It’s surprisingly easy to start elimination communication (EC) with your baby.  It’s really a matter of being observant about the times your baby naturally eliminates, then anticipating those times, cuing baby when he goes and catching his offerings.  Here are a few more pointers about the process.

Part of getting baby to pee in a container, rather than in his diaper, is to reinforce for him the dry feeling, and how that feels so much better than being wet.  This is the part about EC that does take more work.  An infant can pee as often as every twenty minutes, and if you’re using prefold cloth diapers, it doesn’t take much wee to wet the diaper.  You won’t catch every pee, and that shouldn’t even be a goal.  But you do want to get baby out of his wet diaper as soon as you can, preferably immediately after baby wets it.  You want baby to be dry most of the time, so even during times that you’re not trying to get baby to pee in the potty, you want to be checking his diaper at least every half hour and changing it as needed.  If you happen to catch baby in the act of wetting his diaper, you should cue him to strengthen his association between your cue and his elimination.

This brings up the question of whether you can successfully EC using disposable diapers or even some of those more high tech cloth diaper systems that try to keep baby feeling dry even when the diaper is wet.  You can EC with disposable diapers, but the challenge will be that since wet disposable diapers don’t feel wet your baby is less likely to develop a strong connection between peeing in a diaper and being wet or feel much difference between “wet” and “dry.”  You can still observe baby’s elimination functions and work with him on EC when you know he’s likely to go.

Once you start ECing your baby, you will tend to find more times that he’s likely to go and be able to anticipate those times.  You may have gotten started on a pattern of peeing right after nap.  But then you noticed baby also likes to pee right after nursing.  As you see more patterns, go with them.  You can also start trying to encourage baby to go by using your cue.  At first, you’re merely anticipating what he was going to do anyway.  But by using the cue, you create an association for him between your cue and eliminating, and this allows for you to encourage baby to eliminate at times he might not otherwise.  Some babies are really sensitive to the association, and others are less so.  Still, if you EC baby regularly throughout the day, most babies will begin to hold it at least for a few minutes.

Another thing to note is what your baby does right before he goes.  Maybe he squirms or wimpers.  Newborns especially seem to get their entire bodies involved in the process of elimination.  That can become baby’s way of communicating to you that he needs to go, and you can then take him to the potty.
Elimination Communication is a journey, not a destination.  It’s a fun way for you and your baby to communicate about an important function.  It’s another way for baby to let you know what he needs.  You should do it as long as you’re both having fun with it and it’s enhancing your relationship.

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