Comments on: Learning the Gentle Art of Infant Toilet Training

By: erinmidwife

erinmidwife — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:56:12 +0000

gorgeous photo! and great piece! we EC'd both our kids and wouldn't do it any other way!

By: Angela

Angela — Sat, 15 May 2010 09:01:17 +0000

I discovered this when my daughter was 3 mos old. We switched to cloth diapers (which I love!) and within a month (I know for sure because I wrote everything down-HA!), she only had wet diapers, all other "business" was done in the potty! Very exciting for a new mama!!! She is now 24 mos old and has been in regular underpants full-time (except at night) since 16.5 mos. We had a transitional time using training pants for a few months but we probably could have made the leap to regular underpants sooner if I had been braver. :) We still struggle with nighttime though. I never did EC at night because I love sleep! Any tips for nighttime EC/potty training would be appreciated. We've tried taking her potty when we go to bed (after she's been asleep a couple hours) but I just hate disturbing her at that point and it hasn't made a difference in her being wet or not the next morning anyway. Also try to limit fluid intake in the evening to a point. She's not a big soaker anymore though, so I think I'm just going to give it time and not try to push it. Baby #2 is due the end of August and it's a boy this time, so it will be interesting for me to start from newborn, on a boy, with another child already. Sounds challenging...wouldn't do it any other way!

By: Odessa

Odessa — Sat, 08 May 2010 05:22:01 +0000

I LOVE your ideas! I am only fourteen, but I have a baby brother who is 17months now and I think he is perfectly smart enough to be potty-trained. And I think he could have been started long ago. Your adventures have inspired me for what I am going to do with my kids when I have kids. I think that our world has separated us from our babies and I think it is wrong that we don't have time for them and simply drop them off at day-care or ignore their needs. Doesn't anybody wonder how the pioneers did it??? Its so good to be around your children all the time.
And I also think that cloth-diapering/no diapers is so much more healthy. Though the idea of sleeping beside your baby without a diaper on does seem kinda scary, but then it's not such a big deal either. And nothing is impossible.

By: Clara

Clara — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:44:29 +0000

Just wondering if anyone has ever tried this with older special needs children. I have an almost 9 yr old with autism (severe) and he is still in diapers, although he will go pee if I bring him to the potty which we do every hour and a half or so. He just cannot figure out that "that feeling" means "run to the potty".

By: bethp

bethp — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:05:56 +0000

This sounded like the craziest thing to me before I had a child - I remember reading a NYtimes article thinking, "what are these people doing to their children?" Then, when I had my son, I was using cloth diapers, and met some women who did EC, then started reading a book, and it just made SO MUCH SENSE! Whenever I opened my sons diapers we'd play and coo and he'd pee again, and I always thought it was great because it saved me a diaper change. As I read further into the book, I realized what we were doing was essentially EC, only with diapers... I read The Diaper Free Baby by (i think?) Christine Loh. It was really flexible and forgving - you don't have to make a huge commitment. We used a potty at 6 months (once my son could sit up) and he took to it immediately - peed right away and pooped the next day, and we never looked back. We still did diapers at night and when we went out, bringing him to the potty only if we felt like it, but not worrying that it would unlearn anything we were doing. It didn't, and it worked for us. The best part was not poopy toddler diapers, he only pooped in his diapers maybe another dozen times after 6 months (which really proved to me that babies don't want to poop in there diapers, but we teach them to....). My son is now 2.5. We never potty-trained him, only gave him the same "potty-tunities" that we had all along, offered underwear, talked about the toilet, etc. and continued diapers at night and out up until he was done with them a few weeks ago. He just stopped peeing in them and askign to go on the potty, when he was ready himself, and physically able to hold his pee. It was all child-led, when he was ready, and it was a BREEZE. I feel like we really have the EC to thank for that. It's not potty-training, but COMMUNICATION between you both. LOVE. IT.

By: Kalla

Kalla — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:06:06 +0000

This is very interesting to me but by no means could I ever do it. So all you who try or accomplish it Good job!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:03:16 +0000

I first heard about EC when my first daughter was about 6 months old. I was turned off at first, but then really loved the idea. We started PT at 11 months old and have had pretty good success, especially with BMs (that was the first one she picked up on and HATED going in her cloth and always asked for the potty). But, with my second daughter (8 months old) I didn't consider EC, b/c I was far too tired and worn out (my kids are 18 months apart and my oldest STILL wakes up through out the night!). So my question - what do you recommend when the children are so close in age? It seems a daunting task to EC with two. .-= Sarah´s last blog ..Food for my Northern friends =-.

By: Laura @ Rejoicing Evermore

Laura @ Rejoicing Evermore — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:17:40 +0000

@Mrs. Parunak, Thank you so much, I believe I will be doing it, Lord willing. :) .-= Laura @ Rejoicing Evermore´s last blog ..Adventures in Traditional Cooking: Dutch Baby Pancakes and Ezekiel 4:9 Bread =-.

By: Louisa

Louisa — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:55:33 +0000

@Kait Palmer, yes, Indian mothers do this too, you are correct and indeed anywhere where mothers do not have access to diapers (although I think Inuits use moss to line their baby's garments). .-= Louisa´s last blog ..The sacredness of woman’s work =-.

By: Louisa

Louisa — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:51:21 +0000

@suzannah @ so much shouting/laughter, No of course not, it is not for everyone!!! Diapers are an amazing invention in this modern world, so is TV, I must say I love them both, but decided I didn't need them. A personal choice. .-= Louisa´s last blog ..The sacredness of woman’s work =-.