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My sister and I were thirteen months apart, and I always wanted to do whatever she was doing. For this reason, I was 11 months old when I was potty trained–my mom trained us in the same weekend! She also potty trained my girls when she came to visit from Oregon.

This time around, I’m much “crunchier” than I was with my last. I had briefly read about Elimination Communication–where you read the signals your baby gives you to determine when to place them on the potty. Over half the world’s babies use some form of elimination communication and are potty trained by 2–babies in the United States don’t typically potty train until closer to the age of three. Let’s think about that for a second. Why on earth are we so behind?

We’ve been practicing elimination communication (EC) with Christian for a few months now–he’s 8-months-old. We had our first successful #2!

Christian Going Potty from Kathy Haan on Vimeo.

3 Top Tips for Elimination Communication

Look for cues:

He’s happy or content, but then suddenly gets fussy or a little spaced out (like he’s focusing internally on something)

He tries to climb out of the Ergo while being worn

Pulling off the breast and flopping around from side-to-side

Know how to use EC:

Make a cueing sound, such as “Pssssssss” when you first notice baby going potty, and then when you set baby on potty make that same cueing sound

If baby resists, baby doesn’t need to go

If baby soils his diaper, change it immediately so baby will learn to like to be dry

We didn’t buy a fancy potty seat yet–we typically just let him hover over the toilet, or now that he’s older he sits on the edge while we hold him (be sure to wash his hands afterwards–he likes to tap the bowl of the toilet!). We’ve done a pretty good job at getting him to go pee on the potty, and have now successfully got him to go poop on the potty! We were all excited!

My BEST tip for EC is to make it pressure-free! There is no coercion or intimidation. If you’re looking to get started with elimination communication, try letting baby go diaper-free for a few hours and pay very close attention to his behavior prior to eliminating.

Have you ever tried elimination communication? How did it go?