Elimination Communication
What is it?
Elimination Communication - or EC - is a way of "potty training" your baby.
You learn the baby's cue that they have to pee or poo, you then put them on a little potty (or bowl) and give them the cue to go (we say "shhhhhh") they then go in the potty and you have no diaper to change!
Human instinct is not to soil yourself, you have to train a baby to go in their pants - only to try desparately to un-train them a few years later.
The average age that children are potty trained in the US is 3 years old...compare that to the worldwide average of 12 months.
So what are we doing differently in America? Not giving our kids any other option but to go in their pants/diaper is one thing, another is the disposable diapers that obsorb so much liquid that the baby doesn't feel wet. With cloth diapers (used much more in other countries than in the US) the baby can feel it more when they go, which feels icky and wet, therefore helping them really want to learn to use the potty.
So what are we doing differently in America? Not giving our kids any other option but to go in their pants/diaper is one thing, another is the disposable diapers that obsorb so much liquid that the baby doesn't feel wet. With cloth diapers (used much more in other countries than in the US) the baby can feel it more when they go, which feels icky and wet, therefore helping them really want to learn to use the potty.
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Elly is almost 7 weeks old, so we have only just started our journey of EC. Yesterday I "caught" all her poops and 4 of her pees, today so far I have caught everything she has eliminated!
Elly's first time on her potty - went pee and poo!
This is the "top hat" potty with a coozy
This is the "top hat" potty with a coozy
(so her bum isn't cold, which can make babies clench and not go)
Ordered from: Continuum Family
Ordered from: Continuum Family
If you're interested in changing less diapers, here are some videos I watched to learn how to do this:
EC Basics
ECing on the go!
These videos are from the website: EC Simplified which has a great deal of info and help!
This is something the hubby and I are very interested in. We decided to wait til little man can sit up on his own before we introduce the potty to him. Please let us know how it goes! I am defiantly looking forward to more updates on this.
ReplyDeleteIt is so much easier than I thought it would be. You should try just putting him over a bowl when he first wakes up and I bet you'll catch something :) I'll for sure do another update on this in a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteA couple of people at work were talking about doing this & I laughed, thinking it was silly. You've raised some good points in talking about the average age of a potty trained child in America vs worldwide, & the fact that you're virtually training them to go in their pants & then having to retrain them to stop doing so... I'm no longer laughing! I hope to put this theory to good use when we have a kid. Well written, Tessa :)
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