Elimination Communication- Infant Potty Training

Dr. Ikram Khan Jun 30, 2020 935 0

Elimination Communication

Elimination communication is actually a method for early toilet training, also called infant potty training. In India, babies are carried around bare-bottomed by their mother and usually mass populations don’t use diapers.

Mothers become addict to a baby’s signs for pooping and peeing, take baby to a familiar spot, hold the baby out, and elimination occurs. The baby has communicated a need to go and elimination is successfully done, without the need of a diaper. In fact, for these mothers , wearing a dirty diaper may be disgusting so Elimination communication makes sense.

How to do EC:-

Parents who want this method can start this technique soon after birth. The main thing you need to do is to become aware of your baby’s elimination communication signs. It can be a change in body position, a facial expression, a squirm, or fuss, or a pop sound. Some parents say that they develop an ability to understand a signs of baby need over time.

When the right time, place your baby over a potty stand or hold your baby out over the toilet. If your baby goes, you can make a sound that you will use every time, to act as a sign back to your baby to let go.
Many parents will still use diapers at night or when go outside the house. The best time to try the elimination communication is in the morning. Some parents will leave their baby without a diaper on an absorbent mat and watch for sign during the day pass. Over time, a baby may develop a predictable schedule for toilet, similar to the timetable for feedings.
If all goes well, you will find out that you are using much fewer diapers. Your baby may have an easier way to full potty training at an earlier age.

Advantages:-

Since baby is not wearing dirty diapers there is less chance of diaper rashes.
Since a single baby may soil close to 5,000 diapers by the age of toilet training, it has been estimated that 30 billion diapers go into landfills every year.
Elimination communication teaches baby to be aware of the need to pee or poop and not to become used to wearing a dirty diaper. It can make the complete toilet training easier, even if not earlier.

Disadvantages:-

There are disadvantages also; you are living in developing part of the world. A one-year-old child goes down to the bushes for pee or poop might be fine in villages but not so much in modern cities.

In this crucial and running life the most important thing is ‘Time’ so do you really have time to be with your child whole day for learning sign and communicating. Elimination communication is really very hard work. It consumes a lot of time and effort, and there will be poop and pee on the floor or on your lap during your learning period.

Finally, the term “Elimination Communication” is misleading also there is no chance that an infant is going to be fully potty trained. It is much more like you are potty trained. It is not realistic to expect a child to know when to go to the potty, be able to go to the potty, pull down the pants, and do some clean up afterwards much before 24 months.

Overall Outcome:-

The fact that elimination communication is very hard and messy, some parents do manage to overcome the difficulties. There is no proof that earlier potty training makes your baby intelligent or creates some special bond between parent and child. You may save on diapers, and feel nice about decreasing the diaper load of landfills or saving the energy and water of washing thousands of cloth diapers. You may also find that the change to full potty training is less stressful and may even happen a bit earlier than average.