What is Elimination Communication & How To Start
My baby has peed and pooed on a potty since she was born. Weird right? That’s what I first thought when I heard someone do the same, but having tried baby potty-ing (which is also called Elimination Communication) with my baby from birth, I can honestly say it is far from weird and feels oh so right.
We now have a one year old who poops exclusively in the toilet (aside from the very occasional accident) and does about 65% of wees in there too!
Image by Kate Keep Photography
What Is Elimination Communication?
Elimination communication is simply learning to recognise when your baby needs to wee or poo, then offering them somewhere appropriate to go.
That might be:
a potty
the toilet (we’ve used a toilet seat reducer since 6 months old)
the sink
a basin
I know a sink or basin sounds gross, but breastfed poos are completely water soluble so we used a sink a lot in those early months before our daughter started eating solids.
Elimination Communication works on the basis that no human, no matter if they are 30 hours or 30 years old, wants to soil themselves. Just like a baby has a signal/cry when they want to be fed or need to sleep, they have signals/cues when they need to go poos or wees. I know that sounds crazy because we’ve been taught the opposite (wait until a child is “ready”), but nappy companies cannot make money off of Elimination Communication and babies who go on a potty; we’ve been fooled into thinking nappies are the only option. They truly aren’t!
We still use nappies
A friend of mine was walking along the beach recently and heard a group of mothers talking about me in front of her. One of them said “Did you hear that Ethically Kate’s baby doesn’t use nappies?”
This is probably the biggest misconception.
People often imagine that babies doing EC never wear nappies. That definitely isn't our experience. Orchard has worn reusable nappies from birth (you can read about my favourite reusable nappy brands here). We simply offer her the potty as well. Sometimes she goes in her nappy, other times she goes in the potty. For us, nappies are a backup, not a failure. Orchard does have a lot more nappy free time than other babies and that is mainly because I feel confident in knowing she isn’t going to go on the floor because I know her cues and know when she last went.
Image by Kate Keep Photography
Why we wanted to try it
There are so many benefits to EC to drew us into the practice. EC often results in a child being fully toilet trained earlier, I also loved the idea of washing less reusable nappies, plus it simply made common sense. I wanted to tend to ALL of my child’s needs - and going to the toilet in a place that avoided their excrement being squished up against their body felt like a key need.
Turns out, the main benefit to EC wasn’t any of the above. My favourite part has been the bonding experience. Communicating with my child around when she needs to go makes me feel incredibly attuned to her. Some of our favourite moments are sitting on the toilet for poo time and reading a book.
One of the other reasons why EC sounded like a great option to us was because of our experience with cockatiels. I know how this sounds.. bear with me.
I hand raised a cockatiel from 4 weeks old. He is now 19 years old! Having handraised him and had him on my shoulder everyday for nearly 2 decades, I know his elimination cues. He isn’t toilet trained but I can tell from his body language when he is about to poo. With this experience in mind, it didn’t seem too far-fetched when I heard that babies have cues too!
How we started
We started in the hospital. Not because we expected to "catch everything." Simply because we wanted to begin as we meant to continue.
Whenever Orchard woke...
Whenever she'd finished feeding...
Or whenever we changed her nappy...
We'd simply hold her over a little basin or potty for 30-60 seconds or so and make a ssss and ggg sound. Sometimes she'd go, sometimes she wouldn't. There was no pressure.
I still remember the first time I held her over the potty and caught something. I woke up, realised she was also awake and immediately took her clothes off and held her over the potty. She went poos and wees. I remember in that moment feeling incredibly elated. Keep in mind I hadn’t intended to do EC so often in those early days - I had the potty there but I wasn’t putting any pressure on myself to go out of my way to try it straight after birth. It was my intuition that made me pick up the potty and my intuition was right! It was a key bonding moment for me and my baby. As a first-time-Mum it inflated my sense of confidence; perhaps I did know how to look after this new, alien-like creature afterall!
*Watch a video of how I do EC here.
The unexpected benefits
There have been lots of little surprises.
For us we've found:
fewer poo-covered nappies
dealing with way less poop
less nappy rash
less barrier cream
fewer full baths because quick sink washes are often enough
reusable nappies stay cleaner for longer
we've become much more aware of Orchard's rhythms
it's become another way to connect with her
Perhaps the biggest benefit, though, is simply slowing down. Holding her over the potty gives us a couple of minutes where nothing else matters. We're just together.
Image by Kate Keep Photography
You absolutely don't have to do full-time EC
If this sounds interesting, please don't think you have to dive in completely.
You could simply try:
offering after naps
offering after feeds
offering during nappy changes
That's exactly how we started. Even one opportunity a day is still communication.
The tools we've loved
A Top Hat Potty (you can also use an ice cream container) for when they cannot sit up on a toilet or potty. The only one currently in stock in New Zealand seems to be here.
A toilet seat reducer
You can see a video of the tools I use here
Want to learn more?
I'm not an EC expert (though after doing it for over a year, maybe I have become one?!). I'm simply a mum sharing what has worked for our family and hoping that others realise nappies are not the only option!
If you'd like to dive deeper, these are the resources I'd recommend:
Baby Pottying Hub(use code KATE10 for 10% off - I loved their online courses!)
Go Diaper Free by Andrea Olson (book and website)
Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer (book)
EC Facebook Group (New Zealand based)
If there's one thing EC has taught me, it isn't how to catch poos. It's how much babies already know. They aren't trying to make our lives difficult. They're communicating with us all day long. We simply need to raise our awareness and be open to that communication.