Nico and I have been practising casual Elimination Communication for over a week now.
Elimination Communication, or EC for the friends, is used by caregivers to know when to take their babies to the toilet (or wherever - basin, container, hated neighbour's rose bush etc), for pees & poos. It's been working really well, I've had to deal with only three dirty nappies over 8 whole days, and the stack of nappies lasts a lot longer.
I was most surprised when Nico urinated in the toilet bowl the first time I cued him. Fluke, I thought, I must have caught him at a good time, how are babies that young supposed to have control over their bodily functions? And then he did again it the time after. And the time after that. And before I knew it, I spent the whole of last week basking in pride and glory whenever I see my son peeing and pooing in the toilet. Must be part & parcel of the glamour of parenthood.
How does EC work?
Well, it's based on four principles:
- Timing. Nico is more likely to pee after waking up, and after a feed. So it was just a matter of working out when I should take him to the toilet and wait for him to do his business. Sometimes I'd take him every half-an-hour, and got to know the toilet bowl even more intimately than when I had morning sickness.
- Signals. That's when the little smiley face goes from yellow to red, followed by grunts. Or when there's sudden silence and a glazed look. Time to dash to the change table to remove nappies.
- Cueing. The cueing from parents varies. Most use psss and grunting; I used pipi and caca, to inform Nico that now was a good time. Perhaps it wasn't such a wise choice of cues.
- Intuition. Yeah. Apparently "an extremely reliable component" for some, as for me I think I'll stick to the clock.
Why was pipi and caca such a bad choice of cues? Because earlier today, I thought 'Hey, it must have been a while since Nico went to the toilet', so I took him the change table and gleefully informed him that "C'est l'heure de faire pipi"! As soon as the P-word came out of my mouth I regretted it.
Less than two seconds later, a little yellow fountain confirmed that indeed, it was time to go pipi...
