EC - may be some progress?

No he didn't pee/poo yet in the toilet. But he has told me a few times in the last week that he had poo'ed after the fact. He seems like he wants to sit on the toilet even if he wasn't going to do the deed.

My mom told me that reading with him on the potty may be too distracting for him to poo/pee. But if I don't read with him then he wants to get off the potty right away. Sigh! What should I do? I seriously need a toilet training doula! Is there such a thing as a toilet training doula?

EC started again

I bought a new potty training 'gadget'. Instead of using the standalone potty, I bought a padded toilet seat insert for the big toilet bowl. I thought that if he is sitting high up there, may be he wouldn't move much and would actually pee/poo!

Well, he does sit there without complains, but he still fidgets high up there on the padded seat. After a week, still no pee/poo in the toilet. Instead, I think I messed up his pooing schedule once more because he wouldn't poo unless he is on the ground in his diaper. Sigh! I guess I just have to keep this on and hope my persistence will pay off before the end of the year. Seriously, give me a little pee in the toilet!! :-)

The Need to Sew

I haven't sewn for a while. I need to do it soon. It makes me happy, even if it's just an hour a week. Life is quite hectic and I need some 'me' time. My husband is happy also when I sew. He gets to play computer games without interruption from me. So my sewing is actually important to our marriage!!! :-)

EC paused again

I was trying to be consistent and put my son on the potty after each meal for about 10 min. He used to poo right after each meal (3 poos a day). But since I began putting him on the potty, his poo schedule became erratic. He just wouldn't poo or pee in the potty. He would hold it in until he is off the potty. Now his poo schedule is a lot more unpredictable. I'm not sure what I should do other than putting a pause on the EC training - AGAIN! Arghhhhhh! Does anyone have any suggestions?

A perfect picture

My son and I went apple picking this morning with a group of moms and kids. The rain was drizzling on the rolling hills of apple trees. My son, in his little hoodie jacket and pants, picked a very big apple, and cupped it with both his hands. He toddled after me, and took bite after bite of the huge apple without letting go. I thought it was the cutest picture I've ever seen! Too bad I forgot my camera. I must remember this perfect mental picture always, especially when he is throwing a tantrum! :-)

Non-EC day

I didn't offer the potty to my son at all today. He seemed more happy and relaxed about everything. He pooed at his usual, predictable time today - 10-15 min after each meal - into his diaper. I guess he is pretty set in his way with his toilet habits! I feel like I need to change this sooner rather than later. He will just hold on to this habit more so when he is older.

Reminiscing....

I'm beginning to miss our lives in the UK very much. My active toddler doesn't watch TV, and he likes running around outside. I'm beginning to imagine him running around the hills in Devon, at National Trusts and English Heritage properties (we used to visit these places every weekend). I'm sure he would enjoy that tremendously. Although we left the UK 8 years ago, I still miss it very much. I still dream about it from time to time. May be one day we will make it back with our son?!

EC Day 4

Today is EC day 4. Results:
- caught - none
- missed - all
- diapers saved - 1

I sensed that the potty thing was stressing out all of us. So I just let him go bare-bum for 1 hour after breakfast. He ran around happily but didn't pee or poo. I tried to sit him down on the potty but he wouldn't. He pointed at the potty and said 'pee pee', even though there was no pee in it. But somehow he held in his poo and all his pee until we put the diaper on him. So this just tells me again that he has control of his pees/poos!

After lunch I wasn't planning to offer him the potty. But when he saw me in the bathroom, he decided to sit on the potty with his diaper and pants on. I thought may be he would be willing to try his potty again. So I quickly took off his pants and diaper - but NO! He wouldn't sit on it bare-bum. This is when I thought that may be we should not offer him the potty at all for a few days. He seems to know what it's for but just didn't want to use it. May be the novelty will come back by next weekend (hopefully??).

EC weekend - Day 3

Today is EC weekend Day 3. Results:
- caught - 1.5 pee
- missed - 2 poos and a whole bunch of pees (too many to remember)
- diapers saved - 2

Today is even more discouraging than yesterday! My son went bare-bum all morning. He sat with me at the potty 30 min after his breakfast and peed. Then he peed on the floor and everywhere every 5 min after that. He seemed to know he had peed, because he would look down at the puddle, and point at it, and then step on it for fun. I kept telling him pees go into the potty but he didn't seem to care.

After lunch I was going to offer the potty to him about 15 min after the meal. But too bad he pooed 7 min after the meal! He sat on the potty about 30 min after the meal but no pee. Then he stood up and ran around the house, and peed everywhere. I told him pees/poos go into the potty but no reaction from him.

Then after dinner he went bare bum yet again. He sat on the potty with me for a good 20 min but nothing, just a few drops of pee. By then he got really tired of this potty and refused to sit in it again. He ran around the house, peeing all over the place, and getting really cranky. After almost 45 min since his dinner, my husband suggested that we put a diaper on him. He suspected that my son was holding in the poo until the diaper is on. Sure enough, as soon as we put a diaper on him, he pooed! After he pooed, he was happy and relieved. It's almost like he knew what he was doing, and he was holding his poo in, until the diaper was on! How discouraging is that?! It's understandable. He had been 'trained' to pee/poo in his diaper for the last 17 months of his life (his entire life). It's such a headache - how do I 'train' him to pee/poo into the potty instead of his diaper now?

