Happy Pottying!

Potty Mouths: All About Trainers

An overview and introduction to training pants for elimination communication.

Filed under: EC Gear, Potty Mouths, Tips & Tricks on December 22nd, 2008 by emiLy | No Comments »

Potty Mouths:  All About Newborn EC

Tips and tricks for practicing elimination communication with a newborn - one of our favorite times to do EC!

Filed under: General, Potty Mouths, Tips & Tricks on December 22nd, 2008 by emiLy | No Comments »

Wow, I have been paying close attention and focussing on Jett’s ‘proto sounds’ (early vocalisations / communications) for a while - in little ‘practice windows’ when we are together and focussed on each other and feeling quite connected.

Just now (I was asleep having a nap nurse with him before this) I awoke to him cooing and gooing at me and we had giggle-chats for a while. Then we were hanging out and I thought I heard him ’say’ ‘a-weeee’, so I got his bucket, showed him, and he did a wee! Then looked in great delight at his tinkle.

Was it a proto-word? We’ll have to see, and keep practicing in these moments together. Jett is four months old.

We are frequently working on ‘Milk-milk’ (+sign/point) and ‘Wee-wee’ (+sign/point) when the opportunity arises, and I am aiming to listen carefully to his proto-talking in context for communications. So, this means when he is otherwise signalling with his body language (such as frantic leg kicking, squirming, ’shouting’), I’ll observe for these sounds when responding to him. Another part of it is mimicking any of these sounds that he makes.

Even when he was tiny, his ‘word’ seemed to be “Erh” for needing to go. So I also use that sound/word.

I figure - it’s all communication, so it’s all good time well spent!

I LOVE EC!

Charndra

P.S This page on Part Time Diaper Free talks about my experiences with Baby Sign Language and EC, and includes a bunch of ’sign’ choices, some of my insights learnt with Maven, and 5 tips for getting started using sign language in your EC journey.

Filed under: A Day in the Life, General, Tips & Tricks, Updates: 0-6 months on December 14th, 2008 by Charndra | No Comments »

I’d like to know your experiences of baby wearing and EC. For me, it is just fantastic at getting the whole ‘EC Thang’ going on so easily.

With Maven I used a Ring Sling from about 7 months, and learning about the ‘Chi Pee’ was an astounding turning point for me. Before then we used pouches mainly in the cradle position, so less conducive to sign spotting at a high level. I was able to notice the ‘wriggly’ signs from about 3-4 months and that was very exciting to get right!

Here’s the story:

Each day we walked to the local Shopping Mall. There were about 5 really good Parent Rooms, so we could just range around the store and nip into a Parent Room quite easily. So this is where I practiced first using OneWet Pants when we transitioned out of nappies, and later in going nappy-free totally. That’s this story, so back to it!

I remember I had him in the red ring sling I made out of a single bed cover. He was naked on his bottom half and seated on my hip. I was wandering about, when I felt this warm sensation on my hip and went “Darn! how did I miss that?” and went to the Parent Room to put some OneWets on. But… there was no wetness! I pulled him out and held him over the sink (they have these big ones I guess for impromptu baby washing) and a big wee came out! I was so proud of myself, and in awe at this experience that I had heard about yet not recognised until now.

From then on, having him nakey bottom in the sling was how we went about things - it meant I knew straight away when he needed to go, and it was very quick to pop him out and in for a tinkle wherever we were. (Meaning a toilet and not needing to use a change-table) If he was to have independent time, I popped his OneWets on, for protection of surfaces in case of the accidents that were more likely with crawling and simply the distance of independent time.

 I’ve more information about Baby Wearing and EC here, including 7 of my insights into EC and wearing my babies.

 With Jett, I have had the awarenesses that I developed over time with Maven right from the start, so I recommend reading a bit more about this ‘EC Tool’ to benefit from baby wearing from as early as possible!

Charndra

Filed under: A Day in the Life, EC Gear, Tips & Tricks on December 13th, 2008 by Charndra | No Comments »

Maven was sensitive to wheat. If I had *too much*, he would pee like a fountain for several hours.

 One particular time when he was about 9 or 10 months old, I had wholemeal pancakes that I had made in a sour-dough style, thinking perhaps that would help. Well, and at first he would signal well (the first time he used sign language for ‘toilet’ was during this Pee Fountain Event), then he would get overwhelmed and stop signalling as there was just so much weeing going on - it would happen every 10 minutes!

This was the first and last time I tried wholemeal pancakes, I can tell you! In the end he actually hid under the table to wee as he was so distressed. We put pants on after that for a few hours, as the ‘Pee Fountain Events’ would pass in a few hours time, or by the next morning.

This incident was basically one of the last where I overloaded on wheat. I went onto rice-everything and it was great, and only started introducing it all much later. It appears at the moment (he is 3 and a half now) that he tolerates it quite well.

I’ve a bit more information about EC and Introducing Foods  here, including some resources I found helpful.

Fed Up with Food Additives is well worth a look.

It’s an Australian Resource, there is this little list of additives to print out and take shopping or have on the fridge when learning (or if you keep forgetting like me!)

Charndra

P.S I would love to start collecting a few stories about Food Reactions and EC and make a special page about them, as I’m sure it’s behind a good number of issues people have with their EC Journey.

Filed under: Food Issues on December 13th, 2008 by Charndra | No Comments »

EC Pants Directory

I’ve put this together as a helpful resource for when you want to transition out of diapers or nappies.

EC Pants are just a lot easier, I have found. Especially once you get into the swing of EC and mainly have pee misses, using training pants are sooooo much easier to pull down and offer a potty break than having to lay baby down, remove nappy / diaper, do potty-op, re-apply nappy…

I’ve got OneWet Pants, Bongo Baby Pants and EcaPants. I love them all. Only using the EcaPants at the moment as Jett is in a Dobbs Brace for correction of his clubfoot 23 hours a day. The EcaPants are great as the belt unsnaps around his waist, and it is easy to open the pant on the way to the loo, and actually avoid having to lay him down at all!

Charndra

Filed under: EC Gear, Tips & Tricks on December 13th, 2008 by Charndra | No Comments »

Potty Mouths:  07 - Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik talks with us about her EC experience.

Blossom TV Show

Continuum Concept

Diaper Free!

Potty Bowl

Mothering Dot Commune message boards

Prefold belt

The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

Dr. Jay Gordon

La Leche League

Note about the quality:  Sorry for the intermittent blips!  We have figured out how to improve this since this interview was recorded, so there is one more interview with less-than-great quality, and then they will be much much better.  I believe the content of these interviews more than makes up for the quality issues.

Filed under: EC Gear, General, Potty Mouths on December 13th, 2008 by emiLy | No Comments »

Potty Mouths: 06 - Rachael

Rachael talks with us about her EC experience.

Filed under: General, Potty Mouths on December 6th, 2008 by emiLy | No Comments »

Potty Mouths: All About Potties

Tips, tricks, and discussion of all the popular EC potties.

I mistakenly linked this from All About Food Sensitivities in the iTunes feed last week, so here it is for real!

Potty Time at The EC Store

Filed under: EC Gear, Potty Mouths on December 6th, 2008 by emiLy | No Comments »

Potty Mouths: 05 - Brianna

Brianna talks with us about her EC experience.

Filed under: Potty Mouths on November 29th, 2008 by emiLy | No Comments »