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Home > The How to's of ECing (it is cheaper than regular diapering)

The How to's of ECing (it is cheaper than regular diapering)

April 14th, 2006 at 04:33 pm

EC generally means asking your infant to pee on demand. It doesn't mean you have to head to the potty every hour, or give up diapers, just that you allow your infant a greater than normal chance to understand and control elimination.

EC stands for Elimination Comunication, implying some wonderful connection where you actually know what your baby is trying to tell you, I never had any such connection! But then I am dense, some mothers actually do get it. (they often become 'diaper free' mothers)

Another term often used is IPT, meaning Infant Potty Training, implying actually training your infant as you would a 2 year old, but that is too drastic for me.

For me I really do just ask my kid to pee on demand, thats it till they want to hold it, and can ask for the potty. I can tell you what I do with my kids, but please if you decide to try it, do it your own way, don't think EC is all the Perky way or nothing!

Step one: Communicate tell your baby from the start (or from right now) anytime they are peeing, or pooping. Not in a bad way, just matter of fact yep thats pee, pee on me, pee on the floor, you are peeing. (if you must have emotion giggling is better than anger!) Treat each and every event as a learning experience (though no need to leave your kid to pee any more than you are comfortable with, most newborns pee on you often enough with diapers!)

step 2: Figure out the hold After they can hold their head up(you can do this earlier, even from birth, but I don't), hold them comfortably over a potty asking them to pee, or poop. This is the step that feels the hardest, cause you as the parent have to figure out what is most comfortable for you both, a postition you can hold for a minute that they will not get angry for(never force your kid to be anywhere near a potty!). If at first you don't succeed wait a day, week or more, then try again, if nothing else you only wasted a minute, not gonna hurt, (at some point your baby will gain the balance and eventually not need you for sitting)

During step two your kid will prolly pee on the floor in the bathroom, or the wall or even in the potty! (or the tub..) name and praise (you peed, good job, yeah pee in the bathroom/potty!)

step 3: Pee on demand up the number of times you ask to whatever you are comfortable with, I have no desire to spend all day in the bathroom, but I find a couple times a day my kid happens to be dry I figure a potty is prolly going to work. and if I fail, he is only 5 months no big deal! So far you have not even asked your kid to 'hold it' so don't be annoyed if they don't!

step 4:Yeah dry! Praise dry diapers, now that your kid can pee o demand there will likely be some dry diapers. But don't be mad if there aren't

step 5:More communication Wait for communication from your child about their desire to use a potty. This might be when they crawl/toddle to the door (and might be a boredom buster of theirs) or might be when they learn the word pee. Or might be when they follow you in. Or when they see their friends doing it. Whatever. just continue with step 3 and 4 till they do, always use words (shall we pee now?) always stop before you get frustrated.

Step 6: Ask your kid to 'hold it' Just ask, Ask for dry diapers, praise when you get them. One simple way to avoid a mess is to have your kid stand in the tub and wait their turn(mommy has to pee too!), if they pee, no big, little spray little water, tubs is clean.

Step 7: Fully train Wait a bit then finish up, maybe you now have a day trained kid who still pees at night, or one who pees once a day on the floor but the rest in the potty, or one who pees on demand but only asks when bored. Kids ar all different, the first steps (pee on demand, then hold it) are the same, but what makes a kid decide to never (or practically never) pee anywhere but a potty varies. Some like underware, some like 'big beds' some like freedom (soap they can do on their own) some need stickers. By this time you prolly have a 1.5 or 2 year old and you can modify traditional rewards. (but you will have saved many diapers over the last year, and have an easier time, no fear of potty to overcome.)

