[moxygirl]

... he's peeing All The Time! lol Seriously, it seems like a driibble here, a dribble there.... I'm not even sure he signals all of them.

What to do?

Thanks!

 

[theboysmama]

The bennefit to having a babe pee all the time is the opportunity for more catches.

I found that the more I offered w/ dd the better she got at holding it (realizing that she would be taken soon) and then peeing less frequently. I remember when she was about 3 months old being frustrated that we had had like 10 misses in a day (I knew bcs of how many diapers I had put in the pail as we were using diaper backup) then I backtracked my day and realized that we had over 18 catches

. It only lasted about 6 wks or so and then the ammount just crept down. We have days occasionally where it goes back up and I figure it must be situational (food, teeth, etc)
Just start with it, have fun, and don't get frustrated. It is not about not missing but about changing right away, keeping your little one clean and dry, and teaching them that they can eliminate somewhere besides their pants if they choose to.

 

[hrsmom]

Awesome response above! Also, you don't even have to try to catch all the pees if you don't want to. When I started, I was pretty overwhelmed with everything (what new mama isn't?

) and even though I had intended to do full time EC from the beginning, I did part time up until about 3 months. The numbers of pees in a day definitely tapers off!

 

[lisavark]

Average peeing frequency at that age is every fifteen minutes. Some babies go every ten minutes...some every twenty. What I did when DD was that age was sit on the couch with a stack of prefolds next to me and a bowl at my feet. I kept a prefold under her, and every fifteen minutes or so I'd hold her over the bowl. I caught maybe half her pees in the bowl and the other half in the prefolds.

I wouldn't do that all day, of course; just when I felt like having some diaper-free time. The rest of the time I used a diaper, although I did try to cue her/be aware of when she went and change her right away. Yeah, I changed a LOT of diapers in the first few months.

But if that's overwhelming, then just try for one catch a day...maybe the first pee of the morning, or the first one on waking from a nap. Use diapers the rest of the time, and gradually start trying to catch more once the frequency tapers off. By six months they average is more like every 30 to 45 minutes, and by a year it's every hour or less. The kidneys get bigger...

Oh, and signals are overrated, IMO. Keep an eye out for them, but don't get caught up in them or expect that they'll happen all the time. And definitely don't think that missing them means you're doing something wrong with EC. Some babies don't signal (mine never did really), and even if they do, the signals usually change pretty rapidly (like everything else does during the first year).

 

[moxygirl]

nak...

Thanks so much, everyone! These responses were all SO encouraging and informative. I'll remember not to get frustrated.