each time? (maybe you do, just looking for time savers).

Good luck!

[theboysmama]

wow! I don't think i would have stuck with ec if it had taken that much time as my first ec'd child was my 4th there is no way I would have had time for that.

We do let her sit until she makes it known that she is done (it has never taken 10 min though).

I have tons of leg warmers and at home she wears legwarmers, socks,  and a fitted diaper without a cover. Out and about she wears pull ups (www.sassycloth.com). They are huge as I got them for dd1 and know she will grow into them soon but they do the trick. I usually put legwarmers and socks and pull up then pants over hte whole deal so that if her pants fall off she doesn't get cold.

At home she just wears a long shirt or baby nightgown over the set up.

Our routine at home looks like this:

lift up nighty

remove velcro fitted with one hand

place baby on potty

wipe with a dry wipe or toilet paper is she pooped skp wiping if it is just pee

put fitted back on and velcro (with one hand)

pull night back down

(We never have to set baby down during this process except on the potty)

out and about looks like this:

pull down pants and pull up

set baby on potty

wipe with a dry wipe or toilet paper is she pooped skp wiping if it is just pee

pull up pants and pull up at the same time

DONE

I would use pull ups all the time but we don'thave enough so I save them for out and about.

Edited by theboysmama - 12/8/11 at 1:27pm

[seraf]

Wow, is it still taking so long?

My guy pees every 20 minutes when he's awake.

How do you know he needs to go?  Maybe wait a couple of minutes after he signals if it's taking him 10 minutes on the pot?

Like many of the others, DS doesn't wear much at home.  Right now he's sleeping in a long sleeve t shirt, a flat in a diaper belt and a wool sweater on like a kick sack.  When he wakes I will put him up on my shoulder for the walk to the bathroom, pull the back of the diaper out of his belt and pull it to the front when I turn him around to pee.  He will pee pretty quickly and I'll give him a little jiggle to get the drips off.  I will wipe his rear with toilet paper while he's still over the toilet because sometimes that stimulates more poo.  I'll turn him back around onto my shoulder and tuck the back of the diaper back up through his sweater and into his belt after I wash my hands and as I walk back to the couch.  It takes 1-3 minutes.  The big exception is when he has pooped a little in his diaper and it left little seeds on his skin and then I pull the diaper so it comes out of the front of the belt and wash his bum before my hands.

Now normally he wears pants at home, so I pull them off as I walk to the toilet.

When I'm out in public he is dressed more like your son and I find the dressing and undressing to be truly annoying.  Especially if I have to lay him down to re-snap everything.  And if there's no changing table, ugh.  I'm planning him some split pants for that situation and I've been using a rectangle of wool on the outside of the flat that I tuck into the belt, so I don't have an extra cover to remove.

One thing I can see that would speed things up is if you put the onesie on the outside of his pants.  That way you can unsnap the onesie and pull it up and then in the next motion you can pull down the pants, soaker and socks all at once. Goofy looking, tho.

Good luck.