Elimination Communication with a Twist... and a drag

Today, I was doing many household chores while my almost 7 month old and 2 year old girls played with their toys in the living room.

My toddler yells repeatedly that the baby needs to use the potty.  I have heard that it is common that elimination communication siblings tend to also be in tune to when their younger siblings need to go.  Today was just one of those days I couldn't take advantage and proceeded to do what I was doing and tell my toddler I would be there in a minute.

As I finish my task, I hear my girls babbling a scuffling about (I assume just playing).  I take a peek at my girls and sure enough, my toddler has dragged my baby to the little potty I keep by the front door.  I run toward them, trying to conceal my laughter (I don't want to encourage my toddler to do this lol).  Once I am there, I absolutely can't hide my laughter.  My toddler had undressed the baby as well as take her cloth diaper cover off.  While looking around, I also see a clean diaper on the floor which tells me she was going to attempt to change her baby sister all by herself!

Through all of this process, my baby NEVER protested or cried.  I joke a lot that my toddler can't do wrong by my baby.  If she actually makes the baby cry then, holy moly, she must be doing something especially rough.

Sure enough, the baby had a SLIGHTLY wet diaper, to which I changed her and continued to get her dressed.  I also tried "talking" with my two year old that, though I appreciate her trying to help, to please not undress or drag sister about the room.

My toddler was quite proud of herself but agreed that she wouldn't do that again... though, she's two... I doubt she understood/meant it haha

Ho Hum

None of us know what we are doing. Just when we think we have it figured out, our little ones chuck a wrench at our face just to make a point lol

A few days in a row, my toddler had a dry diaper after her nap. She was quite proud of herself. So I thought I would put her in a cloth diaper for her nap. She's never been in cloth diapers but I always hear that cloth diapered babies are easier to EC w and potty train. Well... She took the diaper off during her nap and peed all over her bed. Fail.

Put her back in disposables during her naps and, again, a few days in a row of dry diapers and she requested to wear undies to bed. So I let her but w a cloth diaper cover over just in case. Fail.

While we are out, she wears pull ups but she almost never uses them. Having an infant, I don't feel that I can always get her to the potty in time. It's so rare she uses her pull up that I really want to play with having big girl undies outings. She is in undies full time while awake at home. She takes herself to here lil potty or if she has to poo, she tells me so I put her on the toilet (no clue why she prefers it that way but super handy for mama!).

Dare I tempt fate and take her out of the house in undies?
Being an EC family, many of the potty training techniques get lost on us and our children but perhaps someone out there has tips for me! Much appreciated! :)

Unforeseen Obstacles

I never assumed that Elimination Communication would be for everyone.  I share so others that are interested can learn and share with me.  However, I have come to discover that there are people that don't understand what Elimination Communication truly is, make assumptions and in turn criticize the practice and/or me for practicing it.

I find myself becoming defensive about EC.  It is just a tool to keep in my parenting belt.  Just like a preference of bottle, brand of clothing, style of car seat, etc.  Though not everyone is interested in it, it works for my family.  I don't understand why others have to be critical of it.  It seems that many see it as a form of some kind of torture, or that I'm not letting my baby be a baby, etc.

EC is not to be compared with "traditional" potty training.  There is no battle with it.  The only battle might be finding the time to be consistent with it... but even then, you don't have to be consistent with EC for it to be beneficial.

As for not letting my baby be a baby.  For one, I'm not inflicting any sort of harm on my child by allowing them to go to the bathroom outside of their diaper.  The diaper staple of babyhood isn't an old staple.  It's actually quite new in the grand view of things.  Many cultures practice some form of EC all over the developed world.

Someone asked in an open forum what the point of putting a baby on a potty is:
The point of EC is a way to learn to communicate with your baby.  It allows for a natural potty "training" experience.  Since there are so many different ways of practicing this, is can also just be a way to introduce the potty early on so that it isn't so frightening later on or a battle.  It's just another natural transition.

I asked what the point of using diapers is, but no one answered.  I'm open to hearing some thoughts on that though, please.  It might help me understand more why people are so opposed to the way I have chosen to care for my children.

EC Milestones for my 5 month old!

