A Potty-sey: Part 3

When people find out we're practicing Elimination Communication, or EC, the questions inevitably follow. "Is it the same as potty training?" "Does he tell you when he needs to go?" "Isn't it a lot of work?" "Is he still wearing diapers?" These are all common questions, the answers to which are "no," "kind of," "not really," and "most of the time." As I've mentioned before, EC isn't really potty training, but it does increase awareness of pottying in the baby. Not only does Benjamin know what the potty is for, but he's now able to communicate with me many times when he needs to use it by either crawling towards it, patting it, or making an approximation of the hand signal for "potty." Also, timing plays a big role in ECing; I always potty Benjamin after naps and upon waking in the morning. Contrary to what you might think, EC is not a lot more work if you do it only as frequently as your schedule will allow. For example, I would be considered a "part time EC-er," because even though I try to catch more of B's shalalas and polliwogs in the toilet or potty (see this post if you have no idea what in the Sam Hill I'm talking about), there are times when it's easier for me to just leave him in a diaper and not worry about it, such as when we're out running errands. Also, when he's sick or having a hard time with teething, I tend to put ECing on the back burner. That being said, there are times when it's "safe" for me to put B in training pants or a cloth diaper because I know that he's finishing shalalala-ing for a while. You follow?

The easiest way for me to show you how it works would be to, well, show you. I took this video of me and B practicing EC after he awoke from his morning nap.



As you can see, it does take a bit more effort and a lot more patience than simply changing a diaper. Still, I'd argue that wiping out a plastic potty is a heckuva lot easier than trying to clean a squirming, twisting, messy baby, and it's even easier the times B uses his Baby Bjorn toilet seat on the grown-up potty. The chances of having shalalalas inadvertently flung in my face are much slimmer, too!