ec

(or, elimination communication)

from wikipedia: "The terms "Elimination Communication" and "Natural Infant Hygiene" were coined by Ingrid Bauer and are used interchangeably in her book, Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene (2001). Bauer had traveled to India and Africa where she noticed that most mothers would carry their diaperless babies constantly, yet she saw no elimination "accidents" as would be expected in industrialized countries where babies wear diapers almost continuously from birth. Subsequently, she raised her own babies with minimal use of diapers and eventually began to share her successful approach with other mothers and caregivers. ... EC is viewed primarily as a way to meet the baby's present needs and to enhance attachment and communication in general."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_communication


(asher's little portable seat we got at a yard sale for a quarter atop a three gallon pickle bucket)

since birth (almost 3 months ago now!) aaron and i –along with some of asher's other caregivers– have been giving asher "cue" sounds when he has initiated elimination: we say pssspssspsss when he pees and poopoopoop when he poops or poots. we just recently started initiating the cues ourselves based on timing or interpreting his clues.

what this means, for instance, is that asher usually pees within a couple minutes of waking up from a nap. so when he wakes up i take off his diaper (we bought some used cloth diapers from a local diaper delivery service) and make the cue sound pssspssspsss while i set him on his pot, over the toilet, or, if we're outside, i just hold him close to the ground. and for the past 4 or 5 days he's had a regular poop date when he gets up in the morning. in ec language those are "catches". a couple days ago we only had 2 wet diapers all day long, all the rest were catches, including 3 poops. and one of those pee diapers i knew was coming and could've caught it but i had my hands full at the moment.

so far i've had more success with catching based on timing (sometimes i offer him a chance to go just when it's been a while) than i have on interpreting his clues. though, that works out pretty brilliantly sometimes, too. there are time i can just tell –i don't know how, i just can– that he has to poop. and often, also, he'll poot before he poops.

it's pretty amazing stuff. the most significant things to me about interacting with asher this way are
(1) the ways it's empowering to asher. it helps me encourage him to stay connected to his body and not learn to distance himself from his body's functions. it seems like he knows something about himself right now that many babies unlearn and then relearn (sometimes painfully) during "potty training". i definitely want to avoid that struggle. (let alone all the laundry and diaper rashes and toting around a giant diaper bag)
(2) the ways it helps us to communicate with each other. i can tell him that i'm ready to care for his needs and he responds by taking the opportunity i offer him to relieve himself. and we're working on the part of him telling me that he has an elimination need that he wants me to respond to. i see this as a precursor to further communication. i hope that this is building trust that i know and care for him, and that i want to respond to his needs in ways that support his growth and health.

um, that's all for now. happy eliminating, y'all.