Elimination Communication, or infant potty training, is gaining popularity with natural moms and dads around the globe. After 
all, to learn to recognize your baby’s signals that she needs to pee or poo, and then assisting her to “go” in a receptacle, is more hygenic and natural than making her pee and poo against her delicate skin.
It is also seems like a bit more work–at least at the outset–than changing diapers. But it doesn’t have to seem like a bit more work. With a little effort and a smidgen of perfectionism, you can make elimination communication seem like a ton of work. In fact, if you try hard enough, you can turn it into absolute misery for the entire family. Here are five ways on how to do just that.
1. Have high expectations. There are several expectations you can have in the realm of EC which, when not fulfilled, will drive you out of your mind.
- Expect that your baby will behave exactly as the babies in Africa who never pee on their mothers, and by six months of age always “hold it” until their mother takes them to the bush to pee.
- Expect that your baby will only have to pee about once every hour.
- Expect that a time will come within a few weeks of beginning EC when your baby will only pee when you take her to the potty or sink and say, “Pssss.”
- Expect that your baby will be walking by the age of one and happily taking himself to the potty, especially for poos.
2. During your baby’s first four months, make sure you take him to the receptacle every time he fusses and you know the fussing isn’t because he’s hungry. Do this especially in the evening, when newborns tend to constantly cry for no reason. But because you are doing EC, of course the fussing must be because he has to pee. Because God forbid you allow your baby to soil his diaper, so you better not take any chances.
3. Create an arbitrary maximum number of wet or poopy diapers you will tolerate each day. And when your baby soils more than that number, be sure to take it personally and tell yourself what a horrible parent you are, or what a rebellious child you have.
4. Yell at your toddler for peeing or pooping in her diaper, because by gosh she’s been EC’d since birth and she KNOWS better.
5. Of course your family’s misery won’t be complete unless you get your spouse to be as paranoid about dirty diapers as you are. Make sure your spouse becomes as hypervigilant about taking your baby/toddler to the potty as you are. And when he doesn’t seem to understand the baby’s signals as well as you, thus causing more dirty diapers, make sure you give your spouse “the look” or a few cutting words to get him back in line.
EC can and does work (for most kids whose parents practice this with them). But if you find yourself falling into one of the above five traps, maybe you should just do the next best green thing. Use some organic cotton diapers, and/or gDiapers, and be happy.
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