What is Elimination Communication?

Elimination Communication (EC) is an ancient practice of tuning in to a baby's elimination patterns and signals and responding to the baby's needs.  In this way, babies can live diaper-free!  Might sound crazy at first, but it's truly a beautiful thing!  Ingrid Bauer is an expert in the field - read more on her website.


Elie at 8 weeks

Elie at 8 weeks

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Receptacle

I'm having a hard time figuring out a good receptacle for Elie's pees/poops. Since he sometimes does both at once or he's fidgety and I'm not sure which it's going to be, I need to be able to catch both at the same time in one receptacle.

Things I've tried:
* A big stainless steel bowl with a prefold draped over it so it's not cold - problem is I have to hold him up enough that he doesn't end up sitting in his pee/poop.
* BB potty insert - works pretty well (best so far), except that it's not round, so it's a bit uncomfortable to hold between my legs and I also have to hold his penis down, which often interferes in his peeing - if I shift at all, he stops peeing and I have to wait a few seconds/ minute for him to restart and then I wonder if he fully emptied his bladder or not.
* EC bowl from www.theecstore.com - great for poops, but I can't get the tush and penis directed into it at the same time. Sometimes I sit on the edge of the bathtub with him sitting on the potty bowl for a poop so the poops would go into the bowl and any pee would go into the tub.
* Bathtub - great for pees (except that I have to go into the bathroom). Works for poop except then I have to clean the mess.
* Toilet - great for poops, but it's hard to angle the pees in and also it's a bit uncomfortable for me.

I've been working on ECing at night. Last night, I caught two pees in the bathroom. Elie was sleeping in his little spot on our bed and stirred enough during the night to wake me up. I quietly left the room so as not to wake up Yoav. So it was a mostly pee-free night!

One problem I'm having is that when Yoav is awake, I feel torn - Elie is agitated and doesn't want to pee/poop in a diaper (sometimes) and Yoav needs me. I'm hoping it just doesn't happen too often.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Early ECing

I started ECing after my mother-in-law and parents were gone since I felt funny about trying it with them around. I think I started on Sunday Dec 16. In the first few days, I easily caught several poops. I "caught" some pees too, but had a hard time with aim in the beginning and most pee went straight into the air or on me! :) EC is pretty easy now, because Elie mostly sleeps and just wakes to nurse or pee/poop, so if he squirms and doesn't want to eat, he needs to pee or poop ;)