The Diaper-Free Baby_ The Natural Toilet Training Alternative - Christine Gross-Loh [7]
3. “I don’t want a mess all over my house—isn’t EC difficult to do in Western society?”
Some parents will make changes to their house—taking up the rugs temporarily, perhaps focusing on EC only when they happen to be in one room, and so on. The initial learning period does not last very long. As you and your baby learn to connect, you will have fewer misses with which to deal. Besides, you’d likely have misses if you were conventionally toilet training a child anyway. Remember, you can always use diapers as backup or even full-time if it helps you feel more relaxed. Plenty of parents follow EC without going completely diaper-free.
4. “Isn’t EC kind of weird—like you’re hovering over your child, waiting for her to pee or poop?”
About the hovering, many parents are in close proximity to their newborn babies. It’s a misconception that EC parents spend all their time hovering and waiting for the next pee or poop. Parents quickly pick up on their baby’s elimination patterns just as they pick up on their baby’s need to eat or sleep. They don’t have to think about it all the time. In addition, parents often find that their EC’ed babies often begin consolidating their pees and poops and eliminate less frequently than an exclusively diapered baby.
There are certainly new challenges to EC’ing a mobile baby. If you have a crawling, exploring, older baby, it can be difficult to keep her close by no matter how hard you try. But I—like many EC’ing parents—found that being so in tune with my baby meant that sometimes I just “knew” he had to go to the bathroom even if I was in another room. That is the nature of the awareness you cultivate during this journey.
5. “Why should my baby have to communicate her elimination? She’s just a baby. Why can’t I just let her relax and use a diaper?”
Once you recognize that your baby was born with the innate awareness not to soil her own diaper, you’ll realize that she is not being forced to communicate or do anything beyond her natural abilities. In fact, by ignoring a baby’s elimination signals, we’re asking her to tune out a natural instinct and instead endure something she likely finds unpleasant. EC’ed babies are so comfortable going to the bathroom—they often seem to take it very much for granted—that it’s quite obvious we’re not asking anything of a baby by engaging in EC. Besides, what could be more comfortable and easy for a baby than going diaper-free?
Siblings love to help out. Here, my son Benjamin helps hold Daniel up on the potty.
6. “I have older children to take care of too.”
Older children get used to interruptions, and they quickly learn that you are as present for them as you can be even while feeding or changing a baby. Older brothers and sisters can also be intuitive and communicative with their younger siblings, even more so than their parents! I recall the many times, when I wasn’t being perceptive, that Benjamin would let me know that baby Daniel had to go to the bathroom. Brothers and sisters are also great models; babies learn so much from watching their siblings use the toilet. Finally, the enhanced communication your EC’ed baby experiences with you is something your children will experience between one another as well.
7. “I work outside the home.”
EC is about communication, and anyone can learn to communicate with a child. If your partner, relatives, or caregiver are reluctant to try EC because