Know How To Start Elimination Communication With Your Baby

Know how to start Elimination Communication with your baby. These 5 keys will help guide you… & It is not as difficult as one would think.

Know How To Start Elimination Communication With Your Baby

In this post, I will share how I started a year ago with my first child. I will explain the downfall I had and many benefits of “E.C.”, what it is, and why I decided to get started and not wait. After one year of practicing, I am finally ready to share my experience with you. It’s time for others to Know How To Start Elimination Communication With Your Baby!

How I Started Elimination Communication With My Baby

I set a goal that by the time my baby was eating solids and walking, I would have her in trainer underwear, going poop 100% in the toilet. I can confidently say we met that goal! 👏

Is Elimination Communication For You?

Personally, I don’t think E.C. is for everyone. The convenience of modern-day disposable living is too hard to escape from fully. Consumerism and a disposable mentality have crippled our country into thinking our purchasing has no consequences.

However, if you are like many mothers who don’t want to rely on plastic diapers or let their baby/toddler soil themselves, then E.C. might be for you. There are many reasons to try it out, with zero harm.

What is Elimination Communication?

It is a mammalian instinct not to soil the area where they rest. If a puppy or baby feels comfortable pooping in the same location where they rest, their cues may have been neglected, and therefore, they learned to ignore their instincts from an early age.

How To Start Elimination Communication With Your Baby

Just like a baby will cry if they are too cold, hot, or hungry, so will they cry if they need to eliminate.

The type of cry is important to discern. A parent or caregiver might ask themselves, ‘Is this a hungry cry, an urge-type sound, or are they in discomfort? ‘

A mother intuitively knows what the baby needs. Trust your mother-gut intuition to lead you on what your baby is trying to tell you.

Where to Start On the Elimination Communication Journey

1. The most important step in starting is learning more about E.C. By diving deep into resources from godiaperfree.com, you can decide if it is right for your family. Once you feel inspired to do so, read Andrea Olsen’s book, listen to her podcasts, or join her Facebook groups.
2. Once you have the head knowledge, apply it. The one thing I remember learning while listening to Andrea Olsen’s podcast is never to ‘wing it’ or attempt E.C. “half-ass.” If you’re going to do it, be clear and intentional so as not to confuse the baby. This doesn’t mean you have to do E.C. full-time or catch every pee or poo. It means do it when you can, clearly and intentionally.

STEP 1 Find Your Rhythm

Finding a rhythm may look like taking your baby to the potty as soon as he/she wakes up from naps or from sleep. For my baby, this rhythm worked well…she eliminates EVERY 👏 SINGLE 👏 TIME 👏 after waking up.

If you notice your baby has a natural tendency to pee during a diaper change or after, leave the diaper off and put the baby potty under them to catch it.

STEP 2 Make It A Habit

Make it a habit to put a baby potty or top hat potty under your baby if you know they are about to poop. ‘How the heck would I know my baby is about to poop?’ you ask…Well, have you ever noticed a baby’s poop face? It gets all red and scrunchy? Or do they walk over somewhere and crouch down, looking like they are pooping? Instead of letting them poop in their diaper, take the diaper off and put them on the potty. There’s no need to explain or ask if they need to go. Help them not soil themselves.

In my opinion, catching poops has been really easy since she was born. I was able to catch her meconium poop when she was 7 days old. I felt so proud of us that I just kept doing it and made it into a habit of catching her poop in the little tophat potty.

Catching pees and poos can become an imperfect habit. What I mean is, even if you decide to practice E.C. full-time, you probably won’t catch all pees or poos one hundred percent of the time. Things happen, and in the E.C. world, we don’t call them ‘mistakes’ because they didn’t make a mistake. The parent ‘missed’ the cue or ‘missed’ catching it.

However, I have been amazed at the amount of poops I have caught. She really didn’t like pooping on herself and would wait for the potty to poop.

STEP 3 Learn and Adapt to Each Phase

As a first-time mom, I had a lot of learning to do by taking care of a newborn, then an infant, and now a 1-year-old. As many parents know, each stage of development is a whole new learning curve. Once you’ve mastered one thing, your baby outgrows it and is onto another milestone.

Similarly, the same goes with E.C.

I struggled in this area because what was working for us in the beginning was not working once she was crawling or sitting up. When she was a newborn, E.C. was fairly simple. I would breastfeed her with the tophat potty under her and would catch her pee and watery yellow newborn poop. It was the cutest thing ever. I loved being able to breastfeed and catch her poop at the same time.

However, she outgrew this stage and moved beyond the top hat potty.

The next phase was using the baby potty. Again, catching her poops in the baby potty was easy because she would wait for me to take her to the potty to poop. It was a normal occurrence every morning when she woke up.

The struggle began around 6 months, when she wanted to play, and would refuse the potty. I would put her on, and nothing. Minutes later, she would pee in her diaper. I felt as if she were rebelling.

I let up on the need to catch every one of her pees. She would pee way too much for me to keep up with anyway. I think I set up an unrealistic expectation of catching every single pee, and she sensed it. She taught me a valuable lesson: It is okay to miss occasional pees, especially when she is busy playing or discovering new things, as a baby should be doing.

Step 4: Don’t Overthink It

This brings me to my fourth point: don’t overthink it. When I would overthink catching every pee and getting frustrated with my baby not peeing when I gave her the ‘pottytunity’ or peeing right after I changed her, she felt it, and it backfired.

I never want to put that sort of pressure on a baby ever again. It caused a little strain in our mother-daughter relationship, I feel—nothing traumatic, but still a little hurt.

With all the hormones and postpartum struggles a mother is dealing with, missing pees or having to change a wet diaper 5 times in 20 minutes is not a big deal in hindsight. I regret getting upset and overthinking this, and I know now that for future children, it will be okay.

On the flip side, E.C. has provided such bonding time with my baby. While I patiently wait for her to finish eliminating, I talk, sing, and admire her. It is so special. Only moms would understand, lol!

Step 5: Don’t Give Up

Yes, there will be times when you want to give up completely because you might miss 100% of elimination one day. After all, life happens and things get busy… but I encourage you to pause, take a break, and resume when things are better.

Trust me, when your baby starts eating solids, you will be glad to have them going in a toilet rather than on themselves in a diaper!

I hope this helps you to Know How To Start Elimination Communication With Your Baby!