Sunday, December 9, 2012

My Baby is Going to Harvard

I've decided my baby is a bona fide genius, and I fully credit Hippie Parenting techniques for this.

Before Iyla was born, I read a ton of books on everything baby related: sleeping, feeding, soothing, diapering, parenting, toilet training, etc. One of the books that fascinated me was called "The Diaper Free Baby," which talked about Elimination Communication (EC). The basic premise of this technique is that mammals instinctively do NOT want to soil themselves. With diapers, we are in a way conditioning babies to get used to sitting in their own waste, and some babies mind this more than others. There are many cultures that don't use diapers at all & work off their babies' cues to know when they need to do their business.

Now mind you I read this and was fascinated, but thought: that sounds like WAY too much work!

And then Iyla joined us, and EC was still the last thing on my mind.

Until yesterday.

I had been noticing for awhile that often when I change her diaper (which I do during feedings) she pees once the diaper is off. This results in a mess and/or multiple diapers having to be used during one changing session.

So yesterday I had the thought that maybe I should pull out the little baby potty I'd purchased & just see what happened. When I took off Iyla's diaper, I held her over the potty and made a "psssss" sound. She got calm, still, & serious & just chilled there for a moment. Then she started wiggling & fussing so I laid her back down- and to my amazement there was pee in the potty! I could not believe it. And she has done this 4 times now. It seems if she does have to go when I set her over the potty, she'll go. It saves a mess, saves diapers, and is also starting to teach her to know her own body's cues & how to eliminate in a potty. Now of course I am not going to be able to catch EVERY pee- but it is all about her making those connections.

And she isn't even 4 weeks old yet.

See? A genius! This child is so going to get a full ride to Harvard. Yeah, yeah- I know- so she poops on curtains.... but hopefully, eventually, we'll get that down too. Baby steps, right?

Peeing in diapers was SO two days ago, people

2 comments:

  1. Haha great! But now you have to clean the baby potty, right? But it will definitely save money on diapers :)

    Our babies are so obvious about pooping, so if I were to do this I would know when they are about to poop. And my girl often waits until the diaper is off to pee. But I don't think I have the patience for this, since they pee constantly.

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  2. Lol!!! I love this baby! I just read this to my hubs and then showed him the photo of the curtains! We had a good laugh! you're right though, girlie is way ahead of the game here!!

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