What Is Elimination Communication

Elimination Communication (EC) is a method of “potty training” for a baby as young as a newborn. Wikipedia writes, “Elimination communication is a practice in which a caregiver uses timing, signals, cues, and intuition to address an infant's need to eliminate waste.” 

The key with this type of potty training is the attention you pay to your baby, and the effort you put forth to going a little bit out of your way to take your baby to the toilet.

Benefits of Choosing Elimination Communication

Cleanliness

Your baby is less likely to sit in their pee and poop and is, therefore, less likely to get diaper rash. Also with more poop sent straight to the toilet, you get to skip having to wrap up the mess and find a proper trash can for it, instead you just flush!

Communication

By paying attention and learning your baby’s cues, you are fostering early communication. Babies love to be heard and responded to. This is one of the earliest ways you can begin to respond to your baby if you see they may be cueing to you they need to use the restroom. (more on baby’s cues below)

Cost Effective

You’ll use fewer diapers. As your baby learns the connection between their elimination and the toilet, you will have more dry diapers that you can reuse throughout the day! You will also use fewer wipes because you won’t have mashed or smeared poop to clean. When baby poops right in the toilet, you just wipe them like you’d wipe yourself, which is less surface area wiped each time.

A step up from just using less disposable diapers, you can even take it a step further into cost-effectiveness by switching out your disposable diapers and wipes for a reusable option.

Cloth diapering and cloth wipes are not as taboo as you may think. It’s surely easier if you have a washer and dryer in your home but not impossible if you do not.

I love what writer Genevieve Howland writes on the blog Mama Natural, “EC doesn’t mean your child has to never use diapers. It simply means freedom from dependence on diapers.”

Consistency

EC makes potty training your toddler more natural because the toilet isn’t some big scary thing that is new and unfamiliar. By introducing the toilet early, you’re getting your child familiar with and comfortable while offering them consistency.  Your toddler will already understand where pee and poop go, toddler potty training then becomes just a lot of reminding your toddler to use the restroom or prompting the toilet for them before leaving the house or before going to bed.

Can you think of more benefits? Comment below if I missed some! :)

How I Did The Elimination Communication Method From Birth (sort of)

I say “sort of” because while I “caught” some newborn poops in a small bucket/toilet seat with my baby girl, I didn’t feel all the way comfortable and ready to catch every poop at the newborn stage.

Why not? Well, I was healing from giving birth and didn’t want to put so much pressure on myself to try to catch every poop or pee in the toilet.

Another reason I skipped the newborn EC time was that I didn’t want to put my newborn in a seated position while she still lacked strength in her abdomen.

Every so often, I did offer her a moment to sit over the potty seat. 3.5 Months old is when I truly began to commit to offering the toilet seat.

Sometimes I sit my baby on her small toilet seat or hold her above the adult-sized toilet seat and most of the time she goes better when she’s held in a sitting position, backward above the adult toilet. What’s good about this is that I can even allow her to pee in public restrooms by just holding her/ hovering above the toilet and she knows to eliminate.

Best times I found to offer the toilet/ potty seat to my baby:

• During diaper changes - The goal is for your baby to empty any remaining pee into the toilet in between diaper changes. Even if their diaper is wet, they may still pee a bit in the toilet and this will strengthen the habit in their mind and body of peeing in the toilet every time their diaper is removed.

• Before a nap - This can actually improve the length and depths of a baby’s sleep because the baby won’t be woken up by the sensation of wetting their diaper if they go to sleep with an empty bladder. 

• After a nap - If they are familiar with going pee in the toilet after they wake up, they may learn to hold it for longer, since they can expect and look forward to an opportunity to go in the toilet. My daughter was pretty good at saving her pee for the toilet during nap time by 8 months. Babies who drink milk to go to sleep will definitely wake up having to pee.

Adjusting Your Expectations

• You won’t get pee or poop every time but the key is to offer the toilet as often as possible. The goal of Elimination Communication shouldn’t be to have as many dry diapers as possible. While this is a great result to have and it’s fun to celebrate, it can be stressful if you put so much focus and attention on wanting to catch every pee and poop, you might end up at the toilet at every turn that you may turn your child off from the toilet.

  Try your best to keep the process natural, offering the toilet just about as many times as you might use the toilet.

• It’ll feel awkward holding your baby over the toilet at first and you will eventually find a comfortable position that works for you.

• You’ll have to decide whether it is worth the effort to offer the toilet when you’re changing your baby in a public restroom. Each time will be different.

• Messes still happen. As baby gets older, they will be interested in touching around the toilet or slipping their feet into it; be prepared to wash them up as soon as possible.

• As your baby begins eating more solids, you may notice times of constipation. You’ll be with them along the way to breathe them through pooping. Read more tips on how I help my constipated baby.

• If you’re not about to commit the time to do this method, don’t beat yourself up. If you’re a working mom and apart from your baby most of the day, EC might not be right for you. On the other hand, it wouldn’t hurt to begin offering opportunities to potty when you are with your baby if that works for you.

Do It Your Own Way

Whether you choose cloth diapers, disposable diapers, or no diapers at all, whether you are home with your baby or utilize daycare hours, whether you are constantly taking baby to the toilet throughout the day or you’re only offering the toilet in the morning and night.

Any bit of the elimination communication method can be helpful to future potty training efforts. 

As a collective of intentional parents, we just want our kids to be familiar and comfortable with the environments we create for them. Helping your babies use the potty (before the time most may think is normal) may just change the course of how much you think to be possible and how much leeway you lend your baby by communicating and responding to their needs differently.

If you made it this far, you deserve this added bonus to enhance communication between you and your babies. Mama Natural has a really nice, simple FREE Printable chart of sign language you can start with your baby. Worth printing!