To all our EC'ers,
Feel free to do a roll call and check in here. Enjoy!
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To all our EC'ers,
Feel free to do a roll call and check in here. Enjoy!
Yayyyy! Thanks for the thread :)
Boohoo to me, I'm off to change my first pooey bum in months. DS is out of whack at the moment and pooed while we were out. Yuck!
Woo Hooooooooo!!
The one-stop shop for those who want to know what is involved without searching for the various threads about it :)
Tish, donchya just get 'spoiled' and used to the non-smeary bum situation? I find I really beat myself up when I DO find a smeary bum, like I could have tried better to save DD's bum from that feeling! I've missed a few wees this week since DP was away for work because of tending to DS, but mostly it's been ok.
Whilst packing stuff into boxes for our move I was looking at my stash of Peapods in size M...don't think I'll be using them! I can lend them to my sister if my nephew isn't too big by then (he'll be 1.5yo, but she makes 'em big!), if she still needs them (she's trying to EC, too), otherwise, I'll be selling them on cos we won't need them :p If, for the last few months we've been just fine with the 5 Mini La La's and bunch of coloured terry flats (for home) and no nappies overnight, then we can assume the medium PP's will be of no use. Yep, feeling a bit smug about that! Nothing like making life easier for oneself ;)
can somebody please explain EC to me, Ive only just heard of it :redface:
MrsS, here is a thread that was our de facto general chatter thread until this one was created :) HTH!
Yay a real EC thread. I'm sure I'll be here all the time. My goal is to never need the Toddler nappies that my ditsy friend bought for my baby shower. Very ditsy! We didn't know if we were having a boy or girl, and she arrived with Toddler sized Girl nappies. Anyway, turns out she was right on the mark!
I CAUGHT A PEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This morning, after her first feed of the day, I thought "Hmm... I'll try the timing.. and if it doesn't work, who cares, I have barely taught her the cue yet."
And just a minute after I held her over her potty I heard her pee AND poo! YAY!
I'm yet to catch another, but at least I can be confident for those morning ones!
Hi Guys, just thought i would stick my head in.
We did part time EC and MJ has been out of nappies full time since she was about 19mths :) yeah baby!!!
Well done to those that are just starting, it can be a bit of long haul if you compare it to people that TT their child in a week when they are three, but i am so proud of my little miss no nappy when i send her of to CC or we catch up with friends.
The only problem is trying to find knickers and pants for a very slim 2 yo (even harder this time last year when she was 1!!!
That's great, Misty! I know with DD that offering her the potty at about 7.30 am will produce a poo. The rest of the day may produce nothing or just little poos, and it seems to be true that the body will clear out in the morning for a fresh start, as Ingrid Bauer says (well, I paraphrase!).
Today we had DD nappy-free for the bulk of the day and caught the poos and wees for the most part :) Getting there! Tomorrow will be interesting. We're going visiting DP's rellos and his cousin was adamant that EC only works in tribal societies where babies are worn skin to skin all the time :rolleyes: So, she can believe what she wants, she's the one with a toddler AND a baby in nappies...I know who I'd rather be!
Bahaha that cousin, you and DD will show her!
well done misty! those first catches are almost embarrassingly exciting, aren't they? ;) you're so right - the morning ones are always the safest bets!
how did you go with your relos today mayaness? it's always nice to spread the word a bit isn't it?
today we looked after my 9 month old nephew, and we pottied him when he woke up this morning just to see what would happen really - we caught a massive wee! and then another later in the day too. couldn't believe it, goes to show you that it's not impossible to start that late.
ds is looking up a bit over the weekend too - he was dry most of the weekend (apart from the poo on friday LOL - i actually just gave in and gave him a shower after that, i'm out of bum wiping practice!)
maya aren't you sort of sad you need to pack your nappies away? i am a bit - i'd just started making them and i'm a bit like, awwww, cloth bums are so cute! LOL guess i'll just need to start sewing him some cute jocks instead ;)
tish
xx
Yay for an EC discussion area! Very cool to have previous threads moved too.
Welcome Misty! I find timing works really well for us, as her wee signals aren't always obvious. So we reliably catch wees in the morning, and after naps. The other thing that was helpful was giving her nappy free time at a consistent time every day and watching what happens - now I know if I give her half an hour of nappy free time just after she wakes up, she'll pee about three times and then not do much till her next feed. So if I offer the potty every 10 mins or so, I usually catch those morning wees. (We have nappy free time in the evening as well but that's not so consistent - she feeds on demand so doesn't have a routine. But it might be easier to work out how long between, say, lunch or afternoon BF and next wee if your bub has big feeds less frequently.) Also she tends to poo most often around 3pm; so if she farts or makes another 'maybe poo' signal I put her straight on the potty, whereas farts at other times are usually just farts!
Maya, how did you go with the rellies? Is cousin eating her words? :p
Tish, very cool that you pottied your nephew and got two catches! Are you going to suggest EC to his parents? I know what you mean about the nappies... adorable MCNs are one of the reasons I'm only a part-time EC-er... if she was totally nappy free I would have to be nappy free!
AFM... DD is getting over her not wanting to sit on the potty thing, yay. We had a couple of ninja poos last week, but are doing better this week... so far! Very glad for EC every time I DON'T have to wipe a pooey bum. Ick.
Ha ha, the cousin can see the merit! She was knocking it this time, though - she offered me some undies that are no good for toilet training a toddler and would be good for ECing a baby, they'll be in the post soon :) Then, just as we were leaving I decided to pee DD and as soon as I crouched and did the sound she said "it works!"...so, I humbly took my leave and left them with that lasting impression, no smugness required! Somewhere along the line, between meetings, she's become more open to it...or has met people who do it, cos it was talked about but without the tone she took that first time. And I get free undies out of it!
We need to potty about every 10 mins in the morning, too, or I miss wees all over the place.
thanks for the tips jess!! yeah, i really need to focus and learn her elimination routine, i have been SO lazy. We've had a rough few days, I've finally figured out that it's because of lactose overload, so once that settles down, I can't wait to keep trying! I find the poos are easy to catch, but the wees are just so sneaky. But I am determined! I want her out of those annoying bulky nappies as much as possible. They look SO uncomfortable!
What do you guys do about those leaky farts? Or is it just my DD that seems to do that a lot?
I think that's why it took so long for me to take the nappy free plunge - leaky farts! DD had a cold for so long when she was newborn (grrr - she got it off rellos) and I couldn't just leave her out of a nappy!
Just noticing DD 'holding on' a lot more lately - especially after waking and wriggling, she'll give me ample opportunity to potty her, and also in the car. She lets go as soon as I hold her out and will do a big long wee, so that's how I reckon she's holding it - it can't be a matter of great timing, cos I get distracted sometimes after her first squeaks of needing to go!
She's also starting to crawl, so it will be interesting how our EC patterns change to reflect this :) Still nappy free at night and getting more and more nappy free during the day, when I'm not packing our house (once I start packing things in boxes I forget to pee her and she's in a puddle...doh!).
Wow Maya, that's really good! Gosh babies are so smart.
I'm so lost with EC, DD had very bad week so I put it off, I should start again, but I feel like I'm starting from scratch again, and feeling really uninspired.
I can't imagine catching a pee. I just have no idea when she goes. But everytime I put a nappy on her, I wish I didn't have to. :(
:hug: keep moving forward - I missed so many wees yesterday! The regressions are mine, she's gonna wee when she's gonna wee and when I'm not present there's only so long she can wait ;) You win some, you lose some - hold onto the wins :)
Maya - tell me about nappy free at night. What do you dress her in?
Im not frustrated, just inspired by you all and figure she did so well at getting the day stuff, that maybe i shoudl move to night time...
Its me that is holding her back i reckon, im pretty sure that she only wee's early in the am.
What do you do?
