Elimination Communication Breakdown
Made by Mommy. The "Flaming Wreckage" diaper.
I love cloth diapers.
I know. What a ridiculous thing to love, right? But if you ask any mama who does it nowadays, she’ll probably tell you the same thing.
Not only are they easy to use (no, really – they are), but they are ridiculously cute! Crazy cute. And who can resist an already adorable tushie that is covered with soft goodness in your favorite colors? Makes the Charmin look unappealing at best.
Yes, the cult of the cloth is firmly entrenched in even the mildest of crunchy families. But a new cult is forming.
It’s called “Elimination Communication,” or EC for short.
Basically, it means that you pay attention to your baby’s signals and learn when they need to eliminate, then you take them to the potty and let the potty begin. There are also cues you develop to let baby know it’s okay to shake the dew from her lily or let loose the bowels of hell.
I’m all for being close to your babies, listening to them and trying to understand what they need. I think it’s absolutely necessary in fact.
But maybe there are just too many distractions in modern life for this to be really workable for me.
I ask my friends who do this if there are accidents, and the answer is always, “Sometimes,” but she will sort of look at the floor, or her eyes will suddenly start darting around as if the woman is contemplating chewing her arm off to get away.
Because she doesn’t want you to know the truth.
In my house, within seconds of taking off the diaper, there is poop on my floor, or I get urinated on, and not in a good way.* I just figure some airing out does a body good now and again, but dammit, every time I let him go commando I have a mess to clean up.
There. If I can admit it, anyone can. Except I guess not everyone has that whole “lack of shame” thing going on like I do. So unless I can get some serious help up in here and have time to do absolutely nothing but stare into my baby’s eyes all day…well. I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me diapers…
or give me a maid.
*I’m kidding! About there being a good way to be peed on, I mean. Like I really had to tell you.
Barely Knit Together 
May 18, 2009 at 20:36
Hi!
What about combining the two?
Offering the potty sometimes – like when your baby wakes, when they have a diaper change, *just before* you pop him down nudie bum!
Yep, there are accidents – kids wee and poo! But they can be in a diaper still…
One less diaper at a time – wonderful.
One less pooey diaper – fantastic!
Then, just repeat. You can do it, and I LOVE that diaper you made – very cute indeed!
Charndra
P.S I can help you ease into EC too
May 18, 2009 at 20:45
Thank you so much for stopping, and for your thoughtful comment. This blog is kind of a humorous thing, and while I appreciate the offer, we are almost out of diapers now and DONE with babies. (Do you hear me, uterus?? DONE!!)
I do kind of treat the whole diapering thing casually, cloth or naked is fine, or I wouldn’t know about accidents. 😉 And I am a card-carrying member of the attachment parenting league. I just never really felt EC was for me. But I am impressed with my friends who manage it!
Hope to see you again. Thank you for the compliment on the diaper. Coming up soon (maybe Thursday or Friday) is a post about my future as a seamstress when I no longer have diapers to sew. So sad! (I know, I’m crazy)
June 10, 2009 at 00:12
I find it hard to understand why people carry on so much about accidents – can’t they just clean it up? Do their babies now spew, chuck, posset, dribble and barf? LOL…
Yes, I understand diaper sewing is really addictive! Myself, I made all my son’s trainers, these days though I simply shriek at the machine as it always has an empty bobbin, a broken thread JUST when I sit down to use it – so I buy them instead! I’ll have a look for that next post!
May I put a link to my EC site for your readers who are still in that stage? (Further down the thread!)
http://www.PartTimeEC.com
Thanks!
May 18, 2009 at 21:06
diapers keep me going some days. cute ones. fluffy ones. new ones. but mainly clean ones. sigh.
May 18, 2009 at 21:12
Woowoomama – we get it wherever we can, don’t we? Drive on, mama.
