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we ec & we sign &...

post #1 of 19
3/20/03 at 3:54pm
Thread Starter 
yesterday ds's first sign was POTTY!!!! i'm so excited that i had to share. no one in my family understands the significance of this! they just think it's cute.

for 3 days now we have been diaper free except when we go out to the store or library. but since he signed potty 3 times to me yesterday morning i decided to go w/ no diaper to the store. i had him sitting on a prefold in his sling (still a little nervous). while we were there he signed to me & got a little squirmy so i took him to the bathroom & he went!

i can't believe he started signing potty before nursies. nursies was the first sign i started, & then potty. in case anyone is wondering i'm also doing eat & water. once he starts signing those i'm going to start using more & hurt. it's such an amazing thing to be able to communicate even better with him!

thanks for listening to me brag
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post #2 of 19
3/20/03 at 4:23pm
That is so cool! It is great that you are so intuned to your babe that he can now "ask" to use the potty
post #3 of 19
3/20/03 at 4:28pm
Groovy!
post #4 of 19
3/20/03 at 4:30pm
cool

when did you start signing with him?
post #5 of 19
3/20/03 at 4:34pm
That is SOOO awesome!!!!
post #6 of 19
3/20/03 at 4:44pm
That's great! My daughter can sign 'Milk' (for nursing), 'More', and 'Train'. We are still working on 'Eat' and 'Help'.
post #7 of 19
3/20/03 at 4:50pm
Thread Starter 
thank you, thank you <bow>

we started signing at the beginning of this year. that's when we got the Sign With Your Baby kit (comes w/ video, quick reference fold out card w/ signs & the book).

we started w/ nursies (the sign for milk) right away and then i decided that potty would be another good first sign so we started it w/in a couple of weeks (mid-jan). i slacked off for a while though & wasn't as consistant as i should have been because of 2 moves. now we are in our own place & i think that has a lot to do w/ our success in being diaper free for a few days now, as well as the signing.

novajet, do you live near some tracks? why train so early? or maybe not early...how old is she?
post #8 of 19
3/20/03 at 5:29pm
That's great. We do some signing too. We have not done ECing, but I think that using the sign for potty with it is excellent. I really do love the power of the sign for communication.
post #9 of 19
3/20/03 at 5:38pm
How great! Ds has "milk" down like a champ, and enjoys using it often. ;-)

We're working on food and drink as well.
post #10 of 19
3/20/03 at 6:01pm

homesteader

She's 11 months. Yes, we have tracks right behind our house, so we hear or see a train several times a day. So, it just seemed appropriate for us.
post #11 of 19
3/21/03 at 12:25am
homesteader,

What sign do you use for potty? The one they recommend in the book (a closed fist with the thumb poking through the first two fingers, waving back and forth)?
post #12 of 19
3/21/03 at 2:06am
Homesteader that's awesome! We started signing at about 7 months and he started signing back by about 10 months but it took a long time for him to sign potty (and when he did he was usually talking about the cat box! DOH!) By the time he was 18 mo he was signing over 100 words and wanted to know how to "say" everything!

Oh, btw, your DS has the same birthday as mine just 2 years later!
post #13 of 19
3/21/03 at 2:22am
Congrats, that's cool!
post #14 of 19
3/21/03 at 10:15am

SO SO SO VERY COOL!!!

I'm so excited for you! Isn't it incredible when we can communicate with our little babes!

We are doing the sign for potty and milk. I think she has milk figured out but potty will take a bit longer as I am often holding her over something (the sink, the grass, the toilet, her Baby Bjorn-I don't set her on it at night when it's cold!) and I don't have the extra hand free to sign when she pees.

Question? When in the potty process do you make the sign? Do you do it before you take any clothes off? Do you do it just as they start to pee? I have been doing it as she pees and as I say "ssssss".

Our babies are one day apart. DD was born 6/6/02
post #15 of 19
3/21/03 at 11:10pm
That is just so cool! It makes me excited to try signing and EC with my babies (when I have them). I wonder the same thing that Puppyfluffer asked. When do you sign potty to him while you EC before you actually pee him or during or after?

Brag away! That is just fantastic!

Kylix
post #16 of 19
3/22/03 at 1:44am
I sign potty whenever I actually remember to sign potty (there should be a mommy brain smiley!). Sometimes I sign it when I ask "do you need to go potty?" but usually I don't remember til he's peeing. So I cue and then say "you're going potty" and make the sign.
post #17 of 19
3/22/03 at 9:59pm
This thread thrills my heart!

It's funny when different aspects of your life come together.
I am a fluent signer and I teach Deaf people!! I'm a huge advocate of baby signing for hearing babies. (Also for deaf babies -- you'd be amazed at how many parents of deaf babies refuse to sign.)

Anyway, my older son was producing signs at 10 months and he now has the most amazing vocabulary. I attribute his vocab growth to the early signing... it got his language flowing much earlier in two languages. We were so amazed when he signed his colors at a year, we knew he had so much in his brain. We communicated with him on such a different level when we were aware of what he knew. Sam has two babysitters who are deaf, and he's had them since he was 3 months old, so his signing is really pretty good receptively. He got lazy signing expressively when his speech really came in. Now, he only signs with the babysitters. Except for "NO". He signs that all the time, esp. when he is upset.

Now I'm ECing Eli, my baby. And, like everyone else, I forget to do the sign at the right moment. But we'll all get into a groove, and our babies will communicate with us. Yay!
post #18 of 19
3/26/03 at 4:31pm
Thread Starter 
first of all i'm glad this thread sparked such a discussion. here i thought i was being vain i'm so glad there are others out there signing & ecing (whether together or not).

at first it was difficult to know when to sign (during or after) and it was difficult to do it at all trying to hold ds at the same time. finally i realized i could put my wrist under his bent knee & i'd have my hand free to do the sign as he went potty. i don't do the sign until his pants are off because he's so quick to go sometimes when i sign to him i'm afraid he'll think it's time to go & pee on his pants. i sign once he's over the recepticle, while he's going (not the whole time) and then after he's done. when he's done i take his hand & do the sign w/ it.

i have a tendancy NOT to ask if he needs to go potty because once again, i'm afraid that the association with the word will signal to him that he should let loose i do the psssss sound because that's what we started out doing with him but i also say potty when he's looking at his pee. he's so cute when i'm holding him he'll look down just before he goes...he knows the sensation is coming from his penis so i want him to know that it's potty. also we don't grunt when he poops. i just do the pssss sound then too. i really don't think it needs to be done, because he knows when he needs to do it.

originally i would put his thumb through his first two fingers, like laralou discribed, but that's too difficult so now i just move his hand back & forth at the wrist. i figure after he's able to move his hands better and do more w/ his fingers he'll get the thumb up there.

hope this helps encourage others!
post #19 of 19
4/6/03 at 12:24pm
I sign and EC. The signs were a life saver. My DD was the one who figured out that the toilet sign applied to both pees and poos. If it wasn't for that I'd still be struggling with catching poos. My DD uses about 45 signs at 19 months. I wish I knew more signs. She's eager to learn and wants to communicate manually.

With our sign and EC, I'd use the sign before we'd go, like when I'd ask her if she needed to or when we talked about trying before going out, while she was going, when I had a hand free. That's when the potty on the ocunter in front of the mirror really helped. And after she went. We'd look at the potty, make the sign, dump it in the toilet, flush and wave bye bye and sign potty. She didn't have a problem confusing the question with the action. Now she looks for every public bathroom, I'm convinced that she recognizes the man/woman symbols, and signs potty. She also tells me when anyone at our house goes including the cats.