EC - the update

So, you're never going to believe this (or maybe you will). We have been *really* successful with the whole EC thing! Today, JJ only used 1 diaper all day long - he would indicate he needed to go and I would take him over to the toilet, take off his diaper and voila! he would pee in the toilet, even at the restauraunt! I am totally amazed that this worked. We've been working on it for about 2 weeks and I'm really impressed that it works so well.


If you want to try this yourself (they say it works best if you start before the baby is 6 months), here are some tips for you:

1) Check out diaperfreebaby.org and/or read one of the EC books out there (I read Infant Potty Basics: With or Without Diapers-- The Natural Way by Laurie Boucke but there are lots of books ou there) I'm so new at this - I'm sure there are lots of things I'm doing wrong.

2) It took me 2 days to start being successful a little and 2 weeks to be successful a lot. They reccommend having a diaper free day where the baby hangs out on a waterproof pad nekkid you can observe what he/she does just before a pee or poo. I think this would work well, but I didn't do it(no time) - I relied on knowing when he'd had accidents before and trying to watch for signs. As a result, I had a lot of changing table accidents during the first 2 days. (never got me wet, but I had to change the pad cover rather a lot) I give him an "op-pee-tunity" every time his diaper would normally come off (after waking, after eating, before bath, etc.)

3)Plot out how you're going to hold him and what your key word is going to be ahead of time. I hook my fingers under his knees so he can sit with his back leaned up against my chest and all his business bits dangling down. We use "would you like to pee? pss,pss,pss" as his cue. I was inconsistent at first and so it probably confused JJ a bit.

4)It's more about training you than training the baby. It's made me a lot more observant. Plan on feeling a little silly and having times where baby just doesn't need to go cuz you guessed wrong.

5) If you use diapers to back you up (I do - I'm not confident enough to go without yet), use All-In-One cloth diapers if you can. They are easier to get on/off frequently. Disposables get all stretched.