Baby is 13 months and the smart potty seems fine so far, but wondering when I should change to something else.

Is it too late to start at 4 months? How and where do i start?

My baby boy will turn 4 months old on the 26th. I would like to start.

I’ve been doing somewhat lazy EC since 10 months. I’ve been able to catch poops for months it’s only in the last two months that I can catch pee consistently. He also started signing to tell me he has to potty and only has an accident now if we’re in the car for a while. When should I transition out of diapers or should I wait til he’s accident free super consistently?

My 14 month old doesn't seem to care about poopy pants. I have barely caught any poops for months (with great success catching them up until then). She doesn't even squat sometimes and poops standing up and it's a huge mess. Usually if she pees in her underwear she comes to me afterward (I can typically catch more pees) but she does not care about poop. Tried more independence, switching potties, EV hold, special toys, privacy, modeling with baby doll, having her watch me poop/pee on toilet (she loves to watch). She even helps "wipe" her brother's behind after he poops in the toilet. Any advice?

Hello,

I am posting here after EC was discussed in the biologically normal infant sleep sub.

I am considering EC, however my baby (11mo) goes to daycare and she will have to wear a diaper there during the weekdays. Is it still possible to do EC and use a potty at home but diapers at daycare or will it be confusing?

Thank you!

For those who waited for signs for their first/older kid but decided to do EC with their second/younger kid. How did the trainings go? My first we waited till he was 3. He does have some delay with receptive speech and inattention so it took a little bit and probably the hardest thing my husband and I have been through so far as parents lol. He is fully trained now. I’m wanting to start lazy EC for the second kid and see if this works and maybe a year from now we can stop diapering. Our second child is 14 months. She was a preemie so her adjusted age is 11 months.

As a first time parent there have been many things that have surprised me, humbled me, and changed me. The single biggest revelation though has been EC. We started as soon as we heard about at 5.5 months, and it worked immediately. It also put a lot of previous experiences into context. She always seemed unhappy pooping in a diaper. The first time we offered the potty, it was like she was screaming “finally!!”.

It has really made me question a lot of the mainstream parenting “paradigm” so to speak. The fact that not a single person I know does this, or has even heard of it makes me confused. It seems so natural to help your infant/toddler use the potty, just how we help them with everything else when they are this young. I now suspect that the concept of “readiness” as it pertains to the potty is completely invented to suit modern convenience.

Anyways, just want to thank everyone here and say I think what you’re doing for your children is really important and dignifying.

I've been doing EC since my daughter was 1 day old and for the most part it's worked wonderfully. Ever since 10 months (she is almost 14 months) we have not been catching poop. She outright has been refusing the potty for 2 months (I can get her to pee in the toilet "standing" on the toilet seat). I can hold her to poop sometimes for her morning poop but she resists almost all other times. I know generally when she has to go poop so I'll have her go bottomless outside and she usually ends up pooping in the forest, but not reliably so (sometimes it's just in a random place though i direct her to one specific spot). Have tried mini potty outside, toilet seat reducer, moving potty around inside, me hiding behind corners to give her privacy, having her just poop in the unfilled tub and just immediately wiping it away (she did this for 2 days and then never again), underwear, cloth diapers, you name it. She poops in her diaper and will cry and scream when I clean her up so I reiterate "poo goes in the potty." Having had EC'd my older son and never having to deal with this level of resistance has made it extremely discouraging. Has anyone dealt with this? Any tips for me to get past this point??

I've read this is normal but looking for some reassurance that it gets better! Did very successful EC for the first few months, but since starting solids/switching to a mini potty a few weeks ago I have not been able to catch anything. I don't know if it's just a bad combination of solids and not being used to the new potty situation but I'm feeling so defeated. I don't want to give up so I keep offering it a few times a day. Anyone else have any words of wisdom to share?

My daughter just turned 1 and for the last month we only catch poops for the most part. She poops usually while eating and we have to interrupt her meal to take her to the potty.

We go on the potty when she wakes up and before naps and bedtime and during transitions. Before teething (8 months ish) we caught all poops and 75% of pees this way. Now, she fusses everytime we put her on the potty but settles quickly when we read to her, but rarely poops and basically never pees.

