Probably one of the most unique things I want to do with my children is to practice Natural Infant Hygiene or Elimination Communication (called EC from here out because that's what most people call it).
EC is basically going without diapers. Most people's reaction to this is confusion, my first reaction was sheer joy and amazement. I stumbled upon a book by Ingrid Bauer called "Diaper Free" about a year ago and have been excited to try it ever since. The book is very good, besides a couple paragraphs where she writes a couple non-truths about polio vaccines. But I'm not here to talk about vaccines.
I'm here to talk about skipping toilet training and dirty diapers! To me this benefit far out ways the possibility of getting peed or pooped on or getting the couch peed or pooped on. First of all, pee and poop aren't that bad. To me what is bad is diaper rash and wiping poop off of someone's behind. Also the landfills full of diapers and countless loads of laundry for cloth diapers. Secondly, while most people seem to think EC is going to be "OMG so super hard!" I don't think it seems that bad. I've read the book cover to cover a couple times now and frequently re-read parts of it when I'm feeling discouraged by others. It sounds easy to me.
Much like the goal of breastfeeding isn't weaning, and the goal of education isn't getting grades; the goal of EC isn't toilet independence. Toilet independence is often a natural end result of EC; usually much earlier too, between one and two years of age. But the actual goal of EC is to better communicate with your child.
Now that I have read a bunch on EC, I'm amazed when parents say, "he's filling his diaper now," and don't do anything about it. Even if you just eliminated the diapers you knew were coming (parent's often know when a poop is coming), you would save hundreds of diapers over a lifetime. Clearly your child has sent clues that he is going to poop and you are completely ignoring them! Most people pee first thing int he morning too, people could easily eliminate that one diaper a day without much thought. There is no biological or developmental reason why a baby has to go potty in their pants, then suddenly around age two has to go in a toilet.
In fact, before the so called "experts" started writing about toilet training, many mothers did some version of EC, even here in the USA. And the majority of the rest of the world practices EC; babies aren't diapered in much of the imperialized ("3rd") world. Diapering a child until age two or three or even four or five is a relatively new phenomenon. As is putting a child in a crib, formula feeding, and giving birth in a hospital, but we'll talk about these later.
The basics of EC is that the baby never learns to just go in their pants. Babies have control over their bladders and bowels, it's through diapering that they learn to ignore these controls and learn instead to pee and poop in their clothes. Baby signals it has to pee or poop and a caregiver brings them to a potty or a potty to them, gives a cuing noise and baby releases it's pee or poop.
So what's my plan, you say? Firstly, before I even try this, I want to make sure breastfeeding is well established and going well, this could mean putting it off for a few days or weeks. Breastfeeding is more important to me than EC. I will probably bring cloth diapers to the hospital with me. Basically cuing is the first step, which means keeping baby naked and close to me and cuing it whenever it pees or poops. This is what I will do before I'm able to pick up on any cues the baby might be giving me. Baby will probably pee in a small potty or other container that I will keep near me, or on to whatever puddle pad or washable item I have near me. Baby will be easier to clean off if it's naked than if a diaper was holding the pee and poo against its body.
After a while, hopefully I will have picked up on some cues, otherwise I will cue baby at even intervals over a potty and see if she eliminates. I may not do it at night for the first few weeks when babies pee more frequently, but as baby gets older he will pee less frequently at night and it therefore shouldn't be that hard, if it is, then baby will be in diapers at night. Probably I will have her in a cloth diaper and on top of some absorbent pads and a protective pad to protect the mattress. If I pick up on cues at night I'll just take off the diaper and pee the baby and put him back down.
Since I doubt I would use disposable diapers even if traditionally diapering, this really shouldn't be much more to wash than cloth diapers. Yes, occasionally the floor or my pants or a chair will get peed on, this is a normal part of EC, but if this is really the worst that can happen, I think the benefits well outweigh this one minor problem.
It helps that none of our furniture or rugs are expensive and all of our flooring is plastic! Heck, we can put the rugs away for a while if we want to.
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