Elimination Communication or infant potty training

Quite a fancy title for such a simple idea.

But lets digress for a moment...

When I was pregnant I started noticing baby ads.

We are all aware of the impossible standards of "beauty" imposed by marketeers but never until now had I thought about how babies are portrayed.

I found out that "ad babies" are happy all the time and sleep all night long - and if my baby is crying or not sleeping I'm a bad parent who's missing some product. Top it up with peer pressure "is she sleeping through the night yet?" and your hormonally challenged and sleep deprived mind begins to think that there's something wrong with either you or your heir.

But the facts of nature point to the contrary.

Babies are not supposed to sleep all night. They have to wake up to feed which is why their circadian rhythm is not set and their sleep cycles are much smaller than ours.

Babies are supposed to cry. Its their only means of communication and f you listen closely instead of trying to hush, you can learn the subtle differences of each call and tend to the need faster minimizing the fuss.

One of those "happy baby" products is super absorbent diapers. Your baby won't fuss as it will not feel wet. Unfortunately not feeling wet leaves the baby unaware of its bodily functions making it harder to potty train. 

The facts speak for themselves, as diapers became more absorbent over the years, babies potty train at a later age.

According to elimination communication theory, right from the start, babies instinctively dislike soiling themselves even if the control of their elimination system is still immature. By using diapers and shushing them when they signal an elimination need, we teach them its o.k. to soil themselves.
After months of this, suddenly we start training them to do the opposite... confusing? definitely!

Elimination communication is about raising your baby without diapers - or with minimal use of diapers.

I read about the method from EC Simplified  and found the e-book to be excellent. I didn't read the "original" books byIngrid Bauer, as reading the amazon reviews made me reluctant to purchase them. I like ideas that can help my baby to experience life more naturally but I dislike hippy-tree hugging-new age weird stuff.

So here is my take on EC:

• She wears diapers except a brief time in the morning when we lay on the bed with an under-pad for baby's morning exercise.
  
  
• She wears less absorbent bamboo diapers during the day and more absorbent microfiber ones when we go outside for long and at night.
  
  
• After feeding and naps I put her briefly on the potty. (only by day)
  
  
• Stay on the potty for a brief time without encouraging or reprimanding.
  
  
• No expectations.

For 2 months now, EC has been working on and off... some days we just synchronise - some days are just misses... 

The last few weeks recognizing "poo signals" has become easier but pee is still a mystery.

I don't expect the kid to stop wearing diapers or to have EC working perfectly, but I find its a useful tool to help her understand how her body works and by the time she starts having control over the matter to have her wanting to get rid of diapers and make the effort.