Listen to the Three Year Old!

I've been meaning to post about ECing for a little while, but haven't gotten around to it. I've got a funny EC story now, so there's my motivation!

For anyone who doesn't know, EC stands for Elimination Communication, and basically it means you learn your baby's cues for when they need to go to the toilet. Just like they'll let you know when they're hungry, bored, tired etc, they'll also let you know when they need to do a wee... if you listen.

This is NOT 'toilet training'. It's more the parent that's being 'trained', but I think mostly it's another way to communicate and be in tune with your baby. See Tribal Baby for more EC info!

I heard about ECing before Zara was born, and had vague thoughts about giving it a go, but didn't get around to it. Then one morning she woke up and I offered her the breast, but she pulled on and off and squirmed all around. I thought of some stuff I'd read on Tribal Baby about 'plucking' on and off the breast being a sign for needing to do a wee. I thought to myself, "Maybe I could give that EC thing a go."

It was Sunday morning, and I'd had a big whinge at DH about being tired the day before, so he came and got Zara while I stayed in bed for a little while. She had her night nappy off and was nakeybum. After she'd been up for a while, I heard her making a sort of squirmy, uncomfortable noise. I thought, "Put her on the toilet..." About 5 seconds later, I hear DH say, "Oh, Zara!" and I knew she'd done a wee. That was when I decided, yep, we'll try EC with her.


We've been doing it for a bit over a month now, and it's been really quite easy. We catch most wees and poos most days. She only wears nappies at night, and to go out- but even most of the day nappies are dry now, even after being out for two or three hours. We had one day, last week sometime, where we had NO misses at all! How exciting! :D

Anyway, on to the funny story- a few days ago, Malachi, Zara and I were in bed. I'd been trying to get Zara to have a sleep, but she wasn't too keen, despite being tired. Before I'd taken her into bed, I'd put her on her little toilet, and she'd done a wee. She was getting a bit whingy, so I sat her on my stomach, with me lying down. She made some noises, and Malachi said, "She said 'weee! weee! weee!' She need to do a wee!" I said, "Mate, she only just did a big wee. I don't think she needs to do another one yet." But... a few minutes later... LOL! So I got wee'd on, and apologised to both Malachi and Zara for not listening to them.

This has been my biggest EC lesson (and one I still obviously haven't quite learnt!) - don't assume that she doesn't need to do a wee because she's only recently done one! And listen to the three year old!