by Lynnette Chan, Volunteer Counsellor
In the days of old, parents simply brought their babies to the potty regularly from a young age. The advent of disposable diapers signaled a whole new way of potty training, or should I safely say, the lack of potty training! Now parents could rely on the diaper to catch the contents of nature’s call. Over time, the Western concept of “potty readiness” became the more popular alternative to potty training.
What is Elimination Control?
In an attempt to go back to the natural way, Elimination Communication (EC), which is also known as Infant Potty Training or Natural Infant Hygiene, requires that the caregiver reads and responds to signals regarding the baby’s need to eliminate. During the process, the caregiver also provides the baby with cues (e.g. the “sss” sound) and associations to places for elimination (e.g. a potty, sink or toilet bowl). All these can be achieved with or without the use of diapers. Now, do you remember seeing your grandmother doing this?
In the article “Natural Parenting – Back to Basics in Infant Care,” published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology in 2007, the authors state that “most infants signal in some way immediately prior to, during, or right after urinating and defecating.” However, when infants do not get a response to their signals, they begin to lose this awareness of their elimination functions and are conditioned to ignore them instead. This can happen after a few months of full-time diapering.
How can I tell when it’s time to go?
The first question asked by caregivers commencing EC would be, “How can I tell when my baby needs to eliminate?” Some strategies include:
- Reading baby’s signals
- Stops nursing or refusing to nurse
- Fusses or cries
- Turns quiet momentarily, stays very still or loses interest in activity
- Passing gas prior to defecating
- Turning red in the face, straining or grunting immediately prior to or during defecation
- Familiarization of baby’s patterns of elimination
- Babies usually need to pass urine soon after waking up first thing in the morning, or after a long nap
- Some babies have “regular” defecation patterns, e.g. after the first feed of the day
- Newborns may need to pass urine 5 to 15 minutes after a feed while a slightly older baby may do so about 30 minutes later. Some babies may need to pass urine more frequently than others.
- Intuition
- If the caregiver suddenly thinks that baby might need to go, he or she may be right. So act on it rather than ignore it! According to Laurie Bourke, author of Infant Potty Training, if the caregiver has been relying on intuition to assist in baby’s elimination, he or she can try to supplement that using other strategies like those mentioned above.
Benefits of EC
Some benefits of EC include preventing diaper rash, reducing the risk of urinary tract infections, cost savings on disposable diapers, being environmentally friendly and the completion of potty training at a relatively early age of around 24 months.
This method of handling baby’s elimination needs, practiced in Asia, Africa and South America, is still commonly seen in some parts of Asia and Africa. Even here in Singapore, ask an elderly grandmother and chances are, she’ll be able to explain how she handled her children’s hygiene needs without the use of disposable diapers and full-time diapering. After all, disposable diapers are a modern day convenience, having only been invented in the 1940s.
Common excuses for not trying EC
Unfortunately, there are some misconceptions about EC that may prevent caregivers from attempting to try it.
- Practicing EC is messy or dirty as baby eliminates wherever he wishes. Contrary to belief, caregivers who practice EC do not leave their baby bare-bottomed all the time. Most caregivers will use some sort of “back-up” like a disposable diaper or cloth diaper.
- “I can’t practice EC because I am a full-time working mum”. According to Bourke, part-time use of EC on a “fairly consistent basis” will help baby to retain his instinctive awareness of elimination functions. Part-time EC-ing is more likely to succeed if it is done as regularly as possible. This means sticking to one (or more) sessions a day, and at the same time. For example, EC baby every morning immediately upon baby’s waking and before bed at night.
- “I’m bad at EC, I’m still not able to know when baby has to eliminate 100% of the time” Until baby is potty trained, somewhere around the age of 24 months, it is to be expected that the caregiver will “miss” a number of baby’s eliminations. There may be days when not a single elimination is “caught”. Even after the child is potty trained, there might be times when an “accident” happens and the child soils himself.
Unlike conventional potty training methods, EC does not involve rewards, punishments or coercion. Elimination Communication is described by Boucke as a “gentle, natural and loving method of communication and toilet learning.” It also allows other caregivers like Daddy and grandparents to communicate and bond with baby if baby is breastfed. Bourke encourages caregivers to give EC a try for at least a few weeks before assessing if it should be continued.
References
- Schole, R. A. and Silven, M. 2007. Parenting – Back to Basics in Infant Care. Evolutionary Psychology.
- Infant Potty Training (2002) by Laurie Boucke
