taking the EC plunge

[krizzanne]

Pixiepunk, your mentioning of ECing reminded me that I was interested in doing this.
My dd gives very clear signals, so I think I am going to give it a try.

What have you found to work/notwork for you?
Where is the ECing forum?

Is anyone else going to do it?

[sparkly]

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...play.php?f=227

I find it interesting and would like to try it some day, but I can't figure out ds's habits yet (e.g., usually he poops 4 times a day, and we just went 5 days without a single one!)

[pixiepunk]

EC is *awesome*! i heartily recommend that you give it a try. i think the best way to do it if your baby is signaling is to just jump right in and try it! keep her in something that's easy to get off, and preferably without a cover. and keep a receptacle of some sort close at hand (little potty, bucket, bowl, whatever you've got handy). then when you notice her signaling, just whip off the diaper and hold her over the receptacle - up against your chest with your hands behind her knees - and say "psssssss". try to take some deep relaxing breaths so she can follow your lead and relax herself enough to pee. if you notice that she's starting to pee while wearing a diaper (which is why coverless is preferable) make the "pssssss" sound then too, so she starts to connect your cue with the feeling of releasing.

probably the easiest ones to catch are immediately upon waking from night or nap, since they haven't gone in a while and most babies pee then.

it can also be helpful, especially if your baby doesn't always cue, to keep a little log for a while of the times that baby nurses, sleeps, and pees. sometimes you don't realize what an obvious pattern your child is in until you keep track, and then you see that s/he always goes at xx o'clock, or 30 minutes after nursing, or whatever. so that can be really helpful.

i think the most important thing about it is to relax and not try to catch everything. focus on the communication it fosters between you and your little one - going through fewer diapers is just a bonus

[krizzanne]

Sparkly, thank you for the link, I couldn't find it. I will have trouble with the pooping as well, as some days dd doesn't go (typical for bf babies).

Pixie Punk, Thank you for your enthusiasm and first instructions, that is exactly what I needed to hear, I will get back once we get started - now that we will be home for a couple of days.

[lovermont]

We've been ecing. For the most part I only catch the pee/poop in the morning when we first wake up. The rest of the day seems to slip away too quickly.
Despite our VERY part time basis she seems to be catching on- as are we- because she rarely poops in her night time diaper- but does so immediately when put on the potty in the morning.

[Ironica]

Go for it! I can't imagine doing things any other way... then again, I never *have* done things any other way, as I learned about EC when I was pregnant with DS1.

At this point, we're still going through a lot of diapers, but we're also catching a lot. We've had some GREAT days and some lousy days ;-). We had one 24-hour period where we only had six misses; everything else went in the potty. We've had MANY nights where we didn't wet a single diaper. Raph signals pretty clearly a lot of the time.

[*Amy*]

Hey Mamas. I'm lurking around hoping to join the April '09 DDC within the next few weeks, and saw this post about ECing. My DD is 2 1/2 and we did EC from the beginning (or EC-Light, as I called it). We were totally not obsessed with it at all, but we did watch for signals and use cue sounds. We also put her on the potty immediately after taking off her diaper (almost every time) and she would pee in the potty almost every time.

By 18 months, she was using the big toilet to pee and poop, and was totally out of diapers by 20 months. We never once had a "power struggle" over using the potty, never had to use a sticker chart or bribes, and she never had anxiety about controlling her own pee and poop. She still had accidents, of course, by they were never a big deal.

So I just wanted to say best wishes to everyone who is giving it a try! It's totally worth it.

[krizzanne]

Ironica and Amy, I am glad you posted about your experiences, too...It's nice to know that there still is a good outcome even if I am not perfect at it.
I seem to recognize dd's signals, but it doesn't click in my brain until it's too late .
we only started a couple days agp, but it seems like a very natural thing to do -- which surprises me, I thought it would be awkward or a struggle, but I keep thinking why the heck didn't I do this with my other 2?

Again, thanks for the posts!

Oh, yes, the hardest pee for me to catch is the morning one, because I am soooo sleepy, I just want to lay there.

[pixiepunk]

Originally Posted by krizzanne

Ironica and Amy, I am glad you posted about your experiences, too...It's nice to know that there still is a good outcome even if I am not perfect at it.
I seem to recognize dd's signals, but it doesn't click in my brain until it's too late .
we only started a couple days agp, but it seems like a very natural thing to do -- which surprises me, I thought it would be awkward or a struggle, but I keep thinking why the heck didn't I do this with my other 2?

Again, thanks for the posts!

Oh, yes, the hardest pee for me to catch is the morning one, because I am soooo sleepy, I just want to lay there.

for some reason the one in the morning i can manage, but it's the middle of the night that i always think i'm going to try and catch but by the time she squirms enough to get my attention it's always too late, poor kid!

and i actually think being laid back about it and not stressing over how much you catch is the best way to do EC. sure, you want to get pee and poo in the potty, but no one is going to be happy if you're stressed and watching the baby's butt all day long worried you're going to miss something. i did it super part-time with my other two and didn't start till late (DD1 was 9 months, DS was 6 months) and still i feel it was such a success. both kids learned very quickly how to communicate with me when they were wet/poopy, stopped pooping in their diapers almost immediately once they had a cleaner option, and were out of diapers around the age of 2 (DS was a bit earlier, like 20 months at home and 22 months out and about) and it just sort of happened. it was just a natural progression of events that lead to potty independence - no bribing, coercing, power struggles, etc. you just start offering less and less as they start asking more and more. :

[lovermont]

Originally Posted by krizzanne

I seem to recognize dd's signals, but it doesn't click in my brain until it's too late .

This happens to me quite regularly. I'm often like- "I don't know what's wrong with you?!!? Why are you fussing? I wish you weren't squirming so much".... and then I hear her poop

[Hemiola]

I learned about EC at 3 months with DS and we had a great experience! We started at 3 days with DD and are being very relaxed about it. We catch what we catch and miss what we miss. No big deal. She understands As her poop schedule evens out, it will become easier. By the time DS was 4 months old, we were catching 90% of his poops. He was very predictable and would poop every night when I got home from work. He would happily pee for DH but always saved the poops for me I also can't imagine doing it any other way. It's one of those "once you know, you can't ignore it" kind of things. I can no longer leave my kid in a wet or poopy diaper. For anyone reading this thread who would like more resources, this is a link about EC from early on in our DDC (almost a year ago if you can believe that!!). I posted a ton of links in the 5th post. Happy ECing to all!

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...5&highlight=ec