The Diaper-Free Baby_ The Natural Toilet Training Alternative - Christine Gross-Loh [53]
For instance, if you are an occasional EC’er, perhaps you’ve only been catching bowel movements in the potty these past few months, but you are thinking of expanding to catch some pees as well. Start out with naked time, get to know your baby’s patterns and let him experience the sensation of peeing, and build upon this foundation to move on to part-time or full-time EC.
If you’ve been following part-time EC but are interested, for example, in getting even more in sync with your baby, again, naked time (or even just putting him directly into training pants) will provide a lot of incentive for you to really get to know your baby’s patterns and signals as soon as you can.
It’s very easy to let things go if your baby is in a diaper. In fact, that is one of the undeniable advantages of diapers: you can focus on other things when life is very busy and you need to put off attention for a little while. Having the option of a diaper is what makes EC so manageable even though we all lead such busy lives. But by taking the next step at this stage, a whole new level of EC may open up to you, especially now that your child is probably capable of greater bladder control than he was as a newborn. You may find yourself with fewer and fewer misses, or find that you are able to take your baby out and back home in the same training pant. Your rhythms and your baby’s will feel like they’ve fallen into sync.
At the same time, babies at this age are so excited by all their new abilities. They’re starting to babble or speak. They can play for a much longer time with toys. They are starting to see that they can reach things in the house on their own because they are mobile. They’re so much more communicative, which means that they will expand, by far, their ways of communicating their need to use the bathroom, through signing, vocalizing, crawling over to the potty, and more. But sometimes all these new abilities that they are so intent on practicing means that they are going to prefer to continue what they are doing rather than stop to go to the bathroom. When this happens, more often than not it’s a prime time for what EC’ers call a “potty pause.”
POTTY PAUSES
Every EC’ing family experiences out-of-sync moments or days. When these happen, parents wipe up and move on. It comes with the territory, and it’s important not to focus on the misses.
However, if these out-of-sync days stretch out and start to last longer and longer, you could be experiencing a potty pause. This can occur at any age but seems particularly common from eight months onward, or anytime after the onset of mobility. Not every family will experience a potty pause, but if you happen to be encountering one, this information is for you.
A potty pause can be very frustrating. If it’s occurring after weeks or months of smooth sailing EC, it might be difficult to accept that things are changing once again. (Remember, however, that with children, things are constantly in flux; this is a good lesson in parenting.) Keep in mind that this is an age when nursing strikes might occur; babies are highly distractible as they explore their outer world and go through developmental spurts, and a few parental adjustments can make a difference in getting things (whether that be nursing, EC, sleep, or something else) back on track.
Very often, a potty pause is a sign that your routine could benefit from some changes. Many parents report improvement if they change where the potty is located, switch to a toilet insert, bring new toys for baby to play with on the potty, or try new activities with baby while she’s on the potty, such as songs or finger plays. Also, while you may previously have