What to Expect with EC + a Mobile Baby: EC with a 5-11 month old baby

Today we're going to talk about all things mobile baby, movers and shakers, months five through 11. You can go visit the show notes over at godiaperfree.com/191.
Hey, there. Welcome to the Go Diaper Free Podcast. I'm Andrea Olson, your host, author, and mom of five babies all EC from birth, all out of diapers by walking.

Today, we're going to talk about what to expect with EC with a five to 11 month old baby. This is the era I call movers and shakers. Mobile babies are just starting to get into their bodies. They're absolutely into everything, I'd say about 30% to 40% of people start during this age. There are a lot of ways to start during this age, especially with the Easy Catches, but I also in our last episode we talked about newborns in the golden window. I call it the golden window because it's the easiest to start during that age range of zero to four months because your baby is not mobile yet.

But hey, you find me when you find me. So if your baby is now mobile, I want you to know what to expect, or maybe you're in the newborn phase and you want to know what comes next, what should I do next. Often when we're doing EC we're like, "Should we be doing more? Is there something I'm missing here that I should be ready for?" But to be honest you guys, usually it's just you're overthinking and there's not really a lot to think about. Let me tell you though, some things that do change in months five to 11. But first we're going to talk about developmentally what to expect.

We usually go down and this is from the roadmap in the course and the Movers and Shakers program, which is one of the three pillar programs over at Go Diaper Free. And we have three naps a day, usually with a four to five month old baby. We're still napping a lot, which means it's still a really great time to start. We do go down to two naps a day between six to eight months. Maybe you didn't know that. When I was a first time mom, I was thinking, well, I don't know when anything really is going to happen. And I had Dr. Sear's baby book on my nightstand and it basically told me what to expect. And it was just a big encyclopedia of what to expect when. But they're going to drop to a morning and an afternoon nap around six to eight months. We start at three naps though. We are going to be holding our babies over or supported when they start to sit on their own, the Mini Potty, or we can still use the Top Hat Potty. So those are the potties we use at this age. Usually the pee intervals are 20 to 30 minutes from ages five to 11 months. And poop will vary at six month olds, 20 to 30 minutes is pretty average. Poop is going to vary, because I don't know if you started solids or not. If you have, you usually get down to one a day, if you haven't, you could be anywhere from seven times a day to every seven days if you're exclusively breastfeeding. Now at nine months, the pee spreads out a little bit to about 30 minutes and these are averages remember. And usually they're pooping daily if they're on solids.

So about starting solid food, usually that happens around six months. It can happen as early as four months old. I highly recommend baby led weaning and baby led wean team. Katie was on my podcast a while back. I'll link to that as well. I just think that it's a really nice way to expose them to a variety of foods and to prevent picky eating and to give them the most developmentally appropriate experience of solid foods. But anyway, I digress. Around six months we can expect that, we're not just exclusively breastfeeding or bottle feeding anymore, we're integrating food.

They start sitting usually around six months old. Did you know that? And at six and a half months, coincidentally we have a fussy week per the Wonder Weeks. Their app and book are really fantastic. I think it's not a coincidence. I think whenever we're going through developmental changes, we're going to have changes in EC, changes in feeding, changes in attitude and fussiness. Six and a half months old is one of those weeks. At nine months old, we got another fussy week and 11 months old. I know this is a lot to retain. You don't have to remember any of this, but if you join our Movers and Shakers program or any of our programs, you're going to get the full roadmap of what to expect with your baby and how EC blends in with all of that.

At seven months old or so, separation anxiety can begin and that's when you leave the room they cry, they realize you're a separate person from them and they start to feel a bit of insecurity about that. One of the solutions for that I would always do is just baby wear. So my baby was with me during those periods of the yo-yo, pick me up, put me down, pick me up, put me down, don't leave the room, ah, and you start to feel trapped.

Usually around eight months they start to crawl. I've had a baby start crawling at five and a half months and I've had another baby who didn't start till eight or nine months, it can vary. Pulling to standing is around nine months. I've had a child who started walking at that age. So literally you never know. And these are just averages. Creeping will start where they start to walk along the furniture while standing, they're practicing what it feels like to walk around 10 months.

And this I got from the book, it's over there, Montessori from the Start. There's a really nice progression of developmental milestones that your child will hit around when. Sleep regression usually if it's going to happen will be eight or nine months old. And you notice there's a lot of developmental stuff like crawling and pulling and standing. And some children are walking, sleep progressions are definitely a reflection of a developmental milestone too, if that happens.

Daytime trainers or diapers are the backup we use during the day. So Tiny Trainers, some people completely go to that around seven or eight months. A lot of people are still in diapers and that's fine. And during observation or diaper free time, you can be in trainers. The ones I sell at Tiny Undies do keep a pee off of your ground, a medium size piece, so they're really helpful. And you can see when they're wet. If you don't want to do observation with a naked baby, which I don't blame you at this age, use the aqua blue trainers, I swear they will help you.

We have a couple of four of the most resistant periods in EC that I have surveyed my audience, thousands of parents about. Three of those happen during this age range. And one of them happens in the next session, a section of 12 to 17 months which we'll get to in the next episode. But the second most common resistance period in EC is 11 to 12 months, right around when they're about to start walking, that is why. It doesn't mean you stink at EC, it just means there's something else going on. The third most resistant period in EC is actually eight to nine months old. Again, we got a lot going on developmentally and we have some language development, which I'll get to in a second. And I'm sorry, the first and the fourth are actually in the next period, young toddlers. So we've got two of the resistant period possibilities at this age.

My point is, if it happens to you, just know that you're normal. We do drop to those two naps a day between six to eight months, morning and afternoon, which I already mentioned, and we may or may not begin sign language. The baby might start to sign back between six to 10 months. Average is about eight months old. Boy is there a lot going on developmentally at this time. We definitely want to start with a fresh observation session, whether we're starting EC at the Movers and Shakers ages, or we're just continuing from being a newborn to this, we want to do a new observation session just to refresh ourselves. Definitely use my app The Log, and you can use that to track everything.

But what can we expect in months five to 11 with EC. If you are already doing EC, especially if this applies to you. We've got five things here, all right. Number one, signals often disappear and/or change. Because think about it, once your baby becomes mobile, if we were living in a connