So, the elimination communication.
It’s been going. Not terrifically well, but like all other aspects of parenting, sometimes smoothly and sometimes painfully.
I once had a wishful thought that Christian would be graduated by the age of one (as babies often were, even in this country, just a century ago), but he’s well into his fourteenth month now and I’ve still not even achieved a single completely diaper-free day (day=24 hours).
That’s okay. Christian has had many, many dry nights, to the point where I sometimes let him sleep nudie. That’s to say, he does go pee during the night, but NOT in his diaper; almost always in his potty and then falls back asleep. Ditto for his nap. He usually wakes up to pee once during his nap and then continues sleeping.
We also had two days in a row last month where we had only two misses each day. That was exciting. More typical was yesterday: he’s been dry all night and all day, and then his sister and dad will come home, I’ll get distracted, and then miss seven pees in a row…
Our greatest success has been catching his poos. In all of 2009, I think I’ve missed about a dozen poos, meaning every other poo has been in a potty, either his little Baby Bjorn or in the regular toilet (with a seat reducer). I got REALLY excited when Christian pooed in the regular toilet, but while he loved the novelty of the big potty, he’s since shifted back down to his little potty where he can hang out and look at books more easily. It’s gotten to the point where when I have to deal with a poopy diaper I get all flustered because I don’t have a system for handling them anymore.
I figure that since Christian poops every day (approx. 180 poos so far this year), my poo catch rate is 94%. Not bad at all!
Most importantly, Christian retains a keen awareness of his elimination – often yelling for me just before or after peeing – and then pointing at the puddle. He’s even run over to the diaper pail and grabbed a diaper to mop up his mess. And practicing elimination communication has certainly heightened the level of awareness between the little guy and myself.
From what I see among the other EC’s I know, most kids seem to graduate between 20 and 26 months. They are often mostly dry, in trainers sometimes, and diapers sometimes, long before that. And while other cloth-diapered kids may potty train around the same age, I hear that most conventionally disposable-diapered kids potty train around three years old.
We’re good with it. I only wish I had started when he was born, instead of when he was three months old…