FWIW - I took a photo of her first poo in the potty!!! i think that she was 6mths! She learned to poo in the potty and hold on well before the wee's
cos it's been warm, I either have her naked under a woven cotten blanket, or with a singlet. Last night was cooler and she was in a long sleeve bodysuit, without the bottom done up, cos I don't have much in the way of normal long tees! I keep it light or she sweats and wakes - we have her under our doona, unless it's warmish, then she has her own blanky to stay under.
I've never done EC before but I'm considering it, for many reasons. Do you find that it's a lot of trouble? I know I'm lazing about on the internet right now but I feel so busy, constantly behind on housework and feeling I should be doing more etc. I don't know if I'd have the time for EC! I'd like to do it though.
The only time it takes is the time to be attentive to your child and effort to keep them out of a wet or dirty nappy. The longer I do it, the less I understand how I rationalised keeping DS in wet nappies (no matter how absorbent) and letting him poo in his pants - the more I consider how awful it must feel to sit in your own waste until you don't care anymore (what happens with full-time nappying in babies after a while, and I'm convinced this has something to do with fussy and unsettled babies and babies that wake fussing after a 20-40 min sleep - just coincidence that this is the average length of deep sleep and humans feel the need to eliminate just after a deep sleep cycle when coming into lighter sleep??).
Anyhow, I consider it takes more time out of my day to tend to nappy washing or even nappy disposal (if you're doing the legal thing of taking the poo off the sposie instead of sending it to landfill) than to lovingly hold my baby over a receptacle and then rinse her bum. Because it's an extension of your relationship with the baby, once you start doing it, it doesn't feel like another task, it's just part of your interactions and to consider it taking time would be like considering giving your baby a cuddle taking time out of your day, IYKWIM. It just becomes the thing you do as part of parenting your baby. If all I do during the day is feed, play with and help DD do her wee and poo I feel I've done my work and everything else becomes a nice-to-have-got-done.
My sister said the same thing - she'd like to try it (and her DS was about 9 months old when my DD was starting EC) but she didn't think she'd have the time. I didn't give her a spiel, just said that once I started I never looked back and it doesn't feel like it's a time stealer - the hardest part is just starting when you haven't done it before, because in our culture it's a leap of faith...and I put it off!
I guess most times now I treat it like BFing - it's what we do and there are no options to put a nappy on at night to avoid overnight pottying. Eventually, she'll get through the night without either a BF or pottying. I can do either now without fully waking and we both just drop right off when I lay her down again. And I find night time pottying the easiest to keep on top of - no pressure to be doing something else like continuing a conversation, cooking dinner, putting out washing, gettign somewhere in the car (though I find lately that for shorter trips she waits till we stop to do a wee and on longer trips will fall asleep and wake giving us warning so that we can pull over safely and use an icecream container inside the car, give her a feed again, swish water in the container and fertilise the nature strip ;)
Anyway, obviously people have great relationships with kids when they do nappying, and when my DS was out of nappies I decided that the only thing I'd change about my parenting with the next one was that I'd do EC, because I was really happy with the way I was instinctual in every other way the first time round :)
So, just give it a go and see what happens in yourself, your baby and with your time.
Yes, what Mayaness said, EC is just another baby care task, and I think the first few weeks is the most time-stealing (kind of like BF is with a newborn... my DD fed every hour.. for an hour!)
I'm still struggling, I swear DD is pee shy and only pees when I'm not there, so I still can't learn her cues. If you just try it, after your first catch you will be addicted!!
It's so much cleaner and healthier and kinder to your baby!!
Getting there - the other night DD went 5 hours without waking and without weeing, then a couple of nights of weeing twice overnight (which is also a feed-wake, so no biggie). She's letting go of wee's on cue and I'm positive now that she's holding on when she can see I'm making efforts to find her a wee spot, till I get her there. I can't help but feel that it's really helping out trust-bond - she trusts me to keep her from soiling herself, and gets upset in the car when I can't pull over for it, so I really try to notice these times and make the cueing sound so that she knows it's ok to do the wee in the nappy and she'll be dry as soon as I can manage to change her.
