Hannah was in her high chair playing with some cereal and pizza crust (yes, I let her eat pizza crust!) when I was typing in my last blog entry. I hadn't finished the first sentence when I heard her start grunting. This is a grunt that any parent of any baby would recognize- it's the grunt that means "I'm pooping" or "I'm about to poop." Since I was fortunate enough to learn about EC (elimination communication) before Hannah was born, what I did when I heard the grunting was pick her up and take her to a potty. She has a little potty that she sits on, and that's where she, well, goes potty. So instead of changing a poopy diaper, I clean out a little potty bowl. Much cleaner! Much less messy! Much preferred to poopy diapers! Oh, I haven't changed a poopy diaper in a month, and have only changed two since Thanksgiving. When she used to poop multiple times a day, we would still have days without a poopy diaper, or days with only one instead of five. Pretty cool, I think!
There's lots of information about EC on the internet, and it's not as weird as it sounds! I say that, because it sounded weird to me at first. In fact, I wasn't going to try it at first, but eventually I did decide to try it. Here's a website:
http://www.diaperfreebaby.com/ Note: "diaper free" and "diaperless" are not the same thing. I use diapers with Hannah, it's just that diapers generally aren't our primary place for going potty. They are "back up" or like really thick underwear. Underwear that gets peed in from time to time!
The idea with EC is to learn when your baby needs to eliminate, and provide them with a place to do so. When Hannah was first born, her signals for potty were very strong, once I knew what I was looking for. Now they are more subtle, and what I try to do is offer her a chance to go potty when she wakes up from a nap, after nursing, and throughout the day when I think about it. Some days she is dry all day long, other days I have six or more "misses." It's pretty cool! At night, if she's squirmy, I take her potty. If she doesn't squirm, I don't take her. Some nights she wakes up dry in the same diaper she wore to bed. Other nights I change her diaper two or three times and she soaks her diaper. It's not a big deal, either way!
EC can be practiced part time or full time, one time per day or all day long. Some moms who do it do choose not to use diapers. I think that's neat, but that's not what would work fo rus. Hannah has on a diaper or training pants most of the time. (Sometimes she doesn't, but I think most babies have some nakey bum time from time to time!)
We started doing this when Hannah was four or five days old. I was going to start at birth, but since I ended up having a c-section, I really wasn't able to hold her over a potty at first. (I couldn't even change her diaper myself at first.) When she was four or five days old, she pooped all over the wall near the changing table during a diaper change. I was so excited, because I figured she was telling me she didn't want to poop in her diaper! So shortly after that I held her over my bathroom sink, made a "s-s-" sound, and she peed! At home I use the little potty or my sink, when we're out and about we use a potty that I have in the car, or a toilet. Actually, from very early on, she began to "hold it" while we were out and about and wait until we got home to go potty.
The two obvious benefits are fewer poopy diapers and no diaper rash! It's a neat communication that we have, too. It's definitely an interesting journey! It's just part of how I take care of her.
