Our first catch – success!

Monday 9-6-10

 

Lexi was squirming about an hour and a half after I had put her to bed. In my experience that usually means she has wet her disposable diaper. So, I promptly went to change her diaper and found that it was dry. I quickly placed her on her brand new Baby Bjorn Little Potty. My husband signed the ASL version for "toilet" and I said "potty." Then we proceeded to read a book. Much to my surprise, by the end of the book my 11 month old had peed in the potty! We celebrated by clapping, yelling "yea," and tooting on her train conductor's whistle (from the Baby Signs Potty Training Kit). She was happy too! That was the first time that she went to the bathroom and did not soil herself. I can only imagine that felt pretty good compared to the alternative. It's also much healthier for her skin and will likely lead to easier independent pottying when she is older. After that we read a couple more short board books and I put her back in bed without any issues. I called all of the grandparents to tell them that Lexi went pee-pee in the potty. I can only hope that we can catch a pee or poop every couple of days.

In Preparation

Preparing to EC is something that seems much more difficult than it really is if you live in a culture that expects potty training to begin between 2 and 3 years of age. There's not much support. Luckily, I was able to find a few online support groups (Yahoo) and I have checked out two books from the library. Infant Potty Training by Laurie Boucke is a comprehensive how-to guide with much more than just age/stage-specific how-to information. Christine Gross-Loh's The Diaper-Free Baby briefly describes methods of remaining diaper-free, age-specific/stage-specific how-to information and what items you might wish to purchase to assist you in your journey.

1. Check out an EC book or two from your library and start reading!
   
2. Find some support – a place where you can ask some questions from those who are more experienced.
   
3. Go shopping for a potty with your child. Make certain that her feet can touch the ground and that she won't be unstable on it. Look for a segment on potty "fit" in your EC book.
   
4. Order necessary items to remain "diaper-free" for whatever time frame you feel comfortable – even if it means simply switching from disposable diapers to cloth diapers.
   
5. Take your child to the bathroom with you when you have to go "potty" at home and communicate about what you are doing. Perhaps you could even use a "potty" sign (ASL or your own version).
   

The resources that I found helpful are as follows:

Infant Potty Training by Laurie Boucke

The Diaper-Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh

Yahoo Group: Diaperfreebabyofmn at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/diaperfreebabyofmn/

Yahoo Group: IPTLateStarters at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IPTLateStarters/

www.lifeprint.com is a web-site that you can use to learn sign language

There are a few things that I did in addition to the above in order to help us prepare. I bought a "Potty Patty" doll which we feed together (using a baby doll bottle), and then we place her on the potty and make her pee-pee. There are a few dolls available that are pee on-demand like Potty Patty. The others drink and pee at the same time. Patty can hold her pee until you squeeze her leg. We also purchased the Baby Signs Potty Training Kit which comes with stickers and a train conductor's whistle that my daughter loves. However, she is not all that interested in the DVD (it's so repetitious, I can't blame her – babies don't learn through rote memory like adults have to – they learn much more quickly). If you wish to use sign language with your baby, I highly recommend "Signing Time!" You might be able to find the DVD's at your library. Her signing "potty" is actually what got me interested in EC in the first place. If she's going to communicate to me that she needs to go potty (or has gone potty), then she has the ability to actually go on the potty, provided I place her promptly there. And all animals are born with the instinct not to soil themselves – wearing a diaper can't be too comfortable). I also recently purchased some waterproof flannel mats that are 27"x50" (found in bedding section of Babies R Us) that I lay down on the ground and let her roam about on for some diaper-free time. We have Gerber training pants (18 mos.) which will arrive soon. This way my daughter can wear training pants while on the flannel mats.

 

Who are we and Why EC?

My name is Jennie. I am a stay-at-home mother to Lexi (short for Alexis) and wife of Chris. Chris and I have been married since 2002. We were high school sweethearts. We are originally from Arkansas, but moved from there so Chris could pursue promotional opportunities. We now live in Minnesota. Lexi was born September 25, 2009 – 5 weeks and 2 days earlier than her due date. She stayed in the NICU for 13 days before coming home. Lexi is truly a miracle – not only was our entire pregnancy high risk (with a threatened miscarriage), but she also was born premature – and relatively healthy. She's one tough cookie. Lexi is our first (and at this time our only) child. She is currently 11 months old. I have been teaching her sign language (and the whole family has helped – bless their souls) since she was only a few months old. She finally started making recognizable signs around 9 months of age. Now she signs over 10 words including: eat, more, milk, water, banana, bird, cat, dog, gentle, bath, potty, and hi/bye. She just recently added the "potty" sign to her repertoire. On top of that, she also had begun to have quite bad diaper rash – after a caregiver had not realized that she went potty in her diaper for a short time. Lexi had also begun to get quite squirmy on the changing table, and diapering was no longer a positive experience. I started thinking that if she can communicate to me that she needs to go potty perhaps I should actually take her there. This would resolve the diaper rash issue, changing table dilemma, and it also proved to me that she was aware of her toileting needs. She has to be aware of her bodily functions – she sometimes signs "potty" before she has to go. Although the majority of the time right now, she doesn't sign at all or only signs "potty" after the fact. In addition, I have to inform myself about potty training so she has a good experience. I rely on an implanted medical device in order for my bladder to function properly. So, this is very important to me (and to her) that we get this right!

EC (elimination communication) is a slow and positive process. Instead of utilizing modern potty training techniques where the child has to learn to "hold" it, we are using EC techniques where the child learns to "let go" when on the potty or signaled to do so. It seems like that removes much of the anxiety involved (which can actually cause an accident) in potty training. I also prefer the more positive approach. I choose to praise her after she has gone pee-pee or poo-poo in her potty. And when we have misses, I simply clean up and tell her with a positive tone "Poo-poo (or pee-pee) goes in the potty. If you'll let me know before you have to go next time, I'll help you put it in the potty." Or "It is so much more comfortable when you go pee-pee (or poo-poo) in the potty." My hope is that she'll develop a positive and relaxed relationship with the potty and the experience will be more pleasant for all involved. All the other possible benefits (fewer diapers to purchase, fewer dirty diapers to clean/toss, less diaper rash, potentially earlier potty independence, etc.) are just icing on the cake.

So, that's our story and why we're trying elimination communication. The future blog posts will discuss our EC Odyssey. Hopefully it will be light and fun!