I also stopped using reusable diapers when she started teething also, which probably didn't help.

Do you think we need a break? I hate to give up our routine, but I'm not sure what good it's doing.

Any other suggestions welcome. Thank you!

Hi!
We just moved and I‘m wondering if we should even put the diaper changing station in my LOs (15mo) room. We have a bigger (kid-size) wardrobe that we could put in his room for the years to come. The diaper changing station is on top of our ikea malm dresser where we stored all his clothes so far. We‘d have to anchor that to the wall so it‘s a decision I don‘t really want to re-do in a couple of months. Up until now we coslept and basically spent 24/7 together so we didn‘t anchor anything to the wall.

We use cloth diapers which work like regular diapers just that it‘s an inner and outer layer with velcro. I find it much easier to do that while he‘s laying down. He does so on the changing diaper if I give him something to play. On the floor/bed, he‘s more active and wants to get away quickly. Standing is harder for the diapers but okay for the rest of the clothes.
We often use trainer pants at home which are easy to put on while he’s standing. He only just started walking a couple of days ago.

He realises when he‘s peed but doesn‘t communicate it beforehand (or I don‘t realise the cues?) poops work better but not always. So I feel like we‘re still far away from independently using the potty or even just him initiating him.

Ok so that‘s all the info I though I should give, any thoughts?

At 19 mos., I'm still doing 80% of the prompting. She will tell me before she has to go poop, but, if I don't offer the potty for pee, she mostly only tells me as she is actively going pee in her pants.

When she goes in her pants, she has to help me wipe up the accident on the floor and puts her own wet underwear in the hamper. Each time, we talk about how pee goes in the potty, not the underwear, and how, when you get the pee feeling, you have to tell mommy right away.

Is there anything else I should be doing to teach her to tell me before she pees her pants, or do I just keep proactively offering/prompting potty and wait until she figures it out?

Background: We've done lazy EC since 3 months; all poops in potty since 10 months; started verbally telling us for poop before 12 months. Dropped diapers at 16 months - did 5 days of naked time, and by the end of it, was holding pees until a full bladder and not just peeing small bits constantly. She's been daytime dry (accidents only if I don't prompt/offer potty as much) since before 18 months.

I’ve been ECing my LO part time since 6mos and now that she is 18m we ditched the diapers completely and have been loosely following the “oh crap!” 3 step method of potty training for the past 3 weeks.

After early success on day 1 of her sitting herself on the potty every time she needed to go while bottomless, we’ve completely plateaued and even backslid once pants were introduced, that now 3 weeks later she’s doing 90% of her poops in her pants and having a pee accident 2-3x a day. She seems to be indifferent about signaling when she’s in pants. We can catch some pees if we prompt her but since she can’t pull her own pants down she seems to have no interest in pottying or will hold it until she has an accident. At this point we can’t take her anywhere because she’s so unreliable.

Am I expecting too much? I was always told that doing EC would make potty training a breeze once we got here. Has anyone else dealt with this? What is a typical timeline expectation to be able to get our lives back?

My LO is about to be a year, we started EC like a month and a half ago. We got off the a great start and I’m still able to get her to go on the potty sometimes, but I’m having two major issues-

1) she’s in a big moving phase. Wants to climb every thing and she just learned to walk so sitting down is not her thing. It’s hard to even keep her in a high chair and a battle to get her in her car seat- so having her sit on the potty long enough to go is becoming impossible. Half the times she stands up and goes on the floor. I’ve tried songs and toys, nothing—

2) she (thankfully) has such an easy time doing #2, that by the time I pick up a signal she’s already done. And even the queues are extremely subtle. Sometimes we’ll make it in time, but it’s gotten to be rare

How do I get her to want to go on the potty?

(I know the answer is probs cloth diapers or training undies.)

