Saturday, March 6, 2010

Diaper Free Baby

I just got back from my first Diaper Free Baby/ Elimination Communication meeting. I have always wanted to go. Today was a membership drive. They took Luke's picture while he was sitting on his potty for a book. The book is pictures of other babies on their pottys.
We started EC when Luke was 3 months. I had never heard of pottying a baby until Ben had told me that he saw it on the news when he was a kid. Ben was always interested in EC for when he had kids. I never actually believed it would work until I met a neighbor who was ECing her boy as well. She said she's had a great time doing it and success. I thought, what the heck, I'll try it. I mean the worst that would happen is that I would just do the regular diaper thing like I was already doing.
For those of you who don't know, EC is basically learning the signs and cues of your baby of when they have to potty and then taking them to the potty. The first step is to observe when they pee/poop and make a cue noise such as 'ssss'. Then once you get their signs and timing down you start taking them over the potty and cue-ing them. Many people think that it is 'early potty training', but that's not it at all. It's listening to your baby's signs and signals that he has to eliminate.
For us, EC has been going really well. Luke pretty much goes in the potty most of the time with some off days mixed in there. It's so amazing that babies give signals. I love feeling so tuned into Luke that I can take him to the bathroom. I can also tell that he hates being in a wet diaper and will almost never poop in one (unless I miss his signs which happens on occasion).
It's great living down the street to a mom who also does EC. It's nice to see how a EC child grows up and transitions to being fully independent pottying. I am excited to see how Luke will gradually do more of it on his own. But for now, just being in tune with him is great. Babies are just so smart.

The meeting was all the way in NE Portland. Usually Luke doesn't like longer car rides but I think he is actually tolerating longer trips now(thankgoodness). I was so proud of him for being happy all the way to the meeting and then coming home. We didn't even have to stop at all!

I love watching Luke grow up. He amazes me every day.

1 comment:

Lisa C said...

Aw, love the potty picture! Everyone I know who has tried EC has gotten hooked on it!