Adventures in Elimination Communication

Elimination Communication: Mothers Stories

Learn About The Power of Developing Your Elimination Communication Confidence.

Gain valuable, reassuring insights from the EC journey of other parents just like you…

Find the GOLD Within the Experiences of Other Families Practicing EC. How do they combine their busy modern lives with elimination communication?

Parents practicing elimination communication are sharing their stories with you in their own words in this section of Tribal Baby…

The most important thing about EC is that no-one can give advice about it unless they have practiced it themselves, it is such an experience based activity. Ignore the ‘rantings’ from people who have ‘heard’ this or that – those are opinions based on lack of experience. Form your own opinions! (Have your own fun…)

Learn from the experts – the mothers and their babies! Learn from YOUR baby…

Adventures in Elimination Communication, or Part Time Baby Pottying

Charlie, Joy, Keegan and Liam in Ohio, USA…

I was first made aware of babies not relying on diapers when traveling in Kenya, Africa the year before Keegan was born. I was intrigued but I never thought it would work in my culture and my busy life. When Keegan was about 4 months old I saw an article in the newspaper about elimination communication and other parents experiences. It explained how to hold a baby over the potty and cue them. So I tried it with Keegan. He pooped in the potty the first time I held him over it.
In the first few days I would potty him with each diaper change and upon waking and we starting catching pees and poos. It was great to make a catch and he seemed to enjoy it.

Georgia and Imari, from Australia…

“It made me feel like I was doing a better job at learning how she communicates. Before I heard about EC, I had come across Attachment Parenting (AP). With AP, communication and attachment is key and by learning EC and helping Imari to learn it too. I realised that it was helping me and her to bond better and be more secure in the attachment. I know that Imari trusts me because of my attachment parenting and I think that this has made our EC journey a lot easier.”

Val, baby Alex and family, from London in the United Kingdom…

“What I love about part-time EC, is that you are allowed and encouraged to keep a perspective. The best parent is a happy and relaxed parent. When the sense of humour starts to go, it’s time to reach for the disposables and have an EC holiday.”

Lucy and Isaac from Sydney, Australia…

For ages now we have been marveling at the cute sounds he makes, and one of them, we now realise, is his attempt at replicating the ‘pssssss’ sound we make when we potty him! He lisps (so cute) ‘thhhhhhhhh’, and it nearly breaks my heart every time! We are proud and amazed that he is ‘signing back’ already. We never even expected it, really – we just kept on with the ‘pssss’ because it’s what we did. Anyway – cool!

Joann, Vlad, Derrick and EC baby Liam, from the United States…

“I love that I can’t remember a time at all when I simply could not figure out why he was crying- with our first son we were often perplexed.  The answer was simple of course if he wasn’t hungry, or wet, it was likely he needed to relieve himself.”

Laurie and her 3rd son, from the United States…

“Some of the caregivers were willing to potty him while others didn’t take the time and put him in diapers. In short, there were times where I was away when no one pottied him. Upon my return, we had no problem picking up where we had left off. It did not jeopardize his progress to stop for a few days. While I would not recommend anyone purposefully stopping for no particular reason, it is good to know that a break does not automatically spell doom.”

Elise, David, Ethan and Emma, from the United States…

“I would say that it has eased some of our terrible two issues. The reality is that much of your second or third year is spent waiting for the dreaded potty training. Parents either want to get it done and be done with diapers or they are preventing their children from potty training because they don’t want to take them to the potty all the time. We never fought that battle because my son never knew a time without a potty.”

Kayla, J.R, Ezra and Elizabeth, from the United States…

“We love EC because it has helped us to feel so incredibly bonded with our babies. When you’re tuned into their elimination needs, it’s much harder to ignore your baby. We get more “face time” because of the potty breaks. It forces us to slow down and really enjoy our babies. It helps me to understand them better, because we communicate about more things than if we didn’t do EC. It’s like opening up a whole new world.”

Renee and her daughter from Australia…

“I feel I was very very close to my baby right form the start. I think the increased physicality of doing EC only strengthens that bond.”

Astrid and Paul and their son from Norway

“Suddenly we understood what his sudden crying bouts were about except for when he had to pee (and sometimes poop) he hardly ever cried anymore. It was so nice to know what was wrong, and be able to help him.”

Rebecca and Jonah from the United States

“Doing EC with my younger son has helped me to understand and be more connected with my older son so that he can be diaper free as well!”

Shell and Tommy from New Zealand

“All up, I spent nearly 4 years cleaning poopy diapers with my first 2 children. With Tommy I had months of not cleaning *any* poop!”

Janey and Nelly from the United States of America

“I never put diapers on Nelly intending for her to use them (although she *did* quite a bit!) The diapers were for my sanity, sometimes I felt more relaxed when she was wearing the diapers because I knew if I missed her cues, there wouldn’t be a mess. Whenever I noticed her cues, I would try to get her to the potty.”

Belinda and Honey from Australia

“When you first begin EC, just relax and practice cueing and attempt catches. Focus on the communication and let the rest flow naturally.”

Kandace and her son Kieran from Minnesota, in the United States

“If a parent or caregiver wants to try EC but is apprehensive because they can only practice it part time and/or need to use disposables, I still highly encourage them to try it. As with anything, it will take some time but it is very much worth it.”

Mel, Keith and Logan from Melbourne, Australia – EC with their 8th child.

“I love that we can communicate and are in tune with each other. This is just an extension to the other parenting practices we have like slinging, co-sleeping and breastfeeding. All are about listening to  babies needs and communicating to each other. This is just an obvious next step to me.”

Lonny, Norisa and Landen in Canada

“Remember that EC is just a service you provide. It’s a kind and loving way of tending to all your baby’s needs when their needs arise – not at your convenience. There is no goal in mind other than caring for their immediate needs which does include their need to eliminate. ECing is approached with a very different mind-set than that of ‘potty training’. It’s simply a service.”

Share YOUR EC Story to Inspire Others!

I’d LOVE to add your EC story to our collection. Click on this link to see 10 question suggestions, or you can simply write about your experiences and insights. All sorts of stories mean all sorts of families can find stories that relate to their lifestyle.

Have a look and learn a little more … see if part-time EC is something that makes some sense to you – either now or for in the future with your next baby, or share with someone you know with an expected or little baby. Discover More about My Elimination Communication eBook: Part Time EC: A Personal Guide to Developing Your Elimination Communication Confidence…