In the interest of bringing some closure to the things I've written in the past on here, I'd like to summarize what happened with my son.
By the time he was 14 months he almost never pooped in his diaper - preferring to go in the potty and being able to wait until he was so able.
By the time he was 2 years and 3 months (27 months) he was wearing underwear during the day and going on the potty with some assistance (mainly with getting clothes on and off). He wore a diaper at night but one month later he was no longer wetting them at night and would instead wake up and yell for us to come help him.
For the details: When he was 13 months old I began a full-time language course and DS began to attend day care, which put our EC on hold, at least for part of the day. Try as I might, the day care folks weren't convinced he'd go 'potty,' plus they don't realistically have time to hold him over the toilet and say 'sssss' every two hours. (Actually, I just wanted them to substitute their passive diaper changing with active toilet time, but either way, it didn't fly.) DS was actually one of two kids in the class of 12 whose parents were doing EC, and they were equally frustrated with the challenges of day care. Long story short, we put full-time EC on hold and whenever DS was with us we'd hold him on the toilet. When I returned to being a full-time at-home mom, we picked back up with EC. This was November of 2010 and DS was 20 months.
At this point, I had DS in diapers, but had him sit on the Baby Bjorn potty whenever he woke up and a few times throughout the day. It wasn't foolproof, but I am certain that it helped him to learn when he had to go. The hardest part for us seemed to be getting him to tell us when he had to go. Until he was about 2 1/2, it was always me reminding him and taking him. Finally at around 30 months, we got to where he would say, "Quick, quick!" and run to the bathroom. He's now almost 3 and can go into the bathroom and remove his pants by himself and go potty. He still needs a little help getting his pants back on, but as I understand it, that's normal for his age.
I hear about other people trying to potty train their kids and I am so glad I did EC. And keep in mind it was only EC in the most convenient and lazy possible way. I substituted diaper changes with potty visits. I was going to be in the bathroom taking off DS's pants and diaper anyway, why not let him try going in the toilet? I truly do not think I spent more time doing EC than most parents do 'teaching' their kids to ignore their body's signals about urination. We saved money on diapers and in the process taught our son how to be more independent. I had a great experience and have just recently started EC with my second son, who is three months old. More to follow!
