Elimination Communication

As with other things, I like to share what I've learned on this adventure and today marked something new. A friend of mine shared with me a practice she employs with her child called Elimination Communication. Once she explained it, I decided to give it a go and read a book called The Diaper Free Baby. Don't worry - we don't go entirely diaper free, but some people do. This is practiced in many countries around the world, just not our great one. The idea is that babies don't want to sit in wet/dirty diapers any more than we would and they'll let us know when they're about to "go." When I've talked with other parents about this, they've exclaimed yes - the poopy face, the face the baby makes right before they're going to go. So, we sit and watch the poopy face and then change the diaper, right? According to EC, no - you can help and save diapers in the process. I contacted a Yahoo Group prior to Cecelia being born and asked when this can be started and their reply was right away. I had heard before to start around 6 weeks and no later than 6 months and I'm no procrastinator. So, being the lunatic that I am, I tried it when Cecelia was 6 days old..and was semi successful. I caught her mid-stream of number 1, but did not catch any number 2, though I was sure I was seeing something...nothing. But, this week I noticed a pattern. In the DFB book, it was explained that babies don't have BM's during REM sleep, so when they wake up they will typically have a BM first thing in the morning. Before I was having trouble catching her "wake up." I tried on Saturday, and my impatience left me with a mess as she "went" right after I stopped holding her over the toilet. Yesterday and the day before I realized that she was waking up right around 7:30 and having a BM shortly thereafter, so I decided to try again today and...it worked! I'm not going all out and trying to catch everything, I'm happy with this possible once a day catch for now. Next Wednesday, there's a meeting for this group of mothers who practice EC and I'm excited to get tips from them. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty fascinated by the whole thing and excited to try it. Sorry if I grossed anyone out, never my intent. But I do want to talk about the things no one else wants to share that they do, like this. Elimination Communication is also referred to as the Natural Hygiene method because it leads to better hygiene, no diaper rash or infection, think about it.