ECing and the media

There have been some ECing articles in the news this week. I subscribe to ivillage.com because they often have some good ideas on parenting. My inbox came up with "Diaper Free Baby" from ivillage, and I clicked on it. Here is the link: http://slideshow.ivillage.com/parenting/pregnancy/calendar/your_babys_development/diaperfree_babies/?nlcid=pb09-17-2007 I thought that the description was fair, but the comments about it were harsh. Here is the article that is attched to it from MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20464264/ Although I am not a diaper-free mom, I am definately a part-time ECing mom. Ben even pooped and peed in the potty this morning. With Jackie, I caught all but six or seven poops since she was a year old. She would hiss when she needed to go potty. Even at my mom-in-law's house, she started hissing, and fussing, and my mom-in-law kept checking her diaper. She wouldn't poop in her diaper. When I got back from my meeting, Jackie came up to my hissing, so I took her. My mom-in-law was shocked. I bought her a little potty that day, and she used it. Babies cannot be able to "hold it" for a long time because their muscles aren't strong enough, but they are able to know the sensation and purposely cue the parent. That is being potty trained. What is the difference between "SSSSS" and "Mommy I need to potty."? I feel that there is no difference. The child is aware of the sensation and purposely communicate a need.

The difference between Elimination commucation and traditional potty training is the attitude. Im am not potty training my babies. I'm helping them be more aware of their bodies, and I am helping them learn to communicate their needs with me. I love ECing, and I'm glad.

Anything and Everything

I'm not doing great at keeping up my blog with only attachment parenting and ecing topics, so this may turn into just a general blog with comments on attachment parenting and elimination communication. Part of that may be that I am not doing a grandios job of ECing my little guy, but in the end, I already have to buy Tushies diapers (because of his sensative bottom) and I can't wash the cloth diapers every day! I'm not feeling great about my AP or ECing right now, but I'll get the hang of it again.

Good luck to all.

ECing is good again

So, after the problems we had with my two year old, she seems to be completely recovered. I just worked harder at communicating with her. I tried to understand that she needed some more attention, and I tried to help her understand that I don't like to clean up her misses when she can put them in the potty every time. I told her that if she wanted, she could wear pull-ups, and when she wanted to go potty she could. If she wanted me to change her pull-ups, I would, but she had to ask. I told her that whatever she wanted to do it was her choice, but I wasn't going to clean up messes anymore. Right after that, she took off her pull-ups and decided that she wanted to pee on the floor, so I gave her big towel and told her how to clean it up. She went into the bathroom to do it on the floor just to see if I was serious. After I gave her the towel to clean it up, she felt like she could be in charge of herself. It gave up the power struggle. She wore pull ups for two or three days. She even tried to poop in pull ups. I asked her if she was pooping and she said, "Yes." I said, don't you want to poop on the potty? You don't usually like poop on your bottom. She listened and went right to the potty. She really didn't like to mess herself. She really liked to be clean, and she realized that trying to get attention that way wasn't worth it. During all of this, I really worked to give her a lot of positive attention when she decided to do positive things. Also, I held her through her timeouts, so she could see the difference between positive and negative attention. Since that time, she has started saying, "Mommy (or Daddy) I need some attention." And I will put down whatever I'm doing and go read her a book or sing songs with her. It has really helped us to communicate better, and she has been much happier with less tantrums.

Also, I have been better about ECing my son again lately. I put him back in Pampers (TM) disposable diapers, and he is allergic to them in some way. I think that those diapers make the yeast infection come back. :(. So He is in cloth diapers today, and I'm going to try to EC him as much as possible. Fewer diapers to wash! :) Good luck to me!