Elimination Communication

Elimination communication or EC is the fancy way of describing using the potty with infants. And YUP! that's what we are up to lately. So, how does this work? Well, I had the same thing rolling around in my head too. How do you potty train a baby? I thought it sounded difficult, most likely impossible, and also time consuming. I had read about the diaper free method and thought how nice it would be to not have to use any diapers! But I didn't think it was actually possible, so I never pursued it.

Well until my friend told me about her trials with EC and her 12 week old baby. She started since she was born and proudly said that she catches almost all #2's. It's called Elimination Communication because you have to read your babies signals and cues for when they have to go. My friend said that she also paid attention to when her baby went to the bathroom in relation to when she had eaten, slept or had activity. Then she uses cues for her baby to pee with a sound 'pssst' and to poo 'hmmmmmmm'.

That was over a month ago! Since March 1st, Rowan has done all her #2 business in the potty!! I couldn't write about this until I really knew that it wasn't just a fluke. But it has really been a month now of ALL her #2's on the potty! It started with the first try of 'hmmmm' and nothing. Then I detected the grunting look on her face, you know the look... the one where there is so much concentration. I quickly got her on the potty and 'hmmmm.' Well, out came you know what! Since then, I don't necessarily have to make any sound. I just put her on her potty and she goes. I was happy with catching all the #2's. Very happy! This means no more scrubbing poopy cloth diapers! But now, Rowan is even getting the hang of peeing in her potty. So cool! I put her on the potty everytime I change her diaper and she almost always pees. I have no goals of potty training Rowan at the age of 7 months and I don't think this is all about going diaper free. But it is pretty darn cool that she does anything in the potty. It surprises me everytime!