diaper-free baby

We first learned about "diaper-free" babies towards the end of my pregnancy. We picked up this book and decided to practice "elimination communication" (EC) with Lilly from when she was born. After a big bowel movement right at birth, Lilly didn't poop again till she was three days old. At six days, we caught her first poop in the toilet and then two more that same day. We were off to a flying start!

We found that raising a baby diaper-free really is more about communication than about not using the diaper. When we started picking up on Lilly's signals that she was about to poop (grunting, straining), we would respond by cuing her (also grunting) and taking her to the bathroom. Here's an early example of me cuing Lilly over the toilet:



Eventually I began to tone down my cues somewhat. Holding her over the toilet would often be sufficient, as you'll see in this little clip:



I really appreciate EC'ing as an early form of communication. Even before Lilly started smiling, cooing, babbling, and laughing, we were in tune.

I also really appreciate the point about "diaper-free" not meaning that the baby is completely free or out of diapers. It's "free" as in not entirely dependent on diapers. Though we do catch some pees in the toilet, Lilly does typically pee in her diaper. And during her recent spell of upset stomach (brought about by pickled herring?) we caught almost none of her poops in the toilet. We still tried, but she was in so much pain I was just happy when she did eventually poop.

Typically, if we don't catch a poop in the toilet, we'll agree that we saw it coming. Practicing EC, we will change Lilly's diaper as soon as we can tell that she's pooped in it. Yesterday she had one big bowel movement over the toilet, and then one big one that began in the diaper and continued on the changing table. If we don't catch it in the toilet, she does at least seem to prefer to poop on the changing table, without the diaper on. Which is still "diaper-free." But of course, a poop in the toilet makes for much easier cleaning up!

For more information about diaper-free practices, check out this site: DiaperFreeBaby