Skinship

Elimination communication- a bad day

Ok. I admit. There are days when I am really bad in reading Jun's signs of EC. And one of them was today. After having almost no accidents anymore for quite a long time, I completely lost his rythm today and he peed in his pants for three times. But as everywhere there are ups and downs and I am sure we will be more tuned tomorow :-)

I hope my friend who has spent the entire day with us today didn't loose her motivation to try EC. Here is a nice post by Carrie Lauth  "Elimination communication aka potty talk" from Parenting blog. For motivation!

Elimination communication- personal experience

It is more than three months since we've started diaper-free life and it is time to do a review. I have to tell you that EC is great and I am sure many more parents would practice it if the only knew how easy it is.

 

First of all get rid of diapers for couple of days and follow your baby's rythm…it will surprise you how logical rythm of urination and bowel movements they have. It might be a bit of mess during those days but it is just in order to get to know your baby. The major milestones to follow are: couple of minutes after waking up and after breastfeeding, drinking or eating. Otherwise you put him to pee every 30-45 minutes, of course depending on your baby's age and his rythm. I am sure you will quickly figure out your baby's inner schedule.

 

You will be surprised how children cooperate. In couple of days they figure out what to do when you hold them above the sink or toilet and sing a pee-pee song. Once they get it it is your responsibility to put them to the toilet on time. They wait as long as they can but if you are too late they will pee in their clothes. Usually they give you a sign but don't expect them to pull your shirt and say »Mommy, I want to pee« at 9 months. They just become fussy or on contrary they become very calm and you only have couple of minutes to figure out what is it. At the beginning you will probably first think that they are tired or hungry but when EC will get into your mind it will probably be the first thing to think of.

 

My experience is that in only a week of practicing EC we got so connected that every time I started thinking whether he needs to pee or not it was time to take him to the toilet. There are hardly any »accidents« but even when we miss his clues it is not a big deal. You just change clothes instead of diapers.

 

If you are practicing EC you really have to take it easy. There is no point being in a hurry or being angry when it doesn't work. Rather take it as you challenge to get so close to your child that you can read even his most subtile clues (like those of EC).

 

I am happy to hear that some of my friends are successfully starting to practice EC. I don't say it is easier than diapers, when you can simply »forget« about your baby for couple of hours. But it is definitely more fun for parents and children. Besides all other things it definitely helps you build an even stronger bond.

 

And it is not only mothers who can do it…I can tell you that daddies can get even more excited. More about their experience is coming soon.

Skinship groups

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you to join us at Mother's click. I've created two goups for parents who believe in attachment parenting, want to share their ideas, ask for advice or just have a chat with similarly minded parents.

First group is called Skinship and can be found here. It is open for all English speaking readers who share passion for connected and respectful parenting, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, babywearing, cloth diapers or elimination communication and much more.

Since many of Skinship readers come from Slovenia and feel more comfortable communicating in Slovenian I've created a Slovene group called "Moja Mami". You can join us at MojaMami web page.

To join any of the groups you have to register here. You can also upload your picture. The web platform used at Mother's click enables us to use several services from posting notes, activities, managing group calendar, posting photos, posting reviews, and much more.

I wish you a great fun using the service and hope to meet you online soon.

Anja

Diaper free life or what does EC stand for

Did you ever consider life without diapers­? Did you think how we were brough up? Or what do African, Asian and South American mothers do with their babies?

The advertising campaigns for Pampers, Huggies and other brands are so agressive and repeatedly appear on TV, magazines, billboards and other places that they almost made us believe that babies come »naturally« in dipares.

When Jun was born I didn't feel comfortable to leave him in diapers for prolonged periods. Eventhough we were using cloth diapres I still didn't want him to spend the entire day and night in those bulky (and usualy wet) diaper.

We started searching the web to find an alternative solution and than we found the book by Ingrid Bauer »Diaper free: the Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygene«. You can get more info on Natural Wisdom web page.  This is how we got familiar with the concept of elimination communication (EC). We started using it for bowel movements quite early and lately we even do it for urination. It works great and now I am wondering why haven't it introduced earlier.

For those of you who are interested in the topic you can find more information at Diaperfree Baby.

I also recommend the article from NY Times Dare to Bare by Meredith F. Small, a professor of anthropology Cornell University and the author of "Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent."

There are also couple of blogs on this topic like for example Free ro EC or EC Journey.

I am getting more and more exciting about it. Because it really works and is actually a lot of fun :-) I will write more about how we got started and about our experience in the future.

I am also very interested in your experience. Does any of you practice elimination communication? How does it work for you and your baby? Do you use EC all the time or just during the day?