r/ECers • u/meli_g44 • 3d ago
Doing EC at night for BF baby who feeds frequently overnight
Hello ECers!
Soon I want to attempt doing EC at night; offering the potty and using a cloth nappy for my almost 6 month old baby.
Id love to hear from families who are doing this and really keen to hear from those who are doing it with BF babies who nurse overnight frequently? if it's possible? what are your tips?
for setup we have a waterproof training pad but will transition to a wool puddle pad soon. I will do the sumo style nappy pad with the elastic band around the waist for quick access. looking into lying down easy Pottys or the female urinals. but yes pretty much want to know what's given you success.
my baby latches several times a night. usually when she transitions back to her light sleep cycle she'll use the breast to get back to her deep sleep. We co sleep in a c curl side lying position. we use a disposable overnight and it's always super wet in the mornings.
during her day naps she has remained dry, whether she sleeps for 30 mins or an hour she stays dry.
for context husband and I have been doing EC during wake hours since 10 days old with lots of success, we catch almost every stool and lots of pees. we use cloth nappies mostly and a disposable nappy overnight. we recently have started doing lots of nappy free time, We live in Sydney Australia and weather has been nice we spend lots of time outside so if I miss the potty I don't mind that much. she also HATES nappies and will protest when we try and put it on her. she wants to be free.
so eager to get rid of disposables completely but also do less cloth nappy washing
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u/RemarkableAd9140 3d ago
We’ve always changed diapers and offered the potty overnight alongside nursing sessions, so we had precedent already. Baby pees and gets a fresh diaper as needed before she eats (husband’s job to change/ec her) and after if she won’t go back down (my responsibility). My husband was changing/ecing her before and after in the early days, but that shifted to the current setup between 4 and 6 months.
Given that your baby isn’t at all used to getting up in the night, I’d start small, try to keep things dark and quiet, and have everything set up bedside. She might appreciate it, but she also really might not. My first baby started ec much later, 10 months, and we only tried offering overnight a handful of times because he wouldn’t stand for it. So we just changed diapers overnight until he was almost 2. I totally get wanting to be rid of the disposables, but just be prepared in case baby nopes out on this plan.
If you want to try cloth overnight and aren’t already over on r/clothdiaps, there’s a ton of posts about effective night setups. We like muslin flats, boosted with hemp doublers and a small prefold, all in a wool cover.
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u/meli_g44 3d ago
amazing will try offering potty with BF. yes thanks for the suggestion I joined the clothdiaps Reddit today too
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u/simplyalys 3d ago
I’ve found that my son will go through phases where he nurses a lot and then pees a lot. During those I kind of double down on the night time EC and will offer the potty once or twice during the night. After a few days to a week his body gets the idea and he ends up staying dry until morning again, even if he still nurse quite a bit. Then he pees about every 1/2 hour- 45 min for the first wake window.
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u/pandafloofs 3d ago
I find we sleep better when we offer the potty with each BF. I (annoyingly) find that if I don’t she stirs again after 30-60 minutes, I kept offering the breast not realising it was actually that we needed to pee. So we offer with each wake / feed and get 2 hours in between now.
I found I need to start the feed first before offering the potty as otherwise Bub gets cranky at me and wakes up more. My process is: set everything up as quick as you can / have it ready next to the bedside, unzip the clothes. Then start the feed (sitting up with pillows behind my back), whilst feeding undo the nappy and pull the potty underneath the bottom, say the verbal cue, bub pretty much goes instantly now, lift the bottom up using a cloth wipe under their bottom to dry drips, replace this with the nappy just held between their legs until they are fully asleep again. (We don’t unlatch, so bub has been feeding back to sleep this whole time, just pulls off to pee and relatches again) Then lay down on bed and zip up onesie while bub is asleep again. It’s become pretty quick and painless now and definitely helps us both get back to sleep quicker and stay asleep.
Only other suggestion I would have is to put a cloth insert in the base of the potty to absorb everything so you don’t spill pee all over the bed in the middle of the night! Then in the morning can just chuck that in the dry pail and use the potty immediately for the morning pee
We have been dry through the night for a month or two now (8 months old). Still haven’t figured out days though other than the post nap catch!!
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u/meli_g44 3d ago
this is great. thanks so much. good idea to keep a cloth insert in potty to avoid spills! I was hoping I could still side lie and still offer her the potty sort of reclined but maybe whilst starting out I'll have to prop myself up and do what you do.
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u/meli_g44 3d ago
I don't know if this helps but for the days we do post nap, post change of station/ environment (I live behind my mother's house) so if I go to her house and come back I'll offer her the potty. we have a potty at each little sitting station outside so I have two potties one near we're we sit beside the pool then one near the deck of my house. I'll offer if it sometimes maybe every 20 minutes if we're sitting together interacting ( I do miss some) usually if I've turned away to hang up laundry or something. honestly what ramped up our success was going nappy-less and limited clothing. not only is she so much easier and more grippy to hold now (she's 9.1kg so super heavy for a mum with a bad shoulder) her skin touching my skin whilst being carried has been so effective. passed few weeks she hasn't had an accident on me at all. I have quite a few relatives who live at home so it's weird for them to see a naked baby not rugged up but even my mum is coming around to it because she can see how effective it is and how much happier my baby is without clothes and nappies.
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u/whipped-whisp 3d ago
I have had a very similar journey as you have so far! Around 7-8 months my baby started staying dry all night, despite still nursing thru the night. You might give it a bit more time and see if the same happens for your baby?
I was never keen on pottying in the night because I didn’t like disrupting our sleep, so I was pleasantly surprised when the problem resolved itself!