We’ve been doing EC since Meredith was about 3 weeks old. She “got it” very quickly. We started by making a “psss” sound whenever she peed or pooped, and then started holding her over a toilet or sink and making the sound. It was neat to see her visibly trying to go when we did that.
One of the arguments I have seen made against EC is that parents have to rush to get the baby to the toilet in time, which is so untrue. For one thing, she was able to hold it for reasonable lengths of time, and that time is getting longer. For instance, yesterday she woke up from her nap and I was reading an e-mail and chatting to my husband (at work) on MSN. I finished the e-mail while she stretched and smiled at me, sent a message to my husband that she was awake and I would talk to him later, got up to go find the potty, and then sat her on it. There was probably 2 or 3 minutes between her waking up and me sitting her on the potty, but her diaper was dry and she immediately peed in the potty. I hear about far more rushing with friends potty training older children. I think another difference is that with EC, misses are no big deal. The point (for me at least) isn’t to potty train early, it is another way of communicating with the baby, and an attempt to keep the baby out of wet and dirty diapers as much as possible. I want her to know what the potty is for and how her body responds when she needs to pee or poo, so that potty training happens naturally, rather than her having to relearn how to control those muscles and where pee and poo belongs.
I hear about a lot of babies who have very clear signals when they need to go potty, but Bebe has never been one of those (though she signals very clearly when she’s done!). She will sometimes signal at night by squirming and kicking her legs, and she used to pop on and off the breast if she needed to go while nursing, but otherwise even watching her with training pants on so we know immediately if she’s gone we haven’t noticed any signals. Despite that, we tend to catch probably 90% of her poops and maybe half her pees, just using timing and intuition.
The other day, I noticed her reach down and touch her groin. I wasn’t sure if it meant anything but took her diaper off. She ended up peeing while I was removing the diaper. The fact the pee didn’t end up in the potty didn’t bother me in the least, I was more excited about the signal and hoping it wasn’t a fluke. Today, I sat her on the potty and she peed and then signaled to get off. About five minutes later she reached down and touched herself again. Since she had just been on the potty I almost didn’t do anything, but I did end up putting her back on. She immediately pooped. Who would have thought I’d be so excited about baby poop.
I’m hoping she continues to signal when she needs to go. Even though early potty training isn’t our goal, I’d love to have her mostly out of diapers by the end of summer. That may be overly optimistic, especially since I’ve read many babies go on a potty strike when they start walking, but it’s a nice goal for now.
Related posts:
Most Popular