A Diaper-Free Baby

I have been meaning to write about this for a long time [every time I sit down to write, I end up writing about something else.] It is exciting, and I am a proud mama.

Miss Yasmina is all done with diapers. Since 15 1/2 months old.

Back in February I wrote about how Mina had transitioned to pooping in the potty. Not too long after that [about a month ago now] she fully potty trained herself.

Really. It was all her.

She started telling me when she had to pee by pulling at her diaper and making whiny sounds. For the first couple of days she told me right after she had already peed in her diaper, and then she learned to tell me before she went. Now when she has to pee, she pulls at her crotch and makes her "eh eh eh I have to pee" noise. Sometimes she doesn't tell me, and I just have to check in with her when I know she hasn't peed in awhile.

Now, just because she is diaper-free [and she still wears one at night] does not mean we are accident-free. In fact, accidents happen on a regular basis. I just consider them to be part of the learning process. I'd much rather her have an accident a day than wear diapers all day. And besides, as long as my trusty spray bottle of white vinegar and water is nearby, accidents are really no big deal.

Now my baby has a cute little undie butt instead of a big diaper butt [which was also cute but in a different way]. And she can wear all those sweet pairs of jeans that never fit over a cloth diaper. Yes, I'm into diaper-free. Accidents or no accidents.

Look at that cute diaper-free butt

If you are a mama of a baby or are thinking of becoming a mama of a baby, I would highly recommend you do some research on "elimination communication," which is what they call it these days. In the meantime, these are my guidelines teaching your baby to use the potty:

1. Be flexible. Don't worry about catching all your child's pees and poops in the potty. Even one pee a day in the potty will help the baby learn how to use it.
2. Use cloth diapers. Not only do they eliminate the waste of disposables [and the resources needed to make them], they help children keep the association between going pee and feeling wet. Disposables are so effective at keeping babies dry that they lose their connection to their bodily functions.
3. Start as young as you are comfortable with. The first time I held Jai and Mina over the toilet, they were five days old. I just held them over the toilet, said "psssss" and watched in amazement as the pee came flying out. [I held them over the big toilet until about 3 months old, then I switched to a baby potty.]
4. Keep a potty in the bathroom, and let your child see you go to the bathroom. They are natural copy cats. [Jai maintains that Mina learned to use the potty from him.]
5. When it's warm and nice outside, let your child run around diaper-free. Peeing down their leg a few times will help them learn to pay attention to the "I-have-to-pee" feeling.
6. If your baby is wearing a diaper and you see that they are pooping or about to poop, grab them, run to the bathroom, and put them on the potty. They will learn where poop is supposed to go.

Like I said before, I would urge you to do more reading on the subject. Here is a helpful website and here is a helpful book. And I must also say that although my kids both went diaper free pretty early (Jai at 18 months and Mina at 15 1/2), practicing elimination communication [or EC] does not necessarily mean your child with potty train super early. But it will make it much, much easier when the time comes.

[And did I tell you that I no longer have to do laundry every day?? Yes, yes, yes!!!]

*Gratitude*

Sweet Release : Babies Can Potty Train Too

*Note to sensitive readers: this post contains many references to poop, pee, and potty

This post is not a brag. I promise. It is an expression of gratitude for a truly wonderful occurrence. Yasmina, at 14 months, poops in her potty. Only. As in, not in her diaper. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.

Although it is a wonderful occurrence, this hasn't happened by accident. Thanks to some wise words I came by when I was pregnant with Jai, both of my kids have peed and pooped in the toilet since they were 5 days old. It was fairly simple- I just held them over the toilet and made a peeing sound. Pssssss...

Jai enjoys his potty at 6 months

Now don't get me wrong. It's not like they didn't wear a diaper and only peed and pooped the potty. Because they did [wear a diaper] and they didn't [only poop and pee in the potty]. (Although I must say that Mina has a history of pooping in the potty. When she was tiny, it was really hard for her to poop lying down, so I had to hold her over the toilet. Even in the middle of the night.)

Thankfully she quickly got over the whole
have-to-get-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-poop phase.
This is Mina at 8 1/2 months.

As both kids grew from infant to baby to toddler, they would go through phases of more pottying or less pottying. Before Jai stopped wearing diapers, he too always pooped in the potty (because it was so obvious when he had to go that I could always get him to the potty on time). He was less consistent about peeing up until the time he stopped wearing diapers. He wasn't quite 18 months when the weather turned warm and nice with the beginning of summer. We were outside all the time, so I just stopped putting a diaper on him. After about a week of peeing on himself, he got it.

I'm planning to do the same with Mina. As this post commemorates, we are already halfway to total diaper freedom.

Her learning to poop in the potty is so exciting because she totally understands what she's doing. 100%. I'm not just catching her in the act and putting her on the potty. A couple of weeks ago, when this all started, I thought maybe the potty poops were a blessed coincidence. I would be coming out of the bathroom, and she would run over to me and grunt. Onto the potty and out with the poop.

Now we've had many incidences where she was in a totally different room, ran to the bathroom, and squatted down next to her potty. Onto the potty and out with the poop. I think it's official now.

Family potty time

I don't think my kids are potty prodigies by any means. When you read about parenting in other cultures, you learn that early potty learning is just the natural way things are done. I think it's a great disservice to the majority of American parents (and their children) that we are told babies are not able to learn pottying before the age of 2 (or 3 or 4...) What I've experienced with my own children, and seen with the children of friends, is that babies and small children have an innate knowledge of their bodily functions. We just have to show them where to put it. Of course, this does take some patience, flexibility, and acceptance of the fact that some accidents will happen. But doesn't that describe all aspects of parenting?

All I can say is, I am filled with gratitude every time I don't have a poopy diaper to clean. Thank you, Goddess of Release. May poop always make it into the potty.       *Blessings*