I haven't been super consistent w EC w my new tiny but now that she is bigger and not as "floppy", it's a bit easier. The other day, she poo'd on cue in the potty! And she is old enough now that she was aware of what she was doing! Yay!
It was also the day we started using cloth diapers! So it was a very exciting day for us!!

Elimination Communication with my now two year old!

After bringing home our second born when our toddler was about 20 months old, she had a bit of a digression with the potty.  For the most part, she still did well but she went from being almost completely out of diapers to needing them almost always.

I am happy to report that we are once again out of diapers (except sleep times)!  She finally has gotten to the stage of being able to get herself on her little potty so I just have that out for her and when we are at home, she just wears undies for easy access.  I have tried this before and it worked okay but she kept wanting to play with the potty (yuck) so I didn't keep it out unless I could closely monitor her.  Now I just keep her potty out and she will go then tell me!  It's quite exciting lol

She does still "play" with the potty but instead of touching it w her hands, knocking it over, etc, now she actually will take down her undies and sit on it just to sit on it, which isn't a big deal :)

With sleep times, I don't know if I will ever "train" her or just wait until she is ready to get out of bed, go potty, and get back in bed all on her own.  She is a great sleeper and I don't want to mess with that.  I have heard from many mamas that their little ones started waking up w dry diapers, no training necessary.  So I figure I will just wait and see but please comment any suggestions you may have about it!

Disclaimer:  When we go out, I put my daughter in pull-ups.  I NEVER recommend pull-ups BUT since I also have an infant that I wear, I can't always get my toddler on the potty in time.

ECing with a toddler and infant has left for little time to blog!

My newest baby is just over 3 months now.  We aren't regularly using the potty yet because I also have a toddler so it just a little rough to make the routine out of it.

That being said, I have caught several pees and a couple of poo's in the potty with my 3 month old!  It is so exciting and her big sister gets excited for her as well!

My oldest will be two soon and she is being kind of a stinker about the potty now.  Fortunately, she still poo's in the potty but we don't always catch pees.  She also signs for potty to get out of situations, either when she is scared, over stimulated, or in trouble.  When you tell her to go to time out, suddenly she has to go potty.  Of course she doesn't go unless you actually put her in time out.  Then she does just out of spite lol... oh the life of a toddler.  Today, she was unhappy with me because I was nursing my youngest and she really wanted me to read her a book (that I'd already read 3 times that hour).  Since I wouldn't get up to get the book, she went into her room and peed on the floor.  Well... at least she is communicating I guess...

She got out of the habit of wearing undies after the new baby came home but I have been finding that she does so much better if I have her in her undies and it helps keep me more in tune to her potty needs. I do like that she can sign potty and uses it when she is uncomfortable and just needs to go to a "safe" place though.

Recent Obstacles and Successes with EC

For about a month, my 1.5 year old has been in undies at home.  We still have her in diapers when we are out and for sleep times.  While we are out, she still will usually signal when she needs to go and almost never goes in her diaper at all.

At home, she is in undies and it is incredibly rare she will wet them. An "obstacle" we have been facing with her is that she has figured out how to get what she wants haha!  If we are busy doing other things, she will sign for potty and we will say to go to the bathroom and she will bypass it and run into her room.  So, basically she will use "potty" as a sign for "follow me" :)  Which is cute the first couple of times but gets exhausting after a while.

We also use Time Out at our house.  She will sign for anything while in time out to find a reason to get out.  She would sign for "potty" too and then, I swear to you, would make herself go!  So I started keeping a little potty near by but out of site where we go for time out.  This has worked, though, now I think she will purposefully do things to go into time out just to use the little potty!  Toddlers can be so manipulative!  (Her face is quite priceless too when she is in time out.  She batts her eyes and desperately tries to appear perfectly innocent.  She gets this from her daddy lol)

So those obstacles really aren't that bad.  Mostly they are funny, yet occasionally tiring.  The other obstacle is that when we recently had Grandpa watch her, she wet through 3 undies until he gave up and just put a diaper on her.  Either she doesn't sign for him or he doesn't catch the sign.  She will sign to me when we are out at Costco on the other end of the store and can hold it until we get to the potty, so I don't think it's that he doesn't move fast enough.  There just isn't that communication there.  We rarely leave her with anyone so I don't know if she just isn't sure about communicating with other people in general about needing to go or if it was just a fluke, etc.