The first time I ever encountered someone practicing "elimination communication" was back in 2008. A friend of mine, Amber, had a little girl who had never worn diapers! Like most people, when I heard this I couldn't really wrap my head around it. What do you do if your kid doesn't wear diapers? Then you think about how long diapers have been around and realise people did fine without diapers for hundreds of years. And as Amber pointed out, most of the babies in the world are not wearing diapers. While I was pregnant I started thinking more about what I would do about diapers when the baby was barn. My partner and I live in an old school bus that has been converted to a cabin of sorts. We live completely off-grid, no electricity or running water. I definitely didn't want to be using disposable diapers so we were looking at cloth diapers. I wasn't super stoked at the idea of washing diapers by hand, especially poopy diapers. I saw Amber in town one day and asked her some more about how she managed going diaper free. She recommended I read, "Diaper Free: the Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene", by Ingrid Bauer. She also noted that I should read it while I was pregnant...good suggestion Amber! The book is very informative and convinced me that with determination and patience, I could give my baby a more natural and aware approach to its elimination needs. In retrospect, I was a little overly optomistic about my abilities. When Hannah was born I was pretty overwhelmed from the whole birth experience, my body needing to rest and heal, and of course taking care of this tiny and precious new being was completely new and consuming. However, I was determined to try taking Hannah to pee as often as I could. I kept a cloth diaper on her, but took her to pee after naps and if she was still dry after an hour or so. She didn't always go when I took her, and we still had a lot of wet diapers but I figured even if I only saved one diaper a day, that was better than nothing. Now that she is 15 months, she pees on her own potty and is pretty good about signalling when she needs to go. I still keep a diaper on her sometimes if we've had a series of misses or if we are going on longer outings. The closeness you will experience for taking the time to tune into your baby's needs is well worth the effort. Not to mention the number of diapers you will save from the wash pile!
My suggestions to anyone who is thinking of trying to go diaper free:
-Read Ingrid Bauer's book "Diaper Free, The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene", preferably before your baby is born.
-Be patient, keep practicing! Don't expect to not have accidents. As you tune into your baby's needs and how their body works, things will get easier and your intuition will get better.
-Don't put pressure on yourself or your baby! You want this to be a positive experience for you both.
-A good place to start is to take the baby to pee first thing in the morning when they wake up, and as soon as they wake up after a nap.
-If you are worried about accidents, keep a cloth diaper on the baby to absorb most of the mess.
-In the summer, leaving the baby diaper free and spending lots of time outside go really well together!
-Start using some sort of sound cue with the baby right away, even if you have a miss and they pee in their diaper make the cue so they will assosiate it with peeing.
-Have a sign or signal for the baby to use to tell you when they have to go.
-You will have good periods where you have few or no misses, but also periods of regression. Just remember it will pass. Stay consistent and don't get frustrated.
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