elimination communication.

I was going to wait a while before posting about Elimination Communication (EC) as I wanted to learn more before simply reciting little bits of what I've read on the internet. BUT.. we tried it today and were already successful so I feel the need to share.

Anyone that has come to visit and seen Olive and I for any length of time has probably heard me comment on her readiness to potty train (totally a joke) because she would typically go multiple times while having her diaper changed. It seemed as though she would take the cue of her diaper being off and enjoyed the feeling more of going without her diaper. In joking about her readiness to potty train a few times the idea became less of a joke to me and more of a "what if?!"

I didn't explore the idea any further until a couple of days ago when I stumbled upon one of the many mom blog out there in internet land. It's easy to get lost amongst the stay at home mommies blogging about their diaper woes, crafty ideas, and recipes. While it's easy to get lost and over (and sometimes inaccurately) informed I have found many diamonds in the rough. I stumbled upon Emily at Joyful Abode when looking for some gDiaper washing tips. Her short bio interested me as she's a breastfeeding, baby wearing, cloth diapering new mommy (much like myself) but with a few months of a head start and a much better blog! I don't recall how exactly but I got to a post about EC and was so pleased with the little that I read. Her 7 month old uses the potty... sometimes. Wow!

And shouldn't it be that way? Why do we have two and three year old kids sitting in their yucky diapers? And maybe that's necessary sometimes but it really does seem logical and natural to me to address the act of elimination immediately with a baby and work on communication in that area and encourage them to use the toilet as soon as possible. That means less diaper rash, less dirty diapers to buy or wash, and being more in tune with your little one. Why wouldn't I want to try that? Especially considering my thoughts of the past month or so on Olive's elimination habits.

Today I tried it. Babies often go while or after breastfeeding and after waking up from a nap. After she ate a couple of hours ago she dozed off. Upon waking I checked her diaper, after I grabbed a little bowl from the kitchen (her baby toilet!), and it was already wet and dirty. She did go again while I was changing her though and I made a "pssssst" sound and commented that she was going potty. Soon she fell asleep again in my arms for a short bit. Immediately after waking I took her upstairs and her diaper was still dry. I commented on her dry diaper and how nice it feels. She then went potty a little bit so I held her over the bowl but the sudden movement caused her to stop. I told her it was okay. Again she started and I picked her up over the bowl and she went for quite a while! I set her back down and told her that she went potty in the toilet and I was going to put her diaper that was still nice and dry back on and that she did a good job.

To some this may sound silly... she's 5 weeks old (today!) but I'm really interested in this topic especially because it's actually a method and I was already trying to put the pieces together of how to go about this myself. If you're interested in learning more visit Diaper Free Baby.

Also, in the internet world of mommies I am:
A brand new, exclusively breastfeeding, cloth diapering, baby wearing, (now) ECing, and future baby food making, momma.