May 18, 2009 at 21:16
The best way to clean cloth diapers is to pre-rinse them off in the toilet using a Hand Bathroom Bidet Sprayer. So convenient and if you are trying to help the environment (and your pocket book) you can give it a double whammy by virtually eliminating toilet paper use at the same time as you benefit from using it on the diapers, by using it on yourself. I think Dr. Oz on Oprah said it best: “if you had pee or poop on your hand, you wouldn’t wipe it off with paper, would you? You’d wash it off” Available at http://www.bathroomsprayers.com they come in an inexpensive kit and can be installed without a plumber. And after using one of these you won’t know how you lasted all those years with wadded up handfuls of toilet paper. Now we’re talking green and helping the environment without any pain. One review: http://jonathanandandrea.blogspot.com/2009/04/spray-it-or-scrub-it.html
May 18, 2009 at 21:25
your comment on my blog made me laugh and laugh. you might have been aided in your entertainment level by the glass of red…but, thank you.
May 18, 2009 at 23:39
I am on the wrong blog?
May 19, 2009 at 06:58
You are just dreaming; go back to sleep?
May 19, 2009 at 16:50
fundamentaljelly’s avatar is a hand
barelyknittogether’s are feet
I provide the dog head
Now we need a body to be complete
May 19, 2009 at 17:11
Can we be choosy about it? My self-esteem is already quite inadequate, and since our hair is yarn…well. You do the math.
And OMG, what a mess of craziness we would be if combined. Scary.
May 19, 2009 at 18:01
Hahahha… Yes, quite the combination of parts. Frankenstein would have nothing on us. Yes. Let’s be choosey. Like I always say, one can never be too picky about their torso.
May 19, 2009 at 18:35
Well, if you lop the head off my avatar (and one hand), you’ve got a whole torso plus one arm to work with.
May 19, 2009 at 18:40
That avatar of yours has tons of fat cat torso to spare!
May 19, 2009 at 18:42
It also has a kickass bow tie.
May 19, 2009 at 21:48
Yes, I dig the bow tie in a way, but when I think “full figured” I’m really looking for a Marilyn Monroe type thing. Some part of us should be beautiful, don’t you think?
But I do think we should have your brain. You have us all beat there, I think, and that says a lot.
May 20, 2009 at 06:43
I routinely have you all beat there because vicious head-beatings are really the only way to keep unruly bloggers in line.
I’m not sure why I was chosen to administer the “brain-beatings.” Maybe it’s just some form of blogger hazing for the new guy.
May 19, 2009 at 22:25
I don’t miss diapers. Those days are long gone.
As for the body parts piecing together… If everyone was all lumped together, just think of the big long blog you could have talking to yourselves?
May 20, 2009 at 01:12
I love my cloth diapers, too. They are so cute.
The people that I know who were successful often just ‘caught poos’. Which means that when their diapered children started to grunt, they took them to a potty. I don’t think any of them had a lot of success with catching the pee. At least not in infancy.
As for me, I haven’t actually tried EC. Although now that my cloth-diapered baby is starting solids I’m considering it. The dirty diapers are not as inoffensive as they used to be.
May 20, 2009 at 08:45
I am going to borrow one of CLT’s ideas and just start posting random words, since my comment threads have nothing at all to do with my posts.
Aren’t we really just turning into a message board that craves world wide adoration?
May 21, 2009 at 07:53
I’m pretty sure that’s just me.
Any number of horrible things have happened because someone thought, “Hey, let’s do what CLT does.”
As for random words, well, you’ve been to my website. That’s pretty much all I have. And if you take that away…
I guess I’ll go play with my Lego men.
May 20, 2009 at 18:34
Having had two kids who I just KNEW when they were going to go, I was determined to do that EC thingy with the third… Trouble is he has autism and so I lost a carpet and invested in a steam cleaner before he was two.
Baby no 4 just goes – no expression change at all. The only clue he is about to let go is that his nether regions are blissfully unhampered by anything absorbent, and simultaneously dangling over something that is either expensive and dry clean only, or owned/worn by the squeamish…..
May 20, 2009 at 22:13
Laughing out loud, trying not to wake anyone! Thank you for visiting and for your hilarious comment.
I do hope you’ll be back. 🙂
June 10, 2009 at 00:07
LOL, sigh – that’s the Murphy’s Law of EC!