Elimination Communication

I know not technically potty training but I thought this was the best place for it!

I wondered if anyone does/have done this and could give me some advice?

Basically while I was off over Christmas I read Diaper Free Baby that my friend had lent me. Loved the theory and by the time I went back to work two weeks later I was catching all Esmé's poos on the potty. Unfortunately It was at this point that I went back 4 days a week and we couldn't keep it up

We spoke to the nursery a few weeks ago and they said they'd happily sit Esmé on the potty during the day just to introduce her to it. They now sit her on it at every nappy change though has only wee'd once.

At home during nappy free time it is very obvious she's holding it, it can take her 90 minute before she'll wee now even after a massive drink of milk. She usually lets out a really tiny wee and then if I time it right I can catch the main (huge) wee on the potty. A handful of times now she has sat on the potty and wee'd with no prompting at all.

She tends to jump on an off the potty during nappy free time and apart from occasionally trying to distract her with a book or toy I don't really try and get her to stay on the potty.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to keep going with EC in the limited time I have at home with her?

Thanks!

I've not really got any advice re. ECing an older child as it sounds like your doing really well with what your doing I only know about ECing babies really and DD1 was ECd out of nappies by 15 months. By that point I just put her on the toilet at times I knew she should want to wee, like after a nap, first thing in the morning, before we ate, etc and the rest of the time she'd actually tell me she wanted to go by holding her crotch Just by giving access to the potty, having nappy free time and reading any ues you've picked up that she wants to go you're doing great

Do you use baby sign at all? You could teach the sign for toilet and encourage her to do that when she wants to go too

I'm so gutted as I read about ECing about 5 years ago and loved the idea but hadn't heard of anyone over here doing it. WHen DD4 was born I had forgotten all about it but within the first 2 weeks I started to recognise the face she made just before doing a wee. I remember saying to DH I knew when she was going to go but I never made the connection to link the cues with trying EC Missed that boat. Now when she has nappy free time its totally random!

Maybe focus less on the potty and more on the communication?

I didn't ec with ds1 but have done part time with ds2 from about 8 weeks, he's now nearly 9 months, so much younger than your lo. We went through a long time with all poos in a bowl and caught alot of wees just by putting him on the potty at nappy changes.

Then we went through a potty pause when he started crawling at 6 months and we are only just coming out of that now.

Its about maintaining communication/elimination awareness and from what you're saying your lo is maintaining that. So maybe what your doing is enough.

With ds2 at the moment i put him on the potty when i'm on the loo, so maybe you could do that, or timing, so on the potty after waking/after tea etc.

Good luck xx