I had read that elimination communication was most successful if you started between 0-6 months, so when the six month mark passed, I began to despair. I had always known that I wanted to do elimination communication from birth -- I had imagined myself with a newborn, lying diaper-free on my lap, calmly observing her for signs for needing to pee or poo. But although I tried this, her pees were quick drizzles that were hard to catch, and although I'd catch an occasional poo in the potty, she was an infrequent pooper who would go for more than a week and then explode without warning. And then other circumstances, like our struggles with a low milk supply, prevented me from taking her to the potty right after a feed.
When I read of other Montessori families (here and here) that introduced the potty later on, with great success, I took heart. And at 6 months, suddenly the stars began to align. She was able to sit up straight, which made the potty a lot more comfortable for her than when I was holding her awkwardly over it. She was pooping everyday on a schedule -- at roughly 9am, with telltale farts -- so it seemed stupid not to put her on the potty when I knew there was a poo coming. And once I did, it was very much "Why didn't I do this earlier?" Very quickly we had all our poos in the potty (with only one or two accidents per month), and a pee in the potty every time I changed her diaper. She still pees in her diaper, but the fact that she associates eliminating with the potty is a win. As is not having to clean up a poopy bum or wash poopy diapers!
Inspired by (but coming too late) to the Montessori home challenge, I have just begun to set up a toilet station. A basket for our lovely cloth diapers and covers, another basket holding a lap blanket and some reading material while she's on the loo. And tissues for wiping her bottom, currently propped up on a little cardboard box. I think this warrants setting up some low shelves in the near future for all her toilet materials, so that they're visible to her as we go through the routine.
As I am writing this we are going through a small "potty regression" at 9 months. I used to catch 99% of the poos and perhaps 70% of her pees, but in the past few days I keep having misses. I don't know the cause -- maybe it's because we're teething, having sleep regressions, or generally being more active, going out more, missing our scheduled "potty-tunities." But it doesn't matter. Elimination communication is stress-free; I never keep her on the potty longer than she wants to be on it. I'll do the baby sign for "diaper," tell her I'm going to change her, do the baby sign for "potty" and ask if she'd like to sit on it, and if she's in a bad mood we call it off. And in the future, when she has a miss, I'll remember to tell her "Ooops, let's go in the potty next time."
We mostly potty on a schedule, when we wake up in the morning, and before and after we go out, but I have bookmarked this list of tell-tale trumps and hope to be more aware of her signs as time goes by.
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