Attachment Parenting

Infant Pottying - Is This for Real??

By naturalparenting ⋅  Email ⋅  Print ⋅

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the Natural Parenting RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

One of the great benefits of natural parenting is the reduced cost. Although it was not my intention to become a hippy parent, I became fairly crunchy as I discovered many attachment parenting methods in an effort save money and streamline my life.

As a single mother with very limited resources I was looking for ways to save money from the get go. While I was pregnant I began to question many common “extras” that go with parenting such as a separate nursery, crib, stroller, etc. It just all seemed expensive, would clutter my home, was one more thing to clean or carry or lift out of the trunk and I began fighting the system one plastic contraption at a time.

Despite my battle against other society imposed baby “necessities, it never occurred to me to fight traditional diapering. (I am using the term traditional loosely since disposable diapers are a relatively new phenomenon). I happened to be surfing the internet when my daughter was about a month and a half old. I googled “diaper alternatives”. I am not sure what I was looking for exactly but I was hoping to find a way to save money on disposables because I simply couldn’t afford them.

I ran across a few elimination communication sites. I thought they were a joke. I had never heard of such a thing. (This was about six months before the 2005 media coverage of elimination communication kicked in). I had to read through about five websites on the subject before I concluded that so many people would not create joke websites about pottying their babies.

I immediately took my little 1.5 mo old daughter to the kitchen sink and held her naked butt over it and said “pssssssssssssss”. She peed. It was utterly miraculous to me. I just could not believe it. She has been using a potty ever since.

For the first few months I had to hold her over a receptacle (usually a sink or bowl) and make a noise. “psss” to pee and raspberry noises if I felt she had to poop. She would sometimes have to suck on the tip of my thumb in order to poop. Why? I have no clue why she needed the thumb but it worked so I did it.

As soon as she could hold her head up, I got a Baby Bjorn little potty and she was totally delighted to be able to “sit up” long before she could sit on her own. I think it gave her a feeling of independence early on. I usually put some of her favorite books or toys in a basket next to her potty and let her play for as long as she felt like sitting there.

I would like to say that I stopped using diapers entirely then and there but I did not. In retrospect I would have done that and if I ever have another child I wont use diapers at all. I had a tough time doing the EC out of the house and I didn’t really want her to pee in my brother’s sink so we continued to use disposables any time we were out of the house.

I can count on my hands the number of times that she ever had a soiled diaper against her skin. (she did have her share of wet ones though). As soon as she was able to communicate that she had to go (by grabbing her crotch) I stopped buying diapers altogether. She was out of diapers for good, before her second birthday.

Would I recommend infant pottying? Absolutely, without a question. It is so much better for the child. It is cleaner, more sanitary and I believe it shows the child that you respect them and it maintains their dignity. It is also a heck of alot easier on the environment. Are there misconceptions? Do people fight this idea? Do they consider it uncivilized? They do. But tell me who is the loser when the parents refuse to try EC?

Common misconceptions about Elimination Communication
EC Communities
Purchase the: Levels of Discovery Her Majesty’s Throne Potty Chair

Tags for this post