EC weekend - Day 2

Today is EC weekend Day 2. Results:
- caught - 0.5 pee
- missed - all others
- diapers saved - 1

I thought I had gained some insights into his elimination schedule yesterday. Boy was I wrong! He did everything different today!

His first poo after breakfast was not until an hour after his breakfast. I sat him on the potty 15 min after the breakfast - nothing. Not even pee. After he pooed (didn't see any cues at all), he peed every 10 min 3 times. We showed him the poo/pee as usual, and flushed them down the toilet.

He ate lunch early (seemed hungry) and was wearing a diaper loosely afterwards. I kept checking his diaper every 5 min and didn't see anything until his nap. There was a small ball of poo in the diaper that I didn't see. So I have no idea when he did that. He didn't squat and I didn't see any cues.

He 3rd poo after dinner happened about 5 min after I took him off the potty. He had been sitting there for 10 min and nothing - no pee nor poo. We showed him the poo and flushed them down the toilet. He then peed twice at random times after the poo. One time we caught it in time we got half a pee in the potty.

It's a bit discouraging. I thought I would have made a little progress after yesterday. I didn't catch anything today! Oh well! At least 1 saved 1 diaper from the landfill today. There is still tomorrow. Tomorrow he is going bare-bum for sure after all his meals. I need to get a better handle on his cues for poos!

EC weekend - Day 1

We started our EC weekend today. Results:
- caught - 2 pees
- missed - 2 poos and 1 pee.

We were planning to have him go bare-bum all day long. However, we had to run some errands in the morning and in the afternoon, so he wore diapers for those 2 outings. Also, we put him in cotton training pants when he went to the backyard to play (I didn't want him to have gravel between his bum cheeks!).

My objective was to try to catch at least 1 poo today. He usually poos 3 times a day (after each meal). But today he didn't poo after lunch. He didn't give any indication at all just before his first poo after breakfast. It was about 15 min after he had finished his meal. He squatted to pick up a toy but didn't poo. Then he squatted again and within 0.5 seconds, he pooed on the floor! The potty was only 2 feet away! We showed him the poo, put it in the potty and then flushed it down the toilet. He wasn't really understanding what was going on.

I was also caught off guard for the 2nd poo. I was watching him carefully after dinner and had planned to put him on the potty at around 15 min after the meal, or whenever he looked like he was going to squat. He didn't squat, didn't have any indication at all, and pooed standing up at around 15 min after the meal (just before I was to put him on the potty). He was wearing a diaper, so the poo was in the diaper. I showed him the poo again and flushed it down the toilet.

His 2 caught pees were mere coincidences. I put him on the potty at random times to see if he would pee. I put toys in front of him and played with him. All of a sudden he peed! We clapped and showed him the pee, and flushed it down the toilet.

I think my son is warming up to the potty. He sees it more like a 'chair' than a 'potty'. And he doesn't mind sitting on it while playing with toys or reading books with us sitting in front of him. I have gained valuable insights into the timing of these eliminations. Hopefully they will be useful for tomorrow - EC weekend Day 2! May be I'll even catch a poo!

Blog's new location

I have been trying to move my blog from vox.com to here for a while. But life, an active toddler, etc just got too hectic for me to do it. So starting today, this is my blog location.

Vox.com is closing on Sept 30, 2010. So the old blog has been moved to Typepad:
http://lovenicky.typepad.com/blog/

A new chapter is about to begin.....

Elimination Communication

I have been reading and looking into Elimination Communication. I'm seriously thinking about starting this with my 17 month old. According to Wikipedia, Elimination Communication is defined as:

Elimination communication (EC) is a toilet training practice in which a caregiver uses timing, signals, cues, and intuition to address an infant's need to eliminate waste. Caregivers try to recognize and respond to babies' bodily needs and enable them to urinate and defecate in an appropriate place (e.g. a toilet). Caregivers either use diapers as a back-up in case of misses, avoid the use of them altogether, or do a mixture of the two. EC emphasizes communication between the caregiver and child, helping them both become more attuned to the child's innate rhythms and control of urination and defecation. The practice can be done full time, part time, or just occasionally. The term "elimination communication" was inspired by traditional practices of diaper-less baby care in less industrialized countries and hunter-gatherer cultures. Some practitioners of EC begin soon after birth, although it can be started with babies of any age.

It's really not a new thing. I was trained in EC when I was about 12 months old. That was before disposable diapers were widely used. Many people in the previous generations practiced EC as well. It takes a few months to a year for the whole training process.

My little boy's bum is a bit sensitive. If I don't change his diaper right away after he pooed, he will get a rash. So this really make sense for him too. The only thing is that now that he is an active toddler, running around everywhere, I don't know if I will be able to have him sit in the same spot (read: potty) for a few minutes. It will take more than patience for me to work with him on this, I will have to think out of the box to entertain him, to entice him to sit there a few times a day.

I'm thinking of starting on the Labour Day long weekend. It will give us time to carefully monitor my son's elimination cues, and learn what works and what doesn't with him.

Wish me luck!!

For more info on Elimination Communication, see www.diaperfreebaby.org.