Elimination Communication Chat

[ShannonCC]

Ok, someone else start one of these next time, I'm becomming a board hog, LOL! I just wanted to chat about EC and our night last night. Owen's first all night diaper free! Not quite planned

He had nursed to sleep on my lap but then started fussing in his sleep. It was pretty obvious he had to pee but I didn't know what to do w/o waking him! I sat there, watching him and wondering what I should do til the problem solved itself and he peed in his diaper and fell back solidly to sleep. I took the dipe off but didn't want to put a fresh dipe on him and wake him up (he sleeps in a dipe w/no cover).

So, I grabbed 2 prefolds and headed to bed with him nakie butt He sleeps on his side and doesn't move much, so I just balled up one of the prefolds and placed it against his crotch. It worked! Early morning I woke and it was damp, but the bed was fine.

He actually had a big peeing night which is not usual for him. First the pee I mentioned, then the damp diaper. He also peed in the potty in the middle of the night for the first time I woke and he obviously had to go and, um, so did I, so we both headed off. He was mostly asleep so I very gently held him (which he usually doesn't like) and quietly said "pssss" in his ear. It took a little bit (less than a minute tho) and then he piddled off a few tiny squirts. But he fell back asleep and everything was happy!

So, any other stories ?

[orangebird]

That is awesome! I take DS coverless during the day most of the time, grocery shopping and whatnot. Sometimes to bed too. It started cuz I didn't have covers that fit but I don't see much nned for them.

I've got a question for you- My DS goes naked around the house alot. EC is not coming easy for us but I'm not really trying too hard either. I bring him in the bathroom with me when I shower and I notice when I turn the water on he pees. Is there any way to use this one triger to our advantage? Like putting him on the potty in the bathroom and turning on the water? DS is 8 months old. And I am the poopy carpet scrubbing queen

kimi - who doesn't try too hard to EC because then she wouldn't have an excuse for her Fuzbaby buying addiction.

[Dodo]

I often turn on the tap when holding dd over the sink for a pee. It's a great cue. Works for adults too. It works on the same premise as the "sss" sound, which we also use. Have you tried blowing raspberries? We came across that one quite accidentally. Works for both pee and poo.

Congrats on a diaper-free night!

My dd is 15 months and on the second or third day of a potty strike. Over the holidays, we were away from home, and I think everyone, baby included, was on guard. We were averaging only one miss a day. Now that we're back, it's a pee free-for-all. She has even been wetting the bed (we had been having dry nights for five months, since we started Ecing, actually).

Anyway, I was kind of depressed about the strike. I was going to post a thread about it, but I'm in a better mood now and it no longer seems like a big deal. This too shall pass!

I look forward to hearing everyone else's experiences.

[Dodo]

Forgot to say, Shannon, you can be to EC as Heather is to diapers. That isn't a bad thing! Post away.

[ShannonCC]

Kimi, lol! Sorry about the carpets We're lucky. We've had a lot of piddles in the carpet, but so far his poops are really easy for me. Actually, there's more of dd's pee in the carpet than ds's, but that's another story LOL at the Fuzbaby I'm still buying cute dipes. Actually, I was a cpf gal, but now since I'm not using covers, well, I need a fitted that is selfclosing right? Right? (tell me I'm right!). So I'm buying a few cute fitteds to snap on him w/o a cover for when I feel we need them.

I have heard of running water to help cue the baby. I haven't tried it tho.

Dodo, yup, this too shall pass From what I've read lots of kids have potty strikes at some point. I am thinking it's just inevitable. You've got the right attitude about it!

Hee hee, so I'll still be a board hog

Poor little boy had some solids last night and had an awful time pooping today. When it did come out it was gooey and STANK. Man am I glad I got to flush it down the toilet and not put it in the diaper pail!

[mrzmeg]

Wow, Shannon, you have guts! Glad to hear that a diaperfree night is possible. DS has been rousing in his sleep more often and I think I'm going to try to pee him tonight and see if he sleeps better.
Earlier this week, I took DS to the ped because he's been throwing up. My mom thought his poop looked strange, too, so I took a sample with us. The doctor was very interested in how we got the poop in a jar . He actually thought EC sounded like a great idea .

Melanie

[orangebird]

My DS is still about 95% breastfed and his poops are really runny. He always goes when I think 'I'll just put the dishes away real quick' and I'll look in the room and he's slapping his hand in it! We have tile in most of the house but he always goes when he is on the carpet :

I only use 4-5 diapers max per day because of being naked so much but somehow I have more diapers than ever. I finally figured out what fitteds I like, built a stash, and now when I use diapers I use the prefolds!!

