Our EC adventure began when Liam was about 1 week old.  He took to it right away though mommy took a while to tune in.  We took him potty during most diaper changes and when he would wiggle while nursing. I think it was about 3 months in when EC became less of an experiment and more of a natural occurrence.

Between about 3 -8 months old we changed very few poopy diapers but a fair number of wet ones.  Of course I can’t remember  exactly when that tapered off because we were too busy doing it and I failed to keep a journal. He did take quite a break as he got more mobile but we still tried to offer at least a few times a day.

Our routine has varied throughout the EC process but I am so glad it became just simply how we do things.  We have used disposable diapers with varying frequency (though I would have liked to have gotten some cloth AIO’s).  We used underwear with a folded up flat cloth diaper at times- usually after we thought he was done pooing for the day.

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.

I really wish I had known about EC for our older son Derrick.  Derrick was actually the one that nudged me toward finding EC.  His 3rd birthday came about 3 weeks before Liam was born and as we approached that point we were all a bit frustrated with his poor potty habits.  He was choosing not to use the potty – vying for extra attention I am sure.

Anyway I came across EC while trying to find new ideas to help him and I decided that I would offer the baby an alternative his brother didn’t have.  It worked out wonderfully really because when Derrick saw that the new baby could go in potty with only praise as a reward he soon decided not to be outdone.  Yay! Even fewer diapers and fewer messes to clean.

Liam is now 18 months old and I think there are some very positive things we have learned in our EC journey so far.  I am thoroughly convinced that even a small baby has some control of his elimination.  I think due to EC Liam rarely had diaper rash, he had  it only once or twice. His brother didn’t have a big problem with rashes but he definitely had more than Liam.

Doing EC with Liam has made me more confident and less worried about what others think. So many times I would find myself in a public restrooms saying “psss, psss, psss, come on Liam you said you needed to go”  and then ” good job, baby!”  and of course I could hear others in the bathroom as well.  I even occasionally was questioned about how young Liam was etc.  Oddly enough Liam usually does better out of the house than in.

Lately we have had a potty breakthrough and Daddy is able to help much more (we discovered that Liam likes chocolate chips)  I was trying to avoid bribing him but it has served to get him more interested in cooperating again.  I think we will switch to raisins part time now that I finally bought some more.

All in all my experience with EC has been much more positive than my experience with conventional potty training.