Elimination Communication Clothing and Equipment

by Lilac
(South Africa)

Question

What clothing or equipment do you need to practice elimination communication?

What have you found works for you or doesn't work? I don't want to buy a lot of unnecessary baby stuff.

Answer

I have been practicing elimination communication (EC) with my 3 month old baby and found that very little 'EC' stuff is required. Think about it - in non-western cultures where this has always been done, they don't have a lot of baby stuff. Life is simple!

EC Clothing

I have found that I prefer dressing Jason in clothing with separate tops and bottoms. All-in-one baby gros with all the poppers take too long and become irritating to use.

On cooler days when he has a vest underneath, I prefer the vests that have poppers between the legs, so there is no gap around the waistline, but then I only close one popper so its easy to rip off when I need to.
I tried some split cloth pants, but for a boy especially, they really are not modest. I made the cross-over type but I don't think they are that much easier to use than ordinary baby leggings that can just be pulled off for a wee, if baby is nappy-free.

Home-made diapers

I am using mostly home-made cloth diapers / nappies (an old flannel sheet I cut up, with towelling pads added) with bought waterproof covers as back-up.

Jason sleeps so well at night that I have never tried night time EC. I don't think my husband would appreciate the disturbance anyway ...so I have two really absorbant Mother Nature brand cloth nappies that I use on alternate nights. It appears that he only wees at about 5:30 am - so I am happy that for most of the night he is clean and dry...and we all get a good night's sleep. Its a bit of a compromise, but it keeps me sane. I need a good night to cope with the busy-ness of my other five kids in the day!!

..what I would like to find here in SA is small size training pants. I think they will be nice to use too.

Waterproof mat

For diaper free time, I sometimes fetch his nappy changing mat to lie on, in a different part of the house. Otherwise I put him in his carry cot with a towel under him..or just risk getting wet - now that its summer, its really not that bad if we have a miss!

Potty

When he was really tiny, we just held him over the bidet or toilet bowl. After a month or so, I started holding him on an ordinary toddler's potty. I would still support him under the thighs as before, else he'd fall right into it...but he will soon be able to sit on it alone..so no special EC potty is needed.

What I learned on an EC egroup is that it is also good to let your baby wee in different places, not always the same receptacle, so that when you are out and about, he is comfortable to go anywhere and does not require that special 'place'...so we still use basins, toilets, the garden etc as well as the potty.

..so as you can see, we haven't really invested in anything really special for Our Journey to Elimination Communication

Please add suggestions using the Comments function below.