[ShannonCC]

Kimi, Owen is mostly bf too (not exclusively anymore, but he has had solids maybe once or twice a week). But still, i can see his poops coming a mile away First some toots, then his eyes get red rimmed and I know it's time to find a potty! I think I'm just lucky that his poops are so obvious. His middle of nursing pees are obvious too and I catch most of those. And his first morning pee and 5 minute after waking from a nap pee I get from timing. The rest of them I think I mostly catch from luck. He's either not signaling his pees or I'm just not reading them. I still catch most of them, but from offering him the potty a lot, not from reading cues. Well, good enuf I guess


Melanie, good luck tonight! I hope my ds goes back to *not* peeing at night so I don't have to do it again (but it was nice to know it's possible for us!). How is he by the way? What did the ped say?

Speaking of cute dipes, Owen is asleep in my current favorite. A whale print, Liz's Cloth, hemp side snap

[April 2007]

we had such a wonderufl day with ECing he other day! Only ONE dirty diaper!! And the only reason that happened was cause Noah was distracted while peeing cause he was looking at the huge mirror in front of him so he only peed a a little and refused to pee the rest, lol.

I got the Baby Bjorn Little Potty in the mail today!! woohoo!! no more uncomfy positions and no more mirror distractions! I put him on it after his nap time and he peed in it for the first time (an EC Kodak moment, lol).

I am having a problem though...it's my mom

First I need to say this or I'll feel bad. She is the most WONDERFUL MOTHER!! She is so supportive of almost everything I do and even has enabled me to stay home with Noah while she supports me so I can take classes at home,be a great mom and then someday become financially independent! She is so helpful and loving.

o.k..that said, I HATE doing EC around her and my sister. II always feel like I have to hide it from them. It's really embarassing because I know she thinks it's silly. I really, really love ec and would love her support in this just like I have her support in other areas of parenting. even today with Noah's potty. I knew he had to pee, but instead of just putting him on the potty cause I knew he had to pee, I pretended I was just putting him on the potty to see how he "fit on it" and "by surprise" he peed. I feel so pathetic that I can't be more self councsious about this. It's not like my mom says really negative things about it. I guess it's just that I love and respect my mom so much and I know that she thinks it's silly, so I don't want to go against how she feels. Ugh, sometimes I feel like such a numpty.

help!

-devin

[ShannonCC]

Devin, you know, I've been like that with every "new" parenting decision I made! When I put dd in cloth dipes (when she was 2 1/2) I didn't tell many people because I didn't want to hear how nuts I was, lol! I would even put her in disposables when she went to my MIL's house or when my mom watched her. With ds, I was more confident about cloth, so I didn't care who thought I was a nut. But now that we are newly ECing ds, I take him to the bathroom and we do it in private if anyone else is around. I even did it in "secret" for a few days before telling dh! It just takes awhile to build up confidence, that's all.

To be honest, there are many things I just don't discuss with family and in-laws. Things that I *know* are right, but I just don't want to argue. Like long term breastfeeding, co-sleeping, gentle discipline and now EC. Parenting takes confidence and it can be hard to go against the norm in your family. Hang in there

[mrzmeg]

Devin, I know what you mean! Whenever I EC Tristan around others, I feel like I'm "showing off". It's pretty uncomfortable. And sometimes he cries after I take him off the potty (he really likes sitting up) and they act like I'm forcing him to pee .
I've gotten the courage to tell mainstream, doctor-worshipping MIL that we're not going to vaccinate and I'm going to bf til ds weans himself (she asked when this would be and I said "probably somewhere between 2 and 5 years"), when she asked leading questions. I was impressed with myself, but I do feel like she and other family members think we're making the decisions we are just because we want to be "different".

Last night went really well! He began getting squirmy around 4am, so when I finally woke all the way up, I sat him on his Baby Bjorn. He pooped a *lot*. Then he slept til 10. For several weeks, he had been sleeping restlessly, waking up two or three times to be changed, and then pooping after we got up at 10 or so. It looks like the poor guy has been holding it all night long! I'm glad I figured it out now.

Shannon, thanks for asking. Tristan is very healthy; the ped said that vomiting once or twice a week is nothing to worry about. And he's *big*--at only 3 months, he's doubled his birthweight and now weighs 16lbs (the same as his year-old cousin)!

I'm glad we're chatting like this. Helps me build up the nerve to try actually going diaperless.

Melanie

[mrzmeg]

bump for Pema's Father

[Dodo]

Back to the topic of running water as a cue: I also pee (or have dh pee) to get dd to pee. It is probably the most effective cue in my experience.

ECing in front of other people, especially other parents of infant or toddler children, can be uncomfortable. I want to let them know about the practice without being negative about full-time diapering.

