Elimination Communication in Practice

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Since I started reading “Diaper Free” on loan from SM, I’ve been sort of trying to practice EC on Gavin.  “Sort of” just means that I try to watch his cues for part of the day, taking him to pee when I think he needs to and leave him in diapers for the rest of the day.  Diaper Free suggests that if practicing EC sounds a bit daunting to jump into the deep end, you can try starting with a couple of hours a day.

Although Gavin is almost 6 months – reaching the end of the recommended window period to introduce EC to a baby – I take heart in knowing that Jane Fonda’s son didn’t start until he was a year old and he still managed to learn.  I now know why they recommend you start earlier.  With Gavin more mobile and exercising his vocal chords just on a whim, it is not easy deciphering when he is noise making is just him enjoying the sound of his voice or when he really wants something.  The other downside is that he has been semi-conditioned to pee and poop into his diaper already so practicing EC now means we have to un-condition him.  Diaper Free writes that babies are born with the awareness of eliminating, however, once they are passed six months, they have grown so accustomed to peeing and pooping in their diapers that they tend to ignore their body’s cues.

There are four tools to use when practicing EC, these are:

1. Timing
2. Baby’s signals
3. Intuition; and
4. Mummy’s cues

Timing 

Timing involves knowing things like when baby is most like to eliminate.  For instance, on waking up in the morning, most babies will need to eliminate.  Other common elimination times are during or after feeding and after naps.  Different babies will have different elimination patterns but once you learn them, you will be able to anticipate when your baby needs to eliminate based on their timing patterns.

Baby’s Signals

Babies who have not yet been conditioned to pee or poop in their diaper will usually show signs of wanting to eliminate.  For instance, they may fuss a little, or they may wear a look of concentration, they may cease in whatever they are doing, or they may even increase in activity.  As you continue to practice EC, your baby will eventually be able to signal by reaching for you so they can be taken to their “potty”.

I knew Gavin had already been conditioned somewhat to pee into his diaper because there were times when he had eliminated without fussing at all.  Other times he would make few whimpering noises and when I took off his diaper and cued him to pee, he would pee.

Intuition

Some mothers just instinctively know when their babies need to eliminate.  Diaper Free says that as you continue to practice EC, you will develop a stronger intuition to your baby’s elimination needs so don’t worry if you are like me – completely devoid of intuition – or even if you aren’t as intuitive as other mothers are.

Mummy’s Cues

This sounds a little like the practice of classical conditioning.  Anyone who has ever studied psychology will know about Pavlov’s famous experiment with his dog.  If you haven’t, here’s what happened:

Pavlov wanted to see if he could condition his dog to react to a stimulus that didn’t have any bearing to the original stimulus that activated the reaction.  For instance, when a dog sees food, he naturally starts salivating in anticipation of eating.  What Pavlov did was whenever he fed his dog, he would ring a bell.  He continued to do this until his dog had become so accustomed to hearing the bell in relation to feeding that the dog would start to salivate even if Pavlov didn’t bring the food and all he did was ring the bell.

With EC, the idea is that whenever you take baby to pee or poop, you hold him in a specific peeing or pooping position and make a cuing sound.  For instance, when I take Gavin to pee, I’ll hold him in a squatting position over the toilet bowl and make a “ssss” sound.  Diaper Free also suggests that you do this even if you suspect baby is already peeing in his diaper.  Just hold him in the peeing position and make the cuing sound even though the diaper and clothes are on. 

EC experiences with Gavin

Judging from my last two weeks of practicing EC, I have discovered:

1. I have zero intuition – all my successes at peeing Gavin seem to originate more from luck than anything else. 
2. My ability to read Gavin’s signs is also somewhat questionable.  I attribute this partly to the fact that Gavin has already been conditioned to pee and poop in his diaper.  The only sign I know how to read is the fact that when he needs to pee, his penis will stand a little erect.  So I’ve taken to taking a peek inside his diaper whenever I am trying to guess when he next needs to pee.  So far, so good.
3. Even without being able to “know” when Gavin needs to eliminate or read his signs very well, I still managed to get some sort of coordinated EC working with Gavin by using the other two tools – cuing and timing.
4. Initially my sense of timing was also horrible.  For instance, Diaper Free says that peeing baby upon waking is usually one of the easiest times to get it right.  The first few times I tried it, I missed.  On the up side, even if baby doesn’t eliminate initially when you try to pee him upon waking, you should continue to do it because baby is learning something amazing.  He tunes in to what you are doing and realises that you will take him to pee when he wakes up.  I have since noticed that Gavin almost always pees now when I take him to the toilet upon waking, and if I don’t, he’ll pee when I open his diaper for a change.

My recommendations based on my experiences

If trying to guess when your baby is going to pee is difficult, I suggest you try what I have decided to do with Gavin.  After two weeks of “sort of” practicing EC, I’ve noticed that although Gavin is still wetting his diaper, he seems to have gained some awareness of what I’m trying to do because he is starting to eliminate whenever I take off his diaper whether I take him to the toilet or not. 

For instance, I had assumed he peed into his diaper when I took him for a bath yesterday so I didn’t take him to the toilet.  He ended up peeing into the bath water.  The day before, when I was changing his diaper, again I didn’t take him to the toilet and he ended up peeing while I was changing his diaper.  Whenever I take off his diaper now, I take him to the toilet and he will usually pee.

The only thing I haven’t worked out is his bowel movements.  The problem with that one is that Gavin only has a movement anywhere from three to five days.  One of the few times I suspected he needed to eliminate, I took him to the toilet, held him in position and made the cuing sign.  When he didn’t pee, I assumed I had read his signs wrong.  I took him back to his changing mat to change his diaper only to find him pooping during the diaper change.

Well, that’s all I have learned in these two weeks, so stay tuned for more updates as we go along.

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Other posts that might interest you:

• What is the Diaper-Free Movement?
• Elimination Communication – Another Accomplishment
• Infant Potty Training Progress
• Potty Training Regression
• Diaper-Free Part 2 – Learning Your Baby’s Elimination Cues

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