Chetana Amma in Bangalore, describes how she and her family followed the path towards diaper-free hygiene with her daughter, Disha.
I am always intrigued when someone talks about natural yet unconventional and alternative ways of doing something. So when my friend who had her daughter a year before Disha was born, mentioned EC and explained a bit, I knew this was the way to go. Read the rest of this entry »
Elimination communication is based on signals from the baby and cues from the carer. Babies indicate in many ways that they need to pass urine or stools. Signals may include squirming, grunting, crying, yawning, sudden change of expression, characteristic kicking motion, or other movement, sound or expression that you notice the baby making. At first you may only recognize after the fact that this was in any way linked to peeing or pooping. One fine day you will find yourself saying, “I know that look!” Read the rest of this entry »
Sunita, Amma to Anika and Aanya in Dallas, describes her experience taking her daughters to the potty from infancy.
When I was pregnant with my older daughter, Anika, I made one of the best 15 dollar investments ever – an infant potty from Baby Bjorn
As soon as Anika was a few weeks old, right after nursing her, or when she woke up from sleep, I started holding her over the sink or putting her on her little potty. At the “sss” sound, she would happily oblige and tinkle in. Poops in her little pink potty became a regular morning affair and she loved her tinkle or poop time and smiled widely in the mirror as she saw herself on the potty. Read the rest of this entry »
Can you share your experience with diaper-free hygiene? I remember you mentioned a potty seat… what type of seat was it? And how easy is it to go through EC methods? Does one have to be constantly monitoring the child throughout the day?
– expectant mother in Bangalore
One can approach diaper-free hygiene from many angles. One is the basic right of the baby to be heard. Another is the baby’s wish to have a clean dry bottom and an appropriate place to pass urine or stool – that is, not into something wrapped around his/her bottom. Then there is also environment, public health, social integrity and so on. But at a basic level, going diaper-free helps us understand babies’ expectations once out in the world. Read the rest of this entry »
When he wets or defecates, she may laugh, and as she is seldom alone, so do her companions, and she holds the infant away from her as quickly as she can until he finishes. It is a sort of game to see how fast she can hold him away, but the laughter is louder when she gets the worst of it. Water sinks into the dirt floor in moments and excrement is cleared away immediately with leaves.
Though I was surrounded, as a young mother, by people who, like the indigenous people Liedloff described, did not use diapers, I got key support for going diaper-free from online sources. Why rely on internet help to get back to nature? Read the rest of this entry »
Kids Just Say the Darnedest Things:
Khiyali writes about her 8 year-old cousin, who was filling out the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book.
A form in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book reads:
In the year _____, aliens will come to our planet and make the following announcement: ________________________ ________________________ ________________________
It seems aliens are visiting us in Nineteenpoopdynine!!
Another line reads:
_____ will no longer exist.
This time, the ____ was filled in by just one word: Poo.
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