Oh, and I'm happy to say that our potty strike is over!

[XmasEve]

I caught my first poo last night! (well, half of one...)

So I guess I'm still not getting how to tell when she's finished!

DD was waking up from a long nap and hadn't poo-ed in a while so I decided to try holding her over the sink. Voila!! She went and stopped, went and stopped, went and fell asleep, so I put her down and put on a diaper and then BLAM! another explosion.

Ah, well, I'm still going to be proud of us, it's a start!

Meg

[ShannonCC]

Meg I caught a half a poo once. I had him on the potty, and thought he didn't have to go. So I pick him up, bury my face into his belly for some baby kisses and he poops on my hand, LOL! I plopped him down on the potty real fast for the rest of it It's a good thing I'm not squemish, huh?

Most of the time I can tell when he's done pooping. That's the one time I really messed it up (and we've had one poopy fart diaper in the past month and that's it). But I would definitely have done the same as you if he had fallen asleep, awww! How old is she? I bet it gets easier with age.

[April 2007]

my problem is always catching "half pees." I'll put Noah on the potty and he'll start to pee, and then he'll stop but I know he's not finished. So I wait...and wait....and wait..............AND WAIT.......and after holding thim there forever his butt starts to get a potty ring on it, lol. So I take him off and as soon as I lay him down to put a dipe on or if I just hold him, he pees the rest of it, lol.

I really think that he's doing it because he's not used to the Baby Bjorn (we got it last saturday). Once he's used to it I'm sure he'll be more comfortable.

I'm getting more and mroe confident around my mom and sister. The only thing is that I sit beside him kind of and make the "sssss" noise so no one else can ehre it. Ugh, I'm pathetic, lol.

-Devin

[Quirky]

funny EC story

OK, so the way we EC our 5 month old son is to sit him on his Baby Bjorn Little Potty on top of the changing table (holding onto him, of course). That way, we can lay him down on the table to wipe his bottom and put the diaper back on. (I've tried holding him over the toilet, but he won't go and it kills my back!).

Anyway, it's so cute when he's sleepy after a nap or in the morning and leans his head on my shoulder while he's on the potty. This morning, though, he was pretty bright eyed and bushy tailed, and he hadn't pooped yet, so I thought - hey, I'll give him a little encouragement, and stood on tippytoes and popped a breast in his mouth! And sure enough, he pooped! My kid definitely goes for the gastrocolic reflex, aka what goes in triggers what goes out!

A new breastfeeding position and a new EC trick, all in one! (Not gonna make too much of a habit of it, though, because I can't stand on tippytoes with a breast in his mouth every time!)

Just thought I'd share.

[Pam_and_Abigail]

Ok, we tried it once more. It was last week. I decided to let dd does without a diaper, and had a plastic dish ready, and a prefold under her bum 'just in case'. I was feeding her, and she came off to cough. And, if I had been thinking straight, I'd have gotten the potty positioned in time. she always poos a bit when she coughs. But instead of getting it in the potty, it rans down her leg, missed the diaper, and got the blanket underneath. I gave up for the day, and since then she's been sick with bronchiolitis. I'm hoping to try again when she's better.
I think I'm afraid of getting peed on.
wish us luck!

[juliel]

So we had a really good day a couple days ago. Only one dirty diaper in over 24 hours! Okay, so, I'm usually pretty relaxed, and never really keep track of these things, but at one point I realized that I kept putting the same diaper back on her. She sometimes goes diaperless, but lately I've been trying to keep a diaper on her, because then she's more apt to signal instead of just peeing on the floor. So, no wet diapers all morning or afternoon (and no pee on the floor). Then we go out to dinner, and I'm figuring she'll definitely pee when we're out, but, nope. We come home...dry diaper, and she happily pees on her potty. (She actually often stays dry if we're only out for a couple hours.) Some time after we get back, I'm on the phone, and she's clinging to my legs. For some reason, I don't even think she has to use her potty, and if she does that she'll go signal my dh. I go to pick her up, only to realize she has to poo. I was thinking it was too late, but nope, we made it - just a little poo got on the diaper (the dirty diaper of the day). Then she made it the rest of the evening and through the night staying dry. About half the time she goes all night with a dry diaper. I haven't been ECing in the middle of the night...my laziness.

Of course, the next day was not nearly as successful with pees. Oh well.

[mamamoo]

I was hoping to ask a few questions...we have caught a few pees and poops to date but have not been trying very consistently.
How old are everyone's children?
when did you start ec'ing?
and I need suggestions on how to keep ds(5weeks) warm enough in the house to go naked. We really can't afford to have the heat on that high, and I don't catch them in time with clothes and diapers on....
TIA~Debi