The Diaper-Free Baby_ The Natural Toilet Training Alternative - Christine Gross-Loh [11]
Some parents simply may not believe that EC is possible or they may not understand how it works. Everything we as a society have been taught in the last few decades by doctors, books, and even the disposable-diaper industry would certainly lead many parents to believe that babies have absolutely no sphincter control or awareness of elimination, and that minimal control doesn’t even kick in until they are well past infancy. Even if you believe that babies are physically capable of some control over their elimination (and even if their instinctive desire not to soil themselves makes sense to you), the process by which parent and child get in sync through nonverbal cues, body language, and intuition might seem incomprehensible. If you find yourself having these sorts of doubts, it may help to seek out an EC’ing parent or DiaperFreeBaby group near you. There’s nothing like an actual demonstration to show you how it all comes together. I’ve had nothing but positive, interested reactions from people who have happened to witness my own babies being EC’ed. In truth, seeing EC in action has a greater impact than just hearing or reading about it.
If you find you are interested and nearly convinced but still teetering on the edge, I think the solution is simple. Just give it a try and see where it takes you. There’s absolutely nothing to lose. Keep telling yourself that you’ll try just one time, and then one more time after that, and recognize that you can stop anytime you want to. Before long, I predict you’ll be hooked! Here are some stories from other EC’ing parents about how they got involved with EC.
I originally heard about EC from a friend. During a long international flight she met a young woman who was traveling with a young toddler after visiting India for several months. My friend was fascinated because the child was not wearing a diaper and told her mother when she needed to go to the bathroom—especially impressive, since both the child and mother had a stomach bug and the child had diarrhea. I remember thinking, “That’s so crazy. You can’t do that. I know, since it’s already so hard to get my stepson to use the potty.” Fast-forward to my being pregnant with my first child and we’re still trying to potty train my stepson. While researching cloth diapers on the Internet, I stumbled across mention of EC and was hooked. It simply resonated with me this time. My friend still reminds me that she was the first one to tell me about this “wacky” idea!
—SAM, MOM TO WILLOW, 14 MONTHS
I heard of EC through a good friend. It seemed like an amazing idea, and at our first DiaperFreeBaby meeting she had my then two-month-old son take off his diaper in her house. He used the potty four times in a row without a miss. Needless to say, we never looked back.
—RIKKI, MOM TO DEXTER, 11 MONTHS
When I first heard about EC it seemed to counter many of the child development theories I’d heard, so I dismissed it. But when it came up again, I thought about it some more and realized it was probably the exact technique my grandmother used to train her three daughters. She always said they were potty trained by one year old, no fuss, and no muss. She also said, “If you know your child has to go, why would you make him go in his pants?” And that’s how I’ve explained it to my parents. At first they laughed at another “crunchy” idea, but now they advocate it as common sense! They don’t call it EC or infant potty training, but simply view it as a way for him to not go in his pants unnecessarily.
We’re due with our first child in June and are looking forward to giving our baby a more comfortable relationship with bathroom habits. When I see his “potty face,” I’ll have no problem not making him go in his pants!
—MORIA, 8 MONTHS PREGNANT WITH FIRST CHILD
When I found out I was pregnant, my husband