Anyone trying Elimination Communication?

[lunabelly]

I know there's a whole forum about this, but I just wanted to see if anyone in our ddc plans to try. I had never heard about it until yesterday when I met a diaper-free baby in the cafe. It sounds fascinating, but exhausting.

[kerikadi]

I love the idea of EC BUT this will be baby #5 for us and this little person is going to spend a LOT of time going, going, going.... We are constantly on the go between taking older brothers to school, possibly enrolling DD1 in Montessori next year, sports activities, scouts, orthodontist appointments, church activities etc.
In addition to dropping off and picking up from school we have something going on just about every day of the week.

I just can't picture me having the time and attention to see the cues that my little one is about to pee or poo.

Keri

[MissInformed]

planning on it...we did it a little bit with dd3...excited about starting from the get go with this one.

[Wild Flowers]

We did this last time, I loved it. I was actually a mentor for awhile before we moved. Keri, just a thought and it was something that I used to tell people. EC isn't a all or nothing thing. I know a lot of moms felt like they couldn't do it because they were working or whatever. You can ec part time. Like just upon waking, just in the morning. Just catching poops.
We started at 3 months last time. I am looking forward to the oppertunity to start earlier this time, but I am also not putting pressure on myself and just doing what I can. Though both of my girls already got down our little potty and have been putting their dolls on it. I think I might get a lot of help this time. My oldest did help ec my younger one. She actually could tell when she needed to pee, and she used to go pee in the toliet while dd2 would go in her little potty, the sound of someone peeing making her go. They even bonded through it.

[BoBoBo]

I sort of EC'd my older two kids although I didn't start super early with either of them and I primarly only watched for poop signals and just put them on routinely for pee. It worked well for us. I started at right about 12 mo or so with both. With my first i caught almost every poop from the time I started. My second was a bit harder. I switched them both to unders full time at around 18.5 months although they had not probably really needed diapers for a while before that but I don't think before that young that there is any mixed signal between diapers and unders so I just didn't bother to switch, kwim? So far both of my boys were trained before 19 months but I definately still ask my 19 mo old a lot if he has to go - I can't just trust him to go but we don;t have very many accidents.

I plan on doing something similar with the new baby.

[deuxceleste]

I don't know if I can count on anyone else to help. I feel dc will be "untrained", as in one step forward two steps back.

[Bekahsmom]

We will be ECing, this will be my third time and the second time from birth. It is pretty much a way of life for us now. I am just not sure how it will look if we have a DD instead of a DS I have so far only EC'd boys Oh well I am sure I will figure it out. I am really really hoping to catch the mec. poops those first few days, I think that would be awesome. We will be doing nakey butt from birth at least for the first couple of weeks while my DH is home then I may use back up but I am not sure yet. If you are thinking about it at all you should try it, it is really a high to see them respond at such a young age.

[lunabelly]

My dh said he couldn't imagine ecing with a boy because his son (my ss)would pee in an arc across the room if he wasn't covered. We don't know if this one is a boy or a girl.

I feel like I've just barely got my dh convinced to try CD, and if I push ecing he's going to think I've gone completely wacko. He's from MA, and his parents already think I'm the crazy Cali wife.

Anyway, I think I will try it after the dh has gone back to work.

[Wild Flowers]

I have heard that boys are easier because they give a very clear sign that they are ready to pee, how can I put this nicely? They rise up? I am not sure if every boy does this, but from what I have heard from other who have eced boys they are usually very successful.

[mrskennedy]

We're not doing it, but I feel bad. Not doing cloth either, but that's not so bad to us. We're going to be bad disposable dipes parents. Oh well. Hopefully it won't do too much damage. I'd like to EC, but not getting the visual cues might be an issue. And with a WAHM job and a pretty needy DH, I don't think I could handle ECing. Would really like to in a way, though.

[Mizelenius]

I will be doing it just with poo again, starting at around 6 months. Makes using cloth MUCH more pleasant!

[Mizelenius]

Originally Posted by mrskennedy

We're going to be bad disposable dipes parents.

Hey, mama, WRONG attitude! Please don't call yourself "bad" for using disposables, even in jest! There are far, far, FAR more important things in life . . .if you are going to love and respect your child, then THAT is what matters!

[Arwyn]

Yup! And ditto on the it-doesn't-have-to-be-all-or-nothing! And it's completely compatable with using disposibles. I really recommend the book The Diaper Free Baby by (can't remember her first name) Gross-Loh. Diaper Free! is also good, but I like DFB because of its emphasis on how it really can be a great thing, even if you only do it very part time (like, once a day or once a week!).

[mamafish9]

We were the accidental part time ECers last time around. DD had bad diaper rash, so I had her nakey a lot, and just kind of picked up on some of her cues by osmosis. I diapered her when we went out, but we were catching a lot of the at home poops and pees. I think that most babies love being nakey, and our little ones born March-ish have a nice warm summer coming up, so this one will probably be an accidental part time ECer too .