Easy Catch #2: The Diaper Change – the magic behind this perfect pottytunity

Welcome to the Go Diaper Free Podcast where we are all about helping you potty your baby as early as birth with Elimination Communication. I'm your host Andrea Olson, author and mom of five EC babies and this is episode 29 where we'll talk about easy catch number two, the diaper change.

So let's talk about the diaper change catch. Why would you even offer the baby to go to the potty if they have already gone potty in their diaper? This is a great question. So babies are definitely creatures of habit. They definitely follow as closely as possible what our expectations are and they definitely can be trained to go into a diaper as a full-time toilet or they can be trained and taught where we adults put our waste, which is the toilet. So we can start this from as early as birth, EC can be done between 0 and 18 months, started and finished. And why would we potty at a diaper change. Well, we want to set up a routine. We can establish consistency by offering every time we have a diaper change. Now the reason why I whittled it down to four easy catches that we are going over in this four podcast episode series, and last week was wake up and pee, if you missed it, easy catch number one. The reason that I whittled it down to this is that a lot of parents have a hard time wrapping their heads around how to start EC. So these easy catches are a really easy way to dip your little toe in and to see what it is like.

What else about the diaper change makes it an easy catch, Andrea? Well, I'm glad you asked. When you take the diaper off, have you ever been peed on before? And have you ever heard a joke that the cold air is what makes them have to go to the bathroom? So you take off their diaper and they pee because they're cold? Well, that's not actually true. They have been waiting and crying and fussing and looking to you to respond when they start to get fussy because they don't really want to go to the bathroom in their diaper. So when you finally get it and they say, oh they finally get it, they've taken my diaper off finally, they are going to pee on you because they've been waiting, waiting, waiting for this. Now, yes, eventually this does go away. Usually this is just typically with newborns. They will pee or poop when the diaper is off or they will pee or poop right after you put the fresh diaper back on and you're just like, oh my gosh, why did you do that? I thought you were already done. The reason is because they have been given an opportunity, they have released from this sort of hygiene related apprehension to go on themselves and in their clothing so they are going to wait for you to take off that diaper.

So we can take advantage of this very natural thing that they go through when we take off a diaper by offering them the potty when it comes off. And this also establishes familiarity with the potty so even if you are not successful at catching during this, it's not about being perfect or being successful with it but it's about offering in a predictable manner so that your child and you can into a routine. So the diaper change potty opportunity is very important.

Now you can set up the potty at your diaper changing station and have it nearby to increase your odds of success. You can use a mini potty or you can use a top hat potty or you can use a sink or the toilet. You can use a toilet seat reducer or just hold them over it. There are many, many ways to do it. I cover everything in depth in my book but for purposes of this, you can have a mini potty there at your changing station.

It's very hard to find a very small mini potty. If you go to Tinyendings.[com 00:03:21], I am coming out with a very small mini potty and I also have top hat potties, basically every tool that you need to do EC and have the right clothing and stuff. But, yeah, the diaper change station, changing station can be a location for one of the potties in your house that you are using to give potty-tunities even if you are just doing EC part time, which is really what the easy catches are for, if you are dipping in with EC easy.

We want to establish a routine. We want to offer every single time we change the diaper. We want to take advantage of nature. They've been waiting for you to take it off anyway so they are going to go when you change their diaper or maybe they'll just realize, hey, every time they take off the diaper, I get a chance to go so I might wait until that happens. This also encourages consolidation of peeing. If they are wearing a diaper, they usually will pee whenever they feel like it and probably more often. If you are offering them a regular routine of potty-tunities, then they're typically going to start to consolidate and really go when the opportunity arises. It's a beautiful thing. It's a wonderful thing.

So, today, parent, I would like for you to try the easy catch number two at a diaper change, offer your baby the toilet and to see how to hold your baby in EC position, just get my easy start guide. It's at godiaperfree.com/start and you can download that. It's free and it'll show you four pictures of the four most common positions that you can put a baby in to go to the bathroom with EC.

Anyway, I hope this has been helpful for you. Please subscribe to this podcast at godiaperfree.com/itunes to be alerted of new episodes as they come out weekly. And if you want to see the show notes for this episode, go to godiaperfree.com/twentynine and I will link to that easy start guide and also I will link to all the potties and tools that you can set up at your diaper changing station. And I'll even post a picture of what my diaper changing station looks like. And it is very potty centric, for sure because that's just what I do with all my babies from birth.

So, yeah, that's everything you need to know about easy catch number two. Give it a try today and let me know in the comments over in the show notes how did it go for you. And if you have any other questions, feel free to ask them there or email me at Andrea@godiaperfree.com. I am here for you and your baby.

Till next time, this is Andrea Olson with the Go Diaper Free Podcast at godiaperfree.com. Thanks for joining me.