Exclaim in fear

I missed a #2 today. Not to get too graphic, but the clean-up required a tub and a removable shower head. I don't know if #2 is always going to be this sticky, but if it is, I'm sure glad that DS usually waits to go in the toilet. If he were always going #2 in a diaper I'm sure I would dread each little grunt DS ever made. "Oh no! He might be pooping!" I'd exclaim in fear.

But instead I say, "Woo-ee. Sure glad I usually get you over a toilet before this stuff comes out."

Also, I am now almost certain that I don't actually see DS's cue for peeing, but that I instead just take him to the toilet often enough to catch a few pees. This is somewhat disconcerting, as I'd like to eventually get the 'communication' part of EC working. Right now I'm sort of doing elimination timing. I guess it gets DS used to going in the toilet, but it would probably be less work for both of us if I could figure out some way for him to tell me he's gotta go. Any suggestions?

Months One to Three

I didn't being actively "potty training" my son until he was three months old. That is to say, I didn't hold him over a toilet until he was three months old. Prior to that, I was attempting my version of Elimination Communication by making a "pss-pss" sound when I would change his diaper or clothes. Sometimes he would go when I made the sound, sometimes not. Sometimes he was already going, and I would make the sound to attempt an association - my theory being that if he heard the "pss-pss" noise while already peeing, eventually I could make the noise and it would cause him to pee. (Friends have since pointed out that this is not "my theory" at all, but rather classical conditioning a la Pavlov's Dog and may be ethically questionable when applied to a human, but whatever.)


Either way, it wasn't going all that well - and I certainly missed more elimination communication moments than I witnessed. Then a friend came to visit and she told me about a mutual friend of ours who had potty trained her daughter by the time she was a year old. [If you are new to the EC world - "potty trained" in this context doesn't mean that her one-year old was walking into the bathroom and hopping onto the toilet all by herself, but instead that she would indicate to her parents when she had to go and they would help her do so. I will continue to use "potty train(ed/ing)" to refer to successful communication between child and parent resulting in a non-accident scenario.] She said that our mutual friend would just hold her baby over the toilet after every time she ate. It was simple and brilliant, and I implemented the system straightaway.

So the next morning, after DS ate, I took him into the bathroom, and hung his little bum over the seemingly cavernous toilet bowl. I made a "pss-pss" noise. He pooped. He peed. I laughed.
I realized then that I had come into the bathroom with no clean diapers or wipes and had no exit strategy. So I stood him on the edge of the toilet seat and held him with one arm while I reached back down to the diaper I had just removed and attempted to get that diaper back underneath him so I could carry him back to the changing table without risking dripping bodily fluids en route. It worked well enough, and so began our WeePee Baby.