Did you know?
Do you know that you can start putting your baby on the potty from birth?
Do you know that babies are born with strong instincts not to soil themselves?
Have you ever been welcomed by a fountain of wee as you open your newborn baby´s nappy?
Or noticed that your 9 month old baby floads his/her nappy as he/she wakes up in the morning?
These are opportunities to help your baby stay dry and help him/her associate his/her elimination needs with the appropriate receptacles.
What is Elimination Communication (EC)?
Elimination Communication, or early infant potty training, or infant potty learning is the process by which caregivers tune into their babies´s cues and signs of needing to eliminate and help them do it in a culturally appropriate way (such as a potty, toilet, sink, garden). It is nothing new. It has been the way humans have approached dealing with babies´waste before disposable or cloth nappies existed. It is still practiced in developing countries. Ask yourself, how did hunter gatherers survived being pooed or weed on constantly? Imagine how you would keep your baby clean and dry with no disposable nappies or no running water to be washing 10 cloth nappies a day? Simple, mothers would tune into their babies cues, move them away from their bodies and signal them to eliminate with a sound such as “pssss”. These practices have been documented by Laurie Boucke in her book “Infant Potty Training” which explores how tribal communities “potty train” their young. Andrea Olson also has stories and resources on her website.
Why do this now?
You might think that elimination communication is backwards, that there is no need to go back to this in the same way that we now have running water, kitchen appliances, sofas and carpets making live easier for everyone and much harder to deal with the occasional pee miss. However, modern society has other concerns such as the fact that not a single nappy that has been thrown into landfield has decomposed (and will not for 500 years), that the plastic over consumption is not sustainable, that cloth nappies do still utilise lots of resources and that currently the age of potty training in the UK is 36 months. This is a stricking difference with babies being potty trained at 18 months back in the 50s before disposable nappies where introduced.
So, what is the most ecological and cheapest alternative to disposable and cloth nappies? Well, not to use nappies at all! Or to use them as little as possible and as a backup to when we miss the communication, rather than as a toilet to be carried around.
How do you do it?
It is as simple as holding your newborn baby over a small potty, a plastic container or your sink. You can hold him/her by his thighs with his/her back against your belly (like shown in the video). Then you offer the potty /sink when you know he/she is likely to wee. These are pottytunities as we call them, such as after waking up or after being in the car seat/pram/high chair. Every time your baby wees or poos you do a sound that they start associating with eliminating and soon he/she will eliminate on cue (if they need to go!). Every few weeks we do some nappy free observation and figure out how often he/she wees or poos.
How did it go for us?
Elimination communication can be started at any age up to 18 months and as a family we have been practicing it since my son was 2 weeks old. We have currently trying to remove him from his nappies (except for outings) at 14 months as he is mastering his walking and we are using the next few months to wrap it up. It has not been a straightforward journey, there is no linear progress in EC, there is always a back and forth with any childhood matter, and it requires adjusting our expectations and let go of goals and putting pressure on our children. It is a beautiful practice of respecting and trusting our young.
I got so immersed in it during my maternity leave that of course I had to start supporting my clients with this from birth! If you hire any postnatal care I can show you the basics if you ask me to. If you hire a 4-6 week care package I will provide you with your own top hat potty as part of my goody bag that also includes a sling, cloth nappies (as they are a better alternative to disposables and they help babies not disassociate elimination with wetness) and co sleeping advice.
