Part-time EC success questionnaire.

[Bmomma2C]

We started EC almost accidentally when he was 13m and it was very clear he was going to poop. Now at 19m, he tells me most of the time when he has to pee or poop and will often walk to the potty. We use CDs when out of the house, and at both grandarents houses (as I work FT and spend 13+ hours a week commuting). He does often warn me it's potty time when we are out, though... he's used many a restaurant restroom now. Grandmothers have only in the last month started putting him on the potty because until then, they believed he was too young. He has a very low catch rate with them as he hasn't felt complete trust in them to take him every time yet. At home, he wears underwear 80% of the time, and diapers and diaper free another 10% each, and we catch 90% of the action. Diaper to sleep in... I'd like to be "day-trained" before working on nighttime. I only work for 4 more weeks, though, so I think he could be diaper-free before he's 2. He totally understands the workings of his body and the potty, wipes (front only, I do the back), flushes, closes the lid, etc. We use a ring on the toilet, not a baby potty... he already has to learn to stand one day, so I'm skipping unneccessary transitions.

[snoeglenn]

Micelle, our routine sounds like yours. DD is almost 4 mo and we're full time in diapers but she will almost always hold her poop until I take her to potty. We're more successful with pee in the morning b/c I can watch for it so much more easily and by afternoon, we're both tired of the running to potty. I still try to continue to catch her but accuracy isn't always great. And since she's not excited to cooperate later in the day, I don't force it. All about keeping her happy and no rush. I get the same early morning kicks too! Takes me awhile to figure out what's going on, at which point she is then punching me! :-)

[LaurenR]

I'm new to this, but my daughter, now 9 months, has been popping on the potty each morning for about two months. I should probably try after naps next. I think she understands what the potty is. We started because she was imitating me in the bathroom!

[Pandabutt]

1. How "EC" are you? Do you use diapers? Do you go diaper free? Somewhere inbetween?
We use diapers. Prefolds or fitteds in a cover. We've been using gerber training pants and putting that inside a cover


2. How old is your baby/child?

13 months and we started ecing at 4 weeks.

3. When did your child start to understand the concept of going to the potty (without you putting them there )? When s/he started walking? Talking? Later?

We've been siginging to her for as long as I can remember. She started siging back about a month ago and since then I've been trying to encourage her to walk her to the bathroom without having to pick her up. It's been quite an adventrue because she likes to take detours to every other room except the bathroom, but it's about persistency sometimes.

We miss about 5 diapers a day on average, on off days we go though almost 15 diapers. But like everything else, it comes and goes.

Keep up with all your hard work. It does pay off and even if they miss all the time, it's comforting to know that they are not sitting in their elimination for too long!

[Kikileta]

1. How "EC" are you? Do you use diapers? Do you go diaper free? Somewhere inbetween?
We are definitely in between. We use flats and a wool cover most of the time, occasionally just the flat, and sometimes go diaper free for as long as I'm willing to push my luck (usually right after he's had a good pee in the potty. There was a few days when our washer was broken over the holidays and we were using disposables because we didn't know when we'd have the washer working again, and all during that time I didn't catch one pee or poop. (I potty him with every diaper change.) So I avoid disposables like the plague now.

2. How old is your baby/child?
We're still early in our EC journey. DS is 4 months and we started around 4-6 weeks. I tried EC with DS#1, but never really got the hang of it and quit after a while. I started with DS#2 only by chance because I noticed that he would go poo almost consistently while nursing right after waking up. I'd assumed he woke because of hunger and nursed him right away. But one day he didn't seem at all anxious to nurse right away, so I thought I'd try taking him to the potty just for the heck of it. Low and behold, he pooped and peed. I've been doing that pretty much ever since with pretty good success. My main driving incentive was almost no poopy diapers anymore!

3. When did your child start to understand the concept of going to the potty (without you putting them there )? When s/he started walking? Talking? Later?
At only 4 months, I don't think I can claim that he understands the concept of going potty yet, but I do believe he's catching on to the cues already.

[lyia81]

1. How "EC" are you? Do you use diapers? Do you go diaper free? Somewhere in between?

Part time. We catch maybe 3-4 a day. Usually after a feeding.

2. How old is your baby/child?

3 months old today!!

3. When did your child start to understand the concept of going to the potty (without you putting them there )? When s/he started walking? Talking? Later?

Not sure of this one. She started going by our cue pretty early. She regressed a bit and then is doing a little better the past few weeks.

[azureskies]

Originally Posted by MichelleKiley I'm a bit of a part-time EC-er. Baby girl wears cloth diapers, but we catch somewhere around 5-8 times a day. I'm wondering about part-timers who are farther down the road than me. 1. How "EC" are you? Do you use diapers? Do you go diaper free? Somewhere inbetween? 2. How old is your baby/child? 3. When did your child start to understand the concept of going to the potty (without you putting them there )? When s/he started walking? Talking? Later? I'm in no rush for my babe to head to the potty on her own. I'm just wondering what is normal. I don't know anyone "in real life" who does this! Sometimes I feel like such a hippie. haha.

I'm afraid I'm not further down the road than you. I am, in that I have a toddler who has already gone through potty training and I'm not in that I have a baby about 10.5 months old who I am trying this out with.

We use diapers ALL the time. Even right after a successful potty usage. I just haven't felt like I can leave her naked. And she gets a lot less naked time than my first daughter did. I think it's mainly because there's so much going on and I don't feel like I want to risk accidents.

With my youngest I put her on the potty every morning when I get up and every time I go to the bathroom myself if she is awake. I was getting 100% usage, even if it was just a few drops until we got sick and I slacked off of it a bit.

With my older daughter, I think I did it less and definitely not so young. I introduced her potty around 12 months, I think.

When you ask question #3, do you mean the concept of physically going to the potty and using it, or do you mean the concept/feeling of knowing when they need to eliminate?

My 10.5 month old isn't walking yet. She has signed potty and held it until I got her there. But she's only done that a couple of times.

My older daughter was about 18 months when she started asking for the potty to go poop. It took her longer to ask for pee.

[2DaneMama]

We use BGEs at night and other AIOs during the day, but have been taking DD to the potty since birth, and she goes about 1/2 the time now at 15 months. Our LO seems to be a "weird" one in the sense that she will not tell us when she poops...if we catch a poo it's totally by accident, and it rarely happens. She loves to pee on the potty, though and at night will wake up about 3 times to go pee. Lately (within the last month) she's been bringing me her potty ring during the day when she wants to go (we use that in the bathroom and a baby bjorn potty in her room) and she'll start to take off her pants (hasn't quite figured it out yet, but she tries and pulls on them). She started walking at around 12 months, no words or signing yet.