It’s no secret that I love Elimination Communication – I was so excited today when I read Emily’s post on how she had stated her ECing journey with her gorgeous 5 month old baby girl ! It made me think about our ECing adventure and how it has taken leaps and bounds over the last 6 months so I thought I would share some of my favourite ECing tools that I have found to be invaluable (and great fun).
ECing at 3 months
We started off with a cheap potty from IKEA
I placed it on BiP’s changing table and would hold her facing away from me so I could support her back. I quickly learnt that placing a tissue in the bottom was incredibly useful. The tissue would help identify if she had peed and, if she pooped, it was much easier to clean as breastfed baby poops tend to have a certain gluey texture to them and would be a pain to clean out!
ECing at 6 months
As time went on, BiP was keen to try and sit on her potty without my help and the IKEA potty was just a bit too high so I went searching for another potty. I came across this funny duck potty, the beak squeaks and she can hold on to the handles. It was an instant hit!
ECing at almost 9 months
BiP has now progressed to the toilet, I have a small toilet insert which she now loves using.
She looks so proud when she sits on the toilet – I usually let her look at magazines or books during her potty time. Best part is the clean up is just a wipe and a flush! I chose this toilet seat as its small and sits ON the toilet seat rather than under the seat which makes it more hygienic and easier to pull out when you need to use it.
And finally!
The success of our ECing adventure to-date has largely depended on our desire to make it easy and enjoyable. Occasionally BiP will arch her back, signalling she doesn’t want to do this right now, and we give it a break. Once she got the hang of going in the potty I stopped making a big fuss of her going (it felt a bit odd congratulating her on going to the bathroom where she should) so now I just say “doesn’t that feel better?” You don’t need to spend a fortune on fancy ECing products, unless you want to. There are plenty of regular potty training accessories on the market that work even for tiny babies!
BTW! We still use diapers!!