So far I've managed to keep her dry during funerals, train trips, long drives, short drives, family functions, shopping, nature walks...and counting :)
How's everyone else going?
Like you, I wanted to do EC, but wasn't sure if DH and I would have the time and energy to commit to it fully. So we did part-time EC with DD, i.e. we used nappies, but watched for cues and put her on the potty since she was 1 month old. I found it really wothwhile, as even though we still used nappies, we very rarely had to change pooey ones, which made it so much easier.:
At the moment (DD is 2 3/4), we still put her in a nappy at night (sometimes I'm not with it enough to make sure she uses the potty in the morning ;)), and if we're going on a long trip, where there may not be readily available toilets. Otherwise she is pretty much toilet trained and in undies during the day. I think the part-time EC was very effective, so even if you don't think you can go fully nappy free from the start, every little bit helps IMHO. I would fully recommend giving it a go.
Yess everyone should give it a go!!! It's so fun when you catch!
I'm at the stage where DD holds her poos just a little bit, coz she knows I'm about to whisk her on to potty, she gets so pleased when she's pood in it! Wees are just pure luck for us still. I can only get the ones during feeds coz she pops off the boob. Otherwise, she has no obvious cue and I just can't sit around watching her all day. I doubt I'll ever get to be nappy free, but just getting a few catches in every day just makes us both feel good.
Hi girls! Your all going so wonderfully.....We are still ECing part time...have been catching poos lately, not many wees as I cant seem to work out his cue?
DS1 is nearly out of nappies fulltime and is asking to wee before bed which is a great sign!
Will try to stay updated as I am really tring to make this work and your posts are really encouraging :)
Hope you all had a nice break xxxx
Great, Boomba!
We ran out of terry cloths (my 'home nappy'!) cos it's been too wet to put washing out...so we have been playing with nappy-free lots! The thing is that the timing sucks - I'm trying to pack a house to move out of by next week, so I get caught up with packing or keeping DS out of half-packed boxes/climbing on his sister/tearing plants out of the ground/demolishing the bananas etc and miss her wees a lot this week. My wrist has RSI again because of the walking around with DD and holding the chamber pot whilst chasing DS or watching what he's up to...makes packing hard!
Anyway, we had our first pooey nappy since January on Wednesday because I was so tired and out of it that I missed her fussing on the boob...don't miss pooey nappies at all!
Looking forward to being installed at MiL's between selling our house and building our shed-home (this is what we'll live in while we design and build on our farm), so that I can do fun things with DS and tune back into DD :)
We're still quite variable overnight - some nights it's one waking, most nights it's two and sometimes it's a waking every 2-3 hours, but at least out of these, only 2 will result in a wee.
Better get back to packing now that DD is asleep!
Have fun!
Hi all, I'm jumping on the bandwagon!
I guess I am part time EC'ing at the moment, just catching what I manage to and using timing rather than cues at the moment... DD is just so brand new I am still trying to decipher her language.
I read about EC with DD1 but never got around to it, I guess it all felt too hard. This time I actually ordered a top hat potty on a whim while pregnant then forgot about it. It took longer than I had anticipated to arrive and then DD2 arrived a little earlier than expected. So, this friday, with DD2 about 10 days old I received the potty in the mail, popped her on it and sure enough - eureka! From then to now I only missed one poo and that was only because I went out today for the first time!! I can't believe how easy this has turned out to be so far and how innate and natural it is!! It seems to obvious now that we actually train our babies to eliminate in a nappy when they are naturally programmed to eliminate in comfort!
Mayaness, I think you hit the nail on the head with this:
So, nice to join the thread here - I am looking forward to the EC journey and sharing your journeys with you all!:
I didn't give her a spiel, just said that once I started I never looked back and it doesn't feel like it's a time stealer - the hardest part is just starting when you haven't done it before, because in our culture it's a leap of faith...and I put it off!
Welcome!!
Welcome Jackrose!
Thought some of you might want to know that Nurture Nappies has Ecapants on sale - they're the nappy/undies cross that flips open for potty time. I'm pondering getting some but she's in about three layers of clothes at the moment for the cold, so not sure if they would make much difference in getting to the potty on time! I'm just resigned to only catching poos in winter, I think :(
Thanks for the heads up Jess, I hear you on the challenges of this cold weather! I'm with you, resigned to catching poos mainly!
Even though it has turned much colder and we have many layers of clothes on here, we have been doing well here. So far in 4 weeks I have only missed the one poo! :dance: Plus I am converting people - or should I say 'we' are converting people without even trying!
I have had a few visitors recently who have been blown away by the magic of EC, watching a squirmy babe in arms, fuss and fidget while being changed then visibly relax when placed on the potty! For some reason my DD always seems to have the urge for a motion when we have company, (I think she wants to be the poster girl for EC ;)). I have nonchalantly headed over to the change table (in our living room) and gone through the procedure of pulling out the top hat and then turned to see jaws dropping on the couch from the visitors. So naturally, DD does a demonstration of the relieved relaxation when sitting on the potty and duly delivers a poo as I explain the philosophy, the ease and the fact that I am in a way as taken back as they are! Nods of approval follow and a new generation of EC'ers is inspired!
Now if only she could inspire her 2 1/2 year old older sister the joys of avoiding the nappy :rolleyes:
Hi all. Subscribing as I'd like to start EC soon after bub is born.
Can I ask, how many nappies would you use while ECing? I don't know yet how successful we'll be but I am currently sourcing cloth nappies and it's doing my head in with all the different varieties. What do you think is the best start with a newborn? prefolds, fitteds, AIOs? We have 100 newborn disposables, but I'd rather avoid using them if we can. Should I wait until bub arrives before buying cloth? I was thinking of just getting some standard terry flats anyway, as they could be useful for so many purposes.
I've looked at the Ecapants and they look like a great idea.
How early did people start with EC? From the reading I've been doing, it doesn't seem like you can start too early, assuming everything else is going well.
Thanks
hey, just subscribing again after the data loss.
Having great fun, i think i get more excited when dd goes on the toilet than she does.
I am trying this part time as I've just jated toilet training ds (3yo) he almost has wee down during the day, but poo will be a whole other matter.
EC going well, as soon as I sort my priorities out and get her to the toilet at the right time I think we'll be set. she seems to respond well to a cue, I just need to up the consistency so she starts to hold it!
I wish I'd started EC as soon as DD was born; it seems that's the way to get the best results. I stared at 3months, and was catching a daily poo, then I stopped for some reason, and have started again in the last month (DD is 9mo now) and we really only catch one poo a week and never any wees. It's frustrating. I think she knows to try to poo when I put her on the potty, but I just never get her on there at the perfect time. She always wees as soon as I take her off, and tends to poo about 15mins after. She just doesn't seem to have a set time for these things.
I tend to waste so much time sittin around holding her on her potty, but I just want her to start pooing on it more often!
Definitely when it gets a bit warmer (and when she starts walking) I'm going to give her lots and lots of nappy free time.
Has anyone else started EC late with any success? I think I need some tips or just encouragement.
Dammit, the two week post loss means my update was lost!
ECing still, but with uni and some other life stresses (sickness etc) using nappies as a back up at night. Going to bed at 2pm is not conducive to being very responsive overnight :(
Drove 3 hours yesterday to get to my parents' for a few days and got to the other end with a dry nappy :)
Starting to use the potty a bit more, still using the vintage chamber pot overnight, though, because it has a handle and fits neatly between my thighs for her to sit on, sleepily.
Mainly catching her poo once in the morning, for a poo-less rest of the day.
She's resisting me during the day for most wees and will ark up before relaxing to do it. It's like I've interrupted something very important! So, I hold her flexibly and firmly - not so that she's forced into a position, but so that she's still bent and supported.
