Once upon a potty

I admit when I first read through the concept of EC (Elimination Communication) and diaper free methods I scoffed and kept it moving, the cotton diaper aisle was as far as I planned to tread when it came to 'alternative' diapering options. Somehow though I did find myself reading more about EC'ing which basically is learning your baby's potty need cues and putting them on a baby potty seat to catch the results. It seemed logical and sometimes the more off topic something is the more intrigued I become.

However practicality won over my curiosity for its two simple reasons, time consuming.

Now here we are month 7 and counting and curious developments are taking place in the world of output (aka poop / pee):

With more solids it has become more, well, solid. I find it interesting that more often than not mothers start cloth diapering when their babies were older and not as newborns. I found threads few and far between that discussed cloth as early as the hospital and several cloth diapering moms advised not to start until after the meconium passes or later because I wouldn't feel like doing all that in the early weeks plus it would ruin my lovely diapers. Naturally I didn't understand because the concept of keeping the diapers pristine seemed contradictory, I used liners and that was all I needed to combat the meconium phase. The water soluble state of ebf poop and the scentless pee has been the easiest maintenance, even the blowouts and meconium followed by first weeks period of a dozen diapers a day. Messy, yes, but dump whole lot in clothes bag, wash and diaper looks like nothing dramatic, if at all, happened.

Now we have a mud like consistency and sometimes formed output. Since she's still breastfed I suppose that's the reason for this intense err...situation, we have in clean-up. We use biodegradable diaper liners for her pocket diapers because of all the aquaphor we have to use on her skin but I see these are ideal also for this more extensive poop period and onwards. Once soiled the liners are pulled and tossed in the toilet. I've eyed my diaper sprayer and I see this is possibly going to come in handy now too. I'm unsure of the combo of rinse and/or use liners approach but we'll see. My understanding is that once the poop becomes more solid the common steps are to shake the diaper into the toilet, spray with an enzyme like Bac-out or similar to fight stains then toss in laundry bin until wash day. I see our routine is changing but I'm determined to see this through.  

Cue in Bjorn potty, the sweet mini commode now installed our bathroom. While I never did the EC I was seeing the signs of when she might be going. It’s a hit or miss but the same cues that told me she was wet etc. are the ones I honed in on and am seeing more of especially now with this change in consistency. I've also noticed that instead of cleaning up a wet/night drenched diaper that she has been dry and then starts to go only after I start the changing/dress process in the morning so these are the signs amongst other reasons to introduce the potty. My mother, thank the lord, has been a wonderful no nonsense resource in the potty training world. We went to the store together and she suggested I bring Winter. We then pulled out the potties available and let her pick. And pick indeed she did, it was clear which one seemed most comfortable for her. I now immediately put her on the potty once she wakes up and I let her hang out there for about 10 minutes but not so long that she gets agitated or cries. Nothing has made it in so far but as time passes and we get a routine going I do see how eventually the little throne will catch some sort of output.

Wish us luck.