Tag Archives: Elimination Communication

Potty training my 9-week-old baby?

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Ok, so we’re not so much “training” (I kind of hate that term), as we are “offering”. Before I even got pregnant, I started reading Mothering Magazine. They had an article one month about Elimination Communication, also known as EC, which is basically infant potty training. Sounds crazy, right?

Here’s the thing: I’m pretty sure most human beings enjoy being clean. I know very few people who actually like sitting in their own waste. Ok, I don’t know any people who like sitting in their own waste. I can’t imagine it’s much different for babies. I believe babies are far more aware, observant, and sensitive than we are usually led to believe. I think a lot of people look at babies as sub-human, like they’re not even actual people yet, and I think that way of thinking is dismissive and mean.

When Brynn and I do things, I always try to honor her feelings. She tends to spit up a lot and sometimes it comes out of her nose which makes her really upset. I always say to her, “I’m sorry that happened to you, are you ok?” I try to never tell her, “You’re ok.” I never want to tell her how she feels because I hate it when people do that to me. I also try to explain the things we’re doing: “Mommy is making coffee now, let’s count the scoops. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!” Or, “I’m going to pick you up and change your diaper now, ok?” Granted, I don’t do this 100% of the time, but I try to do it as often as possible. I think this act of involving my baby in something that is basically being done to her shows her respect and takes her feelings into account.

So I can only imagine what she must feel like when she has to sit in a wet or dirty diaper for too long. I know it’s uncomfortable because she cries if we wait too long to change her. The concept of EC made a lot of sense to me after I looked at it from that perspective. But it also made sense to me on a very selfish level in that, hey…it’s one less diaper to deal with.

So here’s how it works: your baby gives you signs or “cues” when she is hungry or tired. She might nibble at her hand or rub her eyes. Babies often “cue” when they have to go to the bathroom. They might grunt or get a very serious look on their faces (so funny). The gist is to pick up on these cues and then take your baby to the bathroom. You then “cue” them by making a “pssss” sound. But here’s my problem with that: I can’t read Brynn’s cues to go yet! But I wanted to try EC with her so bad. So I approached it a little differently:

Most people have to go to the bathroom after they wake up. So on Friday evening, after a nap, I took Brynn to her room and stripped her down. I held her over the sink and made the “psss” sound several times. I waited there for 30 seconds or so, then took a peek at her bum. Something was definitely…happening. LOL. So I just held her there for a little while longer and kept making the sound. Suddenly, she was going! She did a #1 AND a #2! I yelled, “Brent! Brent! Get in here! Look what we did!” He came into the bathroom and was pretty amazed at what just happened.

I grabbed a tissue, dabbed her tush, and took her back to her room. I wanted to get a picture of me holding her over the sink, so I asked Brent to grab my camera. I took her back into the bathroom, held her over the sink again, and holy crap (no pun intended) she went AGAIN! I made the “pssss” sound while she went and Brent snapped some pictures.

Warning! Baby poop ahead…

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{She is going to KILL me for this someday}

I was so excited we got TWO catches that I immediately posted to a couple of Facebook mommy groups I’m in to tell them our exciting news. On Saturday morning when we woke up, I took Brynn to the bathroom and cued her again. Can you believe it? She went!

(By the way, after Brynn goes, I praise her and tell her I’m very proud of her. I’ve taken her a few times where she hasn’t gone, so I just say, “That’s ok if you don’t have to go.” I simply want this to be a way for her to relieve herself if she wants to. There is never a punishment for not going and only verbal reward if she does.)

We also made a catch on Sunday afternoon! As I laid her down on her changing pad and told her how proud I was, she just smiled and coo’d at me over and over. It was so stinkin’ adorable!

Obviously, I don’t think my child is potty-trained. I don’t expect us to be anywhere close to that until she’s at least a year old, and that is probably pushing it. But my friend’s little girl was pretty much potty-trained at 14 months using this method (it also helps that both of our babies wear/wore cloth diapers–cloth diapered babies tend to potty train faster). So I’m going to keep this up with Brynn in the hopes she’s out of diapers sooner rather than later. If it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. In the meantime, there are just a few less diapers to wash and that’s ok with me.

For more info, check out these sites and articles: