Elimination Communication has been an important part of parenthood for me. We have used the method with 3 of our children and it has only been a positive experience.
With Colin we started when he was about 2 months old… before that, he hated peeing in his diaper and would cry and cry if he did. I had heard of it before but didn’t think it was for us. Honestly I thought it would be messy, it would be more work, I thought that I wasn’t attentive enough. I had the same misconceptions that people often have the first time they hear about it. I was open to try however and it changed everything. My upset, crying baby was now a happy baby that refused to go anywhere else than in the sink or potty or toilet. He showed me that EC was so much less work than diapers, it was cleaner and he showed me just how much control a baby could actually have. I never looked back. He was completely potty independent by two.
I started with both Khéna and Wilhelmina at birth. Though Khéna still has a few accidents at night, he was also potty independent at two.
With both Colin and Khéna we ECed with diaper backup. They didn’t actually use the diaper that often, but we seemed to feel more comfortable having it on. With Wilhelmina I decided to go diaper free from birth.
We used diapers (gdiapers with washable liners) during our trip to BC when she was 8 weeks old, but after that she was in either in normal underwear or the one-wet trainers that I had made, but she was consistent enough that we didn’t see any need for diapers.
Things were going great until the camping trip in June and her becoming sick afterwards.
At the age of 18 months, she was in diapers for basically the first time in her life. Though we still brought her to the potty and kept the routine intact she was having many more misses. EC also proved to be a lifesaver more than once in the hospital and in tests. (Urine tests, VCUG etc) The biggest setback however was because of the nephrostomy. We could get the trainers on her but it was much more complicated with the tube, so having her naked or in a diaper was easiest. The other setback with the nephrostomy was that it was draining directly into the bag on the outside, which left her with only a small portion of urine which made things much more complicated as she probably didn’t have much pressure on her bladder so she didn’t feel that she had to go.
When we headed to the hospital for her surgery at the beginning of October, I didn’t even bring the potty. I knew that it wouldn’t get much use. I couldn’t even hold her or get her out of bed for the first few days and of course she had a catheter anyway, but once she was a bit more mobile and then tubeless, I would just bring her to the toilet. However, I think it took time for her to get used to the feeling of having a full bladder again, so, since coming home she has been using either the one-wet trainers or has been in diapers…
But in the last few days things have now changed. I noticed that she had an interest in using the seat reducer on the toilet, so we tried it out and has not turned back. She now she runs to the bathroom and says “pipi” when she has to go. Instead of going often and in small amounts the timing is again spacing out as it did when she was smaller when EC was at its easiest point.
I think it is too early to say that this is it… but I definitely feel that we are at the end of diapers for good.
Yay for Wilhelmina!
I swear I just took a pic today and was going to post about EC tomorrow night…. except mine’s a little different. My babe now categorically refuses to go in the bathroom and gets upset if we remove his diaper. So, as a last attempt, I reluctantly brought out the potty again… the novelty seems to be helping for now.