I think starting at any time is good and it just feels frustrating because both of you are relearning :)
Mayaness I remember your lost post; sucks that you are back in nappies overnight, you must feel quite resentful. Hopefully uni stops being so full on soon.
On the bright side, you are at least catching some everyday.
DD pretty much refuses the potty now, and today I've cleaned up 3 wees and 1 poo GRRR. All occured immediately after me giving up on potty.
She also refuses to wear a nappy, she just rolls and screams when I try to put one on. It's a no win here, she thinks the carpet is the toilet.
Hi ladies! I'm new here, and I'm going to have a bit of a "me" post, if that's OK.
This thread doesn't seem as active as some of the others, so I hope some of you are still around to give me a bit of a hand!
I have a 3&1/2 month (almost 4 month - where has that time gone?) DD, and am only just beginning EC.
It was something I had wanted to do, but she was in a pavlick harness for hip dysplasia, and to be honest, it kind of made everything different, so I had decided not to worry about it. Well, she has now been out of the harness for 3 weeks, and after doing a bit of reading, I thought I might give the EC a try, though I will admit I was worried if I was too late.
So far I have caught a few wees and a poo! Gosh it's exciting, isn't it? But if I be really honest, it was good luck and timing rather than anything more on my part. I find it really hard to differentiate between "I need a burp" and "I need a pee/poo" so I seem to always choose the wrong one, is it possible that the signs are identical, or just me not being able to tell the difference? Also, when she does give a sign when feeding, there doesn't seem to be too much time between "whinge" and "wee". And sometimes when she wakes up, I have to be awfully quick as well.
I don't feel comfortable with the elimination hold (with her hips), and our potty at home was too big. I bought one of the infant potties, but I can't nurse (feed) her and hold her over it as she is a bit big for it now - her bum sits longer than my midline, if that makes sense). So when feeding, I just lay her on a folded towel. I did try using our toilet - sitting her infront of me on the toilet (great for poos, but seems she overshoots wee over the front and on the floor - our loo not quite big enough for my big bum and hers!), but the bathroom sink works good for wees - sitting on the vanity on a folded washer, but not a good position if she needs to poo. And of course I can't yet tell the difference between the two.
So I guess I am just after some help with the signs - working out what's what, and to make sure I am on the right track. No-one I know has done EC at all.
Also, how long should I "offer" the potty before I consider it declined? sometimes it seems I give up to easily, and get peed on, and then others it seems she gets a bit upset if I put her there. I know, at this stage I am still focussing on reading signs and learning cues with her, but I mean for "pottytunities".
many thanks!
I was just thinking of this thread recently! The site crash kind of killed off posts, I think.
We're at the point now where a lot of the time DD will say 'sssss' (albeit, with a lisp!) and I'll know to get her on her plastic floor potty or the toilet seat on the loo, during the day.
At night she's hardly weeing, but still using the vintage enamel chamber pot (and you might find this easier to use, Milly - second hand shops and dealers should have them) maybe once or twice (sometimes not at all!).
Now that we spend a lot of time at the farm we're hardly even using nappies. 15 months old and going through maybe one nappy throughout a whole weekend is not bad going :)
Still living at MiL's, and the carpet has copped stray wees, much to MiL's chagrin. She likes her to have a nappy. When she looks after DD she'll put a nappy on her, which is fine in itself...but she leaves it on and never checks it and never changes it :( I've gotten home to a nappy full of poo that's been there at least an hour - it's one thing to want a nappy on her to save the carpet, it's another to leave nappies to me when I don't even want nappies on her and she doesn't need them if you just PAY ATTENTION to her, seeing as she displays some obvious elimination cues. Grrr.
ANyway, we'll be living on the farm, soon, and it will be in the past :)
I'd love to give this a go. My baby boy is just over 3 months old now, but his poos very irregular, sometimes every five days so I think that might make it difficult. He wees a lot though, but I can never tell when he's going to wee. I give him nappy free time on the floor a few times a day and lay him on a flat nappy in case of wees, and he always wets them. Maybe I'm not paying enough attention to his signs.. what should I be looking for?