Diapers and Potty Training Part 2:

My gracious friend, Evelyn, is here today to teach us how Elimination Communication works for her! Since I never tried it with my young ones, and actually had never heard of it until they were potty trained, I thought Evelyn would be a lovely resource for those of you who have not heard about it, or are reluctant to try it! The first video discusses the benefits Evelyn has found with doing EC with her beautiful babe, Daphne, and the second is a short demonstration to sum up how to do EC with YOUR baby!






While Evelyn's story is truly inspiring, and a welcome parenting tip on this blog, it is not everyone's story. Let me tell you a bit about our experience with the potty!

The average toddler potty trains somewhere around age 2-2 1/2. Developmental psychologists support the Montessori theory that there are two ages of sensitivity (if you do not start training from infancy), one at 18 months of age, and the second not occurring until age 3. Now it is possible to train outside of those windows, however, they are golden windows of opportunity!!!

We chose to train our second daughter at 18 months, and I am so glad we did! There was no pressure to have her trained in a certain amount of time, because we were “beating the average” and not “falling behind.” No assumed pressure on mom means no pressure on the child, which is a more favorable environment to learn in anyway!

Training your child “early” obviously cuts down on your diaper use, whether it's 6 months of disposables at 155 dollars, or 39 loads of diaper laundry! It also tends to be easier for the child to master, thus building confidence and capability in those early years!

Step 1: Buy at least 10 pairs of cotton training panties! You will probably have quite a few soaked pairs before your child masters the concept. I purchased all of our daughters panties at consignment stores, for $1- $1.50 each! We even got some fun ones that have neon stars, and brand names like Hanna Anderssen.

Step 2: Also purchase at least 10 pairs of cotton pants with elastic waists. They will be easy for the child to pull down to use the potty themselves! We also got our stash for about a dollar a pair from consignment. You will have to wait at least a couple months to switch to denim.

Step 3: Get a child-size potty! It's not absolutely necessary, but neither are panties, and you wouldn't forgo those... We chose a simple plastic potty, with a cushy insert so her tiny bum was comfy, that was easy to dump, clean, and closed to convert into a stepstool to reach the sink. We purchased it, again from an awesome consignment store, for $7! Color doesn't matter, but comfort, convenience and price do!

Step 4: Take a one-week hiatus from obligations. While some children train in a day, others take a few, and one week is a good, no-pressure amount of time to teach and learn.

Step 5: Time to start. Show your child their new potty, and tell them “this is where we go potty. This is where the pee and poop goes. We don't pee or poop in our new panties.” Let your child watch you go on your own toilet, and help them go on theirs the first few times. Keep them in their training panties only for the first 3 days, then introduce pants again. If you catch your child peeing in their pants, just walk them over to their toilet and reiterate that “this is where we go potty.” Also, make sure they take care of their own mess; have them put their own soiled clothes in the dirty laundry, and give them rags to clean up their own mess on the floor. This effectively gives them ownership of their actions in that they partake in the consequences, which means there is no need for punishment, because the natural consequence of having to stop playing in order to clean up is punishment enough.

That is it. Pure and simple.

Our first daughter took almost a month to effectively train, and I know, in Montessori it's “potty learning” not training, because they are not dogs, but to appeal to the language of the parent who isn't necessarily privy to Montessori speak, I use “train.” But again, we train in love, which means we do not yell, we do not force, we allow the child to learn at their own pace. And we take Montessori concepts and expand if we feel it's necessary, as with toilet training, we introduced small candies as rewards for potty success, for the potty user and her sister, because that turned her into a superb cheerleader! 

It is the same with nighttime training in our house. Both girls get treats for keeping the bed dry, which River was more successful with than Kaylee, even though Kaylee is her senior. It proves that children learn at their own pace, but they all do get it eventually! It could also suggest that we humans are creatures of habit, and so by not teaching Kaylee potty training soon enough, I may have stunted some nighttime dry success! Man, if I had heard about Elimination Communication then! Instead, we used plastic pants over panties for the first week or two, so that she would feel the wetness and be encouraged not to wet the bed, whereas with EC your child is more aware of their need to stay dry and you can avoid the whole plastic pants ordeal!

If you do end up using treats for success, I suggest you phase out the treats for one aspect (after it has been successful for awhile, as in a week straight) before rewarding for the next. Try without first, before introducing candy rewards. For example, we phased out candy rewards for successful toilet use before rewarding keeping the bed dry, that way there isn't a ton of unneccessary sugar in their system all the time. That proves to be more difficult to manage than it is good! The way to quickly phase out is to simply say, “we don't need candy for that anymore, because you are a big girl!”

That is what has worked in our house! And I calculated the savings once, with all of the newborn diapers, and wipes, for both girls, which tabulated $1721 after I took out our cost for cloth diapers, liners, and spray!!!

If you would like to see what the fuss is about, or you know someone who might be interested in the cloth system, comment or message me to be entered into the drawing for 2 cloth diapers (BumGenius, gender neutral), bamboo liners, 4 wipes, spray bottle, shampoo and baby oil STARTER KIT! Plus 8 2T plastic pants and 1 18-24month plastic pants for nighttime and naptime training! I also urge you to try to stick your child over a toilet a few times, to try out that EC concept! We in America are "blessed" with our diapers, cloth or not, that aid our day to day function, but most other countries do not have diapers at all, and guess what? They are not dependent on them! Then if EC works for you too, you will have a couple of eco-friendly diapers for just-in-case moments, or interim EC training!
The colors below are the most likely colors you will receive! (I still am working on some deal magic, but they will be new or excellent condition, that's a promise!) And to check out that Bjorn potty Evelyn mentioned...