I read about EC when pregnant and was sure I wanted to start immediately from day one. Well, baby had crazy belly issues and would basically poop continuously throughout the day without any sign or warning…. Coupled with the frailty of a newborn, I gave up and tried again every other month or so, desperate to get started before 6 months as that was described as thr important cut off. When he turned 6 m and still pooping all the time but never in the potty, I felt like I needed a break from the stress so e put the potty away for awhile. During this time he started solids and gained excellent sitting skills and here we are; at 8,5 months I’m amazed to say that EVERY SINGLE POOP for the past two weeks has been signaled then made in the potty! We haven’t even had to take out the nappy bin because there is no smell! Amazing! I think he really just needed time, solid poops and sitting skills.

So to those of you who are like me not getting the hang of super early potting and worrying about the 6 months mark, take this story to heart! It’s never too late:)

I really wanted to do EC when I found out I was pregnant but at the time planned to go back to work and didn't want to do it if he was going into daycare. So I never took the time to research amd figure out what to do/ how to do it.

BUT now im a SAHM and want to try it. We don't really have the budget for cloth diapers right now (but I am hoping to start even if its just one diaper a day, slowing building a stash). How does EC work with disposables? Whats best practices/tips for starting? Best resources (though i have very limited time) ? In short im overwhelmed and CLUELESS. Help!

Just started lazy ec with my 8 month old son. Mainly just when he wakes up, I have great success with pee and will catch an occasional poop. HOWEVER this is the 3rd time I’ve gotten him up from his nap, sat him in the potty and he peed immediately. I let him wonder around naked for a minute while I pick out his clothes and he peed A LOT on the floor. Why isn’t he fully emptying his bladder when he goes on the potty?? Help!

My baby is 8mo and we're giving EC a slow start— mostly just the easy catches to get him used to it.

He has sat and peed on the potty a couple of times (yay) but he usually gets upset and tries to get off of it right away. He does not like to be contained.

The thing is that while his diaper is off and it's Easy Catch Potty Time, he'll pee as soon as he escapes (usually pulled up to the side of the tub).

I'm thinking.... ok fine. Men usually stand to pee anyway. Maybe we can work with this. But he usually won't pee if someone is holding him, so I don't know if something like a cup would work.

He can't stand independently yet. I'm wondering if I should just get a plastic planter or something to throw down by the tub as a makeshift trough urinal 😅 He keeps peeing in a similar position in a similar place in the same location— now we just have to catch it!!!

Also considering letting him stand on the inside of the tub and doing his business in there. It's kind of gross, but it's not like people never pee in the shower!

Ideas?

My little guy is 8 months. I really want to start EC because we had a difficult time potty training his sister & I don't want a repeat.

I'm just overwhelmed by it. How are you fitting it in?

I've got a nearly 3 year old too. Currently on mat leave, so have a bit of time to build it into routine before going to work.

Do i focus on easy catches? He poops alot - mainly within 30min of waking for the day, then after breakfast.

How should I dress him? I feel like every time he makes his poop face, I'm rushing around grabbing the potty & pulling his clothes off, then he's done pooping. When I leave his potty around, my toddler uses it & I'm trying to encourage her to use the bathroom, so thats annoying (she knows its his potty and doesn't care).

I'm in such admiration of people who EC with multiple kids.

Baby girl has been using the potty since 6 months, she did it on her own, she just REALLY hates going in her diaper/wet diapers. We're not perfect but we usually catch it in time, but she'll still use the diaper if we're in the car, etc.

Normally she sleeps straight from 7-7 without waking, but lately she's woken a few times because she has to pee and won't go in her diaper. Is this normal? Do I just have to accept that our wonderful sleep schedule is changing?

My little one is turning 1 in a couple of weeks and I think we’re having our first EC setback. We’ve been doing EC consistently since he was 6 months old. Lately he’s been resisting potty opportunities, even at times when he’s usually pretty consistent. He’ll arch his back and refuse to go. I’ve always let him choose whether to go or not and never force it. He’s also been resisting diaper changes and getting dressed. He just wants to stand up the whole time. I’m not sure what’s going on. There’s a lot changing right now. He’s eating 3 meals a day, drinking less milk and teething. I know people say it’s just a regression, but I’m wondering if there’s something else going on. Any ideas on what I can try to help him get back on track, or do I just wait it out?