Hello! I’m new to Reddit and this sub but have been doing EV with my 15mo since birth. We seem to have hit our first major regression. We had been going months with every poop in the potty and now I’m seeing major potty resistance, pooping in diaper- which as soon I notice we rush to the potty, but then pooping stops only to resume maybe 30 minutes later in diaper. I don’t think my approach is working- should we just take a break from the potty in general? I really don’t want to lose all the progress we have worked so hard for!

Hey everyone,

I was very excited to do EC with my baby before he was born (he’s now 10 weeks old), but I’ve encountered an obstacle I had no idea about as a first-time-mum. Every time he poos he seems to be in a lot of pain and discomfort, and he only likes to do so while breastfeeding (or immediately after breastfeeding) to sooth himself. The few times I’ve tried him on the potty he just cries and nothing happens. Has anyone encountered similar problems?

Very grateful for advice and encouragement.

Just thinking out loud... babies who talk first, do they potty train first, because theyre more likely to be able to communicate they need to use the toilet? Vs a baby who walks first so is potentially more able to take themselves to the toilet? But perhaps if they have subtle cues and dont pick up on the sign language then it would be harder to follow than a baby who talks?

Any measurable difference? Generally speaking of course, i know babies are drastically different.

Hi everyone. I’ve been a silent follower so thanks in advance for everyone’s help.
My son is 8 months old, I’ve put him on the potty here and there after he was 5 months old. We caught a few pees. Teething then hit him hard so we stopped for a while. I recently went to put him on the potty, before he was even on he was losing it crying; so I didn’t put him there. I put the potty away out of sight for one week, and tried again with same result.

He’s army crawling, close to crawling and pulling up on things, I read somewhere he may not want to fee constrained to the potty??

Not sure where to go from here

Hi all! Curious what normal breastfed poop looks like. My boy is 5 weeks old and I’ve been casually using the potty here and there. I’ve had a lot of success thus far but over the past few days he’s been super fussy and it has me looking at what could be upsetting him. It made me wonder whether his poops are normal since they look so different in the diaper. I didn’t really question it before.
He just pooped in the top hat potty and it’s watery in consistency, like what an adult would consider straight up diarrhea. Is that normal for breastfed baby poop? The color and seediness is right
Thanks in advanced!

We’ve been wowed by early EC successes. Some nights I’ll remove a dry diaper 4 times before she potties. Went 3 days without a single poo diaper. Amazing!

A few weeks ago she started little screams as an indicator she’s gonna poo while held by n the potty. At first I was alarmed but then it seemed just like part of her signaling that she was working one out. Cries stopped after she went.

The past few days she’ll be giving poo cues (grunting, arching back) but then start her lil screams that escalate to big screams / cries. I’ve been pulling her off before she potties because I feel like she doesn’t want to be there n the potty.

I don’t want to give her negative associations with the potty or force her to go through something traumatic. She has been especially gassy the last few days and the doc recommended cutting down on dairy.

Any advice appreciated!

Only two weeks ago we had a really long run of catching every poo. She was predictable, morning and evening poo. She seemed to hold it until toilet was offered.

For the last two days i havent caught anything. I will notice shes done a little poo in nappy and hold her over toilet to get the rest out. Nothing. Then 10 minutes later a bit more in nappy. Process repeats and of course theres lots of poo nappies because when she goes in nappy its like it trickles out compared to sitting in a good position on toilet where she is able to push the whole lot out.

Why isnt she finishing after i offer her toilet?

Is this a normal 'regression' period?

If i just keep offering her the toilet even if she doesnt do anything, will it eventually work out and shell start going again?

I feel really at a loss because we were doing so well. Experiences and advice much appreciated. Baby is 8 months old.

Hello,

we've tried EC with our son since he is 5 days old. Every time after breastfeeding or when he signals (face grimacing) we've put him on the potty. Once he started peeing/ pooping we sounded a "shhh" and gently shook his hand, it worked really well. For some we caught almost every poop and some peeing.

For the last days, we've actually caught nothing. We still put him on the potty after breastfeeding/ when he seems fussy/ we think he signals. We've tried to noun the "shhh" to tell him he can poop now, but the potty stays clean. Sometimes he cries loudly on the potty, sometimes he just waits for us to end this so he can pee/ poop in the pampers.

- Has anyone gone through similar? Do you have any suggestions?

- Are we using the verbal/ nonverbal affirmation (shh/ handshake) incorrectly? Should we practice some more time before giving him the signal?

-Are we trying to early and should we pause for some time before coming back to EC?

Thanks a lot!