JC didn't start till around 7 months (when she followed GMC in the potty) but was fully night and day trained at 1.5 (cept when sick she pees the bed now at 2)

Right now my 5 month old is in step 3 and 4, I am not moving on till he is older, we are just enjoying the self pride when he pees or poops in the potty (oh and almost no poopy diapers from him! pretty much all in the potty, pee on the other hand takes longer)

12 Responses to “The How to's of ECing (it is cheaper than regular diapering)”

  1. kashi Says:
    1145029563

    fascinating! I'm going to send this to my friend who just had a baby. Her 2.5 year old is still not really potty trained.

  2. PrincessPerky Says:
    1145031058

    Heh, she can train them both at the same time! That is essentially what JC did, she picked up most of it with GMC.

  3. Kerry Says:
    1212756666

    This is basically what I did with my 8 week old son after reading as much as I could about EC, and I was astonished at how quickly he was able to pee on demand. I spent a few days just making the 'ssss' sound when he peed so he would associate and talking about him peeing at that time, then starting offering him peeing opportunities over the sink/potty (asking first, "do you have to go pee/potty?" and when he happened to pee I would give praise - within a day of this he was able to do it on request! I guess he likes the praise : ) We are now only a week into it, but less wet diapers (and I do give him some diaper free time during the day - still trying to learn his patterns/timing). And he happens to be a once-a-day poo-er so we have caught 4 of the last 5 poos in the toilet, yeah!
    I highly recommend the Baby Bjorn infant potty seat that costs only about $10 - it is tiny and perfect for the little ones.
    Good luck all!

  4. princessperky Says:
    1213124373

    So glad it is working for you!

    I just had another kid, and am not sure when I am up to trying, definitely not on day 4 though! (tough I know others who do start at birth with success)

  5. Kerry Says:
    1214329324

    Congratulations! Yeah, I do not think I could do the diaper-free from birth thing. Now 3 weeks later, I can get m son to do most of his poo-poos in the potty (which saves lots of poopy diapers - a great benefit with cloth diapers!), and I am catching many pees on the potty but using mostly diapers; they just pee soooo often. I think it will be helpful to keep him accustomed to it so that when he is able to crawl and indicate need to pee later we may be able to catch more frequent pees and save more diapers. It is a fun game for me! Enjoy!

  6. nicole Says:
    1235056773

    I have never ever heard of this before right now. I'm going to have a little girl in about 3 months and was dreading the diapers and all that go along with it. I will be researching this technique further and will definitely be trying it. It's amazing. I hope it works for us too!

  7. Michelle Says:
    1248191529

    Are you supposed to leave the diaper off so you know when your kid is peeing? (Step 1) Or do you just start communicating whenever you happen to catch it - in the middle of a change, or when they get that 'concentrating' look on their face?

  8. princessperky Says:
    1248196818

    Whichever you are comfortable with.

    If you are willing to let them lay naked for a bit let em.

    If you can't stand the thought/have company/going out then just look for signs (you know that feeling of warmth when a diaper is being filled.)

    It wont help your baby if the sight of pee/poop makes you scream, so pick your comfort level.

    My advice is try the naked for a short time each day (right after bath is nice, or before.) then make it gradually longer.

  9. Tara Says:
    1286773704

    Any updates to this technique? My son will be five months in a few days, I know my husband will think I'm crazy for trying this - but he thought that about cloth diapers and now that's all we use and he loves them. So, I'm going to try it out. Just curious about the progress your little ones made.

  10. PrincessPerky Says:
    1286804917

    Well, my 5th kid is almost 4 months old and loves using the potty.

    But, numbers 3 and 4 were almost 2 and a half before they were really potty trained (4th still not night time trained)

    So go for it, but don't think of it has full potty training, think of it has preventing the kid from becoming diaper trained.

  11. 3rd grade english Says:
    1314502310

    Prolly is not a word, it's spelled P R O B A B L Y.

  12. PrincessPerky Says:
    1314547766

    Heh, after all these years someone finally complained about my repeated use of 'prolly'. I know it isn't a word, but for some reason I simply cannot get the proper spelling right, somewhere in my mind it is all befuddled.

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