Elimination Communication

I was turned on to elimination communication (EC for short) by the Mothering forums. One of my friends turned to EC and cloth when her son had a horrible diaper rash and found it to be a wonderful solution. I hadn't really put much thought into doing this until recently, but one day when Elijah had just woken up from a nap I decided to hold him on the toilet. Much to my surprise he immediately peed and that was the beginning of our part time EC adventure.

We haven't been doing it for very long, and it's all very new to us, but it's pretty amazing. It's not about early potty learning (although the fact that he might prefer to go in the potty and down the line it might make that a bit easier for us), it's more of a great bonding experience. The fact that it cuts down on our dirty diapers is definitely a plus too. So far we've only caught pees, poops are a bit harder. Eli doesn't definitively signal until he's actually going with the latter. I just wanted to share this with you, it's a great experience and I think that anyone who is willing should give it a shot! I don't sit around and watch for cues all day, we mostly do it by timing which is basically after he wakes up in the morning or after a nap. I might start adding in some times after Eli nurses, but we'll see. I don't plan on doing EC full time, and I don't expect Eli to be fully potty learned by a super young age, but it's nice being able to show my son that going in the potty is a normal experience!