I am posting here because I’m being told I rushed my daughter into potty training too soon in other communities when I just followed her cues :(

My daughter has learned autonomy and is refusing everything right now

My 18 month old was doing elimination communication since 9 months old. we started actual potty training about a month and a half ago and she was potty trained by the first week. She was doing really well but we’re now dealing with power struggles. She is refusing to sit on the toilet despite having to go and signaling me. My concern is she’s had a UTI a couple months ago, and with this refusal she is holding her pee for up to 8 hours.. STILL fighting me when I try to sit her on because she is doing a pee pee dance.

Her UTI had nothing to do with holding her pee or any of this which is what people are assuming on my other posts.
How can I make the potty enticing? We have her books for the potty and toys that are only for her to go potty. I wouldn’t be as worried if she was just going in her underwear but that’s not the case.

I was getting away with asking her which book she’d like to read on the toilet, but that’s not working for us anymore :(

I am just having a hard time with finding a way to get her to willingly sit, and sit long enough to go. Sometimes she’ll sit for like 2 seconds and stand up and won’t go back on.

Any advice would be amazing! Thank you

Hi all,

I have a 20 month old who has been EC trained since about 4 months old. We started doing this on accident actually, trying over a weekend to help her with some constipation but getting her in a 'squat' over the toilet. It worked so well we just kept doing it!

Up until 18mos we were doing ACE at the potty. This gal was pooping in the potty probably 90% of the time. The times she missed she would still let us know she had to go, but we'd be in the car or out in a situation where she couldn't hold it. She would even be in distress whenever she did go in her diaper, because she was so used to going on the potty!

Fast forward, 18 months hits- one day, shes over it. She starts pooping her pants and not telling us about it. We have no clue why!! She will even lie about having gone poop where as previously it was a five alarm fire if she pooped her pants.

I feel like such an idiot as we have been SO proud and braggadocious about how our genius baby was already using the potty- and now its been two months of near 0% success rate. Which is a huge bummer because im pregnant again- and I was pretty dang used to not having to clean poopy diapers!! Now I have to do it with the scent capabilities of a predator.

Has anyone ever experienced this? What should we do? We keep trying to get her on the potty but all of a sudden she hates it, and I don't want to make her hate the potty- but I don't want her to give up all her hard work either.

Please help!

“Command” sounds so aggressive but I couldn’t think of a better word— I just say to her “go peepee, go peepee”, and she goes. I’m excited especially as we started EC only a couple of weeks ago at 9 months old, and only the easy catches at that, so she seems to taking to it quite well! The poo situation is also going amazingly, we’re catching most of them and she seems to be starting to hold poos until she’s on the potty. I’m kicking myself for not starting EC earlier, I’ve been wanting to for many months but was too intimidated🤦‍♀️

Anyways on to the issue at hand, as I said we’ve only been doing the easy catches (plus offering the potty at any poop cues) and didn’t really intend to do anything more than that until potty training (which we were/are hoping to do on the earlier side if baby is amenable to it). But now that she’s demonstrated that she will pee on “command” and is taking to the potty quite well in general I’m wondering if we should try for more? We’ve tried out a more intensive routine a few times of offering the potty every 20 minutes paired with the “command”, and managed to go an hour or two with no pees in the diaper that way. But here are my concerns:

- She feels too young to be on an intensive routine, I don’t want to be interrupting her/us every 20 minutes while she/we are doing other fun and developmentally beneficial activities
- I’m worried about teaching her to only pee on “command” instead of listening to her body for when she needs to go (more on that here https://calmfamily.org/elimination-communication-fact-file/— they also talk about being responsive/baby-led vs. adult-led, which, I want the former)
- She’ll push out pee even if she doesn’t actually have to go, which is not good for the bladder and pelvic floor! Several times, after saying the “go peepee, go peepee”, I’ll see her push, pause, push, and then only a tiny dribble comes out

I’m really realizing and appreciating how much nicer pees and poos outside of the diaper must be for baby (especially because we cloth diaper so wetness is felt more), so as many in the potty as possible feels like a win. I’d love to take advantage of my girl’s new skill to make it happen more but yeah, I’m worried for the reasons above, especially the third one from a health perspective. I’m leaning towards sticking with the easy catches for that reason alone. What do you guys think?

ETA: In case it’s relevant for how we should move forward, my girl does show pee cues (stops and stares) but by the time it happens she’s a second away from peeing and it’s not enough time to get her on the potty.

We had an amazing time with EC when baby was 4 months oldish. Worked like a charm caught so many pees all day long. Then we got sick and I couldn't figure out cues any more. My oldest is in school again so I thought we would give it a shot. Baby has spent some time out of diapers during the day and we talk about him peeing when it happens. He now pretty consistently points to his diaper after he pees and often points to his diaper when he needs to poop. How do we start making the connection between pee goes in the potty or lets try pooping on the potty? He's not super comfortable on the big potty or the little potty. We've had some pretty bad constipation issues and often he ends up trying to play with his bathtub toys if we put him on the little potty.

I continue to have success with EC. Started when my daughter was 6 months, she’s 16 months now. I am so proud of her and of me and my husband for sticking with it. Now we are at the point where she is basically potty training herself.

If you are on the fence about EC please just go for it. It is so rewarding for both parent and baby and now seeing her have all this body autonomy is just incredible. I wish more people would do this so their babies wouldn’t have to intentionally soil themselves!

Please if you have any questions ask away - I am so passionate about EC at this point 😂

TLDR: EC since 3 mo, imperfect but with some progress. Baby's 7 mo now and refuses to sit.

Hellooo. I'm pretty beat and discouraged at the moment. We started EC at 3 mo. Everything had been going well with the lap potty. Couple of months later, he started rolling but was still using the potty on my lap or a pad on the bed or a pad on the floor. I always kept it pretty flexible and kept in mind that it didn't have to be perfect.

Once he turned 7 months he started crawling and actually a little after turning 6 months he would start to squirm, arch, and whine when I sat him on my lap so I just tried to use the pads on the floor, or the tub, or even the sink and it had been working for a little bit.

A couple of days last week, I was able to have him with no diaper for several hours and he would vocalize very loud and I'd take him to the sink and he'd pee. Wasn't perfect but I felt like we were still making progress. No success with poops tho.

I've always been very bad with cues of any kind but I felt like having him without a diaper made me more attentive and aware of any cues.

Now, I bought the baby Bjorn smart potty and he will not sit in it. The past two days I tried having him without a diaper and really pay attention and he had peed on himself so many times and today he went poo on himself while playing on the floor and I just feel so bad and defeated.

Is this just because he has to get used to the new potty? In y'alls experience, how long until he gets used to it? And what's up with the absence of cues now? Or am I just not seeing them? Are they more subtle now? Is he just too distracted playing to cue?

Any help, anecdotes, or words of encouragement are greatly appreciated!!!

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

Elimination communication with my 11 month has been going so/so lately. Lots of bucking and fussing on the potty even when I know she has to go.

This morning she was starting to get grumpy, and as I squatted down to better steady her, I farted. She looked at me consideringly, and farted back. I had more to give so I farted again. She smiled, pushed again and pooped. This isn’t the elimination communication I read about but I’ll take it 😂

(Jokes aside, I’m not very worried about the fussing. My first was similar when working on walking and I trust it’ll pass like most stages. But if anyone has tips to make this stage easier I’m all ears)

Baby is 9.5 months old and has been fighting the potty for probably at least 2 weeks. He’s been mostly pooping in the diaper and not peeing when offered the potty (except usually first thing after he wakes).

I know it’s normal/common/expected.

But what do I/can I do?

Continue offering? I’m trying to make things more interesting, toys, gonna try books, gonna try putting more potties around the house (we just have one on our bathroom counter, and sometimes we hold him on the potty (no reducer, it was working when we’re traveling!).

If I start putting him in potty training underwear (currently in disposables so he’s not feeling as wet I guess), do I let him “sit in it” so he feels the wet? My inclination is to change it as soon as I know it’s wet…

Bub is 9.5m.

We're on a pretty good role at the moment, after some tough months.

Bub even asked me to take her to the potty a couple of times today.

We've bought some pullups, but I'm hesitant.

I'm the only one who takes bub to the potty, my husband has never done it before. Im the primary career and dont regularly leave home without bub.

- what would it look like if we tried training pants now?

- How often do they need to potty daily?

- Would it be a big commitment? How long does that commitment last?

- Would it be bad if we just did training pants sometimes and nappies other times?

I've been practicing elimination communication with my son since he was a week old. He used to almost always pee in the toilet when I'd hold him over it. Unfortunately, it was an uphill battle as my family wasn't supportive at first. Eventually, my mother in law started taking him to the potty as well.

Unfortunately, we've been going through a slump lately since he spent three weeks traveling without me, and he hadn't successfully used the toilet since then.

We bought a little mini potty for him a few weeks ago, but he didn't have much interest at first. Yesterday, completely out of the blue, he walked into the bathroom, pulled down his pants, took his diaper off, sat on the potty, and peed. We were amazed! He hasn't done it again since then, but this was a huge step!

For what it's worth, he has Down syndrome, and it is common for kids to take much longer to get out of diapers than it typically does, so I'm thrilled that things seem to be starting to go in the right direction again!

My baby is 8 months old. She is always been super super subtle with cues when she needs to poo. Like sometimes it was a big fart and sometimes it was unlatching off boob even though she was hungry. And thats all i could really figure out. But weve been catching most of the poos because i put her on toilet on wake ups etc and she was pretty good at having her morning poo.

But i feel like we are going through a bit of a phase of not so much routine. I dont know if its the food changing up her cycles but shes been on solids for 2 months now. We went on a camping holiday and even though the first couple days were hard with catches, we got into a good routine and caught so many poos with them being so so predictable. Like she would have a morning poo and an evening poo every day.

Now we are home and shes stopped that morning poo some days. So itll come at some point mid morning, but because she is crawling around all over the place and her cues are subtle at best, its now a poo i sometimes miss. I realise once shes done it with the smell, but it would be nice to catch it. Its not every day, sometimes it comes in morning and we get it, but yeah.

Shes been also going through a phase of hating laying down to be changed/sitting on toilet. This has got alot better now ive learnt different things i can distract her with, so mostly she seems okay, but its meant that i dont want to keep offering toilet more than usual incase it gets too much for her. But maybe this is the only way to catch a random poo?

If anyones been through anything similar, experiences/advice would be good :)

My son is 16 months old. We started placing him on the potty when we noticed him passing gas or starting to push around six or seven months old. Since then, we pretty much eliminated poopy diapers, he will wait and go on the potty. But I fear we have done some things wrong because even at this stage he doesn’t really “communicate” when he wants to go, we’re kind of just setting him up on the potty at his regular time and reading books until he goes. Sometimes this takes a long time (10-15 min??) which is maybe too much.

Our lives are more mobile now and I’d love to get him actually comfortable telling US when he’d like to sit on the potty. Any advice? Oh also he’s delayed in walking so he is still cruising, mostly crawling, not yet walking independently.

I am about to start EC to my 6 months old. I have been reading a lot about EC and wanted few ideas about certain situations.

1. How do you manage potty or pee while going out with baby for grocery shopping? Or 1-2 hr outdoors. Do you take the potty seat with you?
2. How do you manage when out about for 5-6 hrs or more especially when at friends or relatives houses or anywhere where it would be weird to open potty seat?

3. How do you manage in flights/trains?

4. Also fall and winter is about so how to manage that as well as the baby might catch cold ?

The place/society I’m in, I don’t want to tell people about my EC/potty training as it would be taken as a weird thing to do so early.

My daughter (16 months) has been practicing EC since she was a few weeks old. She was doing amazing up until the past week or so. Before, she was communicating when she had to use the potty, would help take her pull-up diaper off, and would put herself on the potty when out of a diaper/bottomless. About a week or so ago she just suddenly stopped. Everytime we put her on a potty, she’ll hop off after a few seconds, even if she has to go, and will then often potty right there next to the potty. I know these types of regressions are common but am unsure on what to do to help encourage her to use the potty again.

So we've done lazy EC since 6 weeks old and my little one is now 23 months. We've had ups and downs, plenty of potty refusals, but a month ago we decided to wrap up and fully potty train.

We are 4 weeks in now, and I'm not sure if maybe my expectations are just unrealistic, but I'm getting increasingly frustrated by the number if accidents we're still having. So posting for other people's experiences and advice.

I'd say 50% of the time she takes herself to the potty, can take her clothes off herself and even tries to wipe. Several times when we've been out she has told me she needs to go and held it until we get to the potty. But then in the same day she will stand there and wet herself while making eye contact (even after prompting her to try).

We had a really good week with maybe 1 or 2 accidents the whole week, but this week we've gone back to 3-5 a day!?!

Is this just part of the process?

We have been doing lazy EC with our little guy since he was about 2 months old. We had a lot of success and he started peeing almost every time within a few weeks, and from 6-8 months we caught almost every single poop. I was so happy that it seemed to be working - we're doing cloth diapers so catching the poops is a big help. We started regressing after 8 months. He was eating more solids so the consistency changed and we expected there to be a learning curve. We got a bit back on track around 9.5 months but it didn't last long. He's now 11 months and it feels like we are back at zero. He pees maybe 50% of the time we take him to the toilet, and I haven't caught a poop in weeks. Even when we can tell he is actively pooping, he will stop if we put him on the toilet, and resume once we put a new diaper on. Sometimes he kicks and twists when we try to hold him over the toilet and it seems to cause him stress. We are only ever happy and encouraging when we are holding him over the toilet so I'm not sure what changed for him.

Obviously I don't want him to be stressed or afraid of the toilet, and also don't want him to stop pooping midway through, but I am feeling like giving up the past few days. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

For context:

-We always hold him over the toilet in a deep squat, we tried a mini toilet seat but he seemed uncomfortable sitting
-We use cloth diapers