Aww, he used to be so cute.

But…. 4 years, 3 months old and a terror on two feet by about 3 feet NOW is why I did EC back then. He’s sitting in time out right now, though he says it’s hard to wait. 5 minutes ago, he grabbed and pulled out a handful of the dog’s (thankfully just washed) fur off her back and put it in his mouth. 4 days ago, I cut my finger while he was distracting me not listening while I was trying to make potatoes for him, which is, of course, making it hard to type. A week before that, he was choking on a piece of hard candy just minutes after I had taken one away from and explained why he couldn’t have it.

He pushes me, hits me, and screams at the top of his lungs in the extreme moments. A few weeks ago, he peed on a teddy bear, some clothing, and another toy or two right in front of the toilet while I was busy with something. He has little misses or partial misses with pee sometimes, but there will be months where he’s perfect, with no misses, in between. He almost never wets the bed at night. He’s done great with nighttime since about 16 months, although he was an awful sleeper.

When he was 3 months old, he and I started having horrible sleep issues, which could be due to a number of reasons, which I will get into in another post. At 4 months, I was tired of changing diapers every 20 minutes still and had heard of ‘EC’ from a friend. I was so desperate for a communication avenue with my son that I was willing to try it for so many different reasons, but mostly to save on time and money.

The sleep issues along with my son not wanting to be ‘changed’ anymore, as in diapers, helped me decide to try it. He was so squirmy that I had already decided I needed pull-up trainers or something like that with him, because he would not let me change diapers anymore. So we did sitting up changes, and I knew I had to find a better way.

So I did an internet search and found Andrea’s book, Go Diaper Free, right away. I read an excerpt, watched a few videos, and decided I wanted to commit to trying it. So at 4.5 months, I had a naked baby on a pad on a bed, told my in-laws and relatives what I was doing, and went for it. Over a couple hour period over 2 days, I had gotten enough ‘observation time’ to give him a cue. Once I gave him his cue, I tried to start being a little pro-active and take him before he had wet his cloth diaper and give him his cue. And one of the times, he went!! He actually did both eliminations at once, and I was so surprised, and I think the little guy was happy about it.

With that success, I was hooked and so was he. We had some really great continued success with poos in sinks, which I would just clean up, till he started eating solids, then everything changed. But I did not let that stop me, because then we started having more success with ‘catching’ pees. One of the main things about EC and starting at a younger age is that it makes potty training more of a longer-term continuum rather than a goal-driven evidence-based direct approach to clear expectations and positive outcomes.

So I think all the social and personal goals of kids this age are all wrapped together. I am soooo thankful that by this time, with my very defiant 4-year-old, that we have already been done potty training for over several years.

My son never gave ‘signals’ for when he had to go when he was little. He always relied on my to take him or just had misses. Thankfully, he was pretty good about going when I would give him opportunities to go, but he still had plenty of wet and dirty diapers, too. He was great at going on outings and visiting restrooms and even seemed to like the novelty of it. He did great with new people, like my mom, taking him to the restroom when needed. And believe it or not, it helped both of us get (a little) more sleep.

But basically, we got into such a good groove at times, that we were able to help identify different health/hygiene concerns, which I will also write another post about. There were times when his obvious ‘misses’ pointed to not just something environmental, social, or age-based, but an actual health concern which I might not have realized was the cause of his being unable to eliminate as normal.

I knew from when we started doing this that I wanted to share it with other parents and caregivers, especially people like me with a challenging situation all around, that might benefit from knowing that there are more options out there than you’ve heard of! I told a few new moms and most were not interested for themselves, so I didn’t take it in any way other than I had not found an audience for whom this would benefit. This is old knowledge that has been lost to modern cultures, and I really was so impressed with knowing more about myself, my baby, and our ability to communicate with each other, even from a very young age.

It works, even as much or as little as you want it to. There’s no reason not to have this tool in your tool belt of parenting skills. I got certified so that I would feel confident talking about the info and being able to give sources for all the techniques, ideas, history, and scientific backed info to anyone who wants it. So if you’re here and you’ve read this, EC is probably for you. Congratulations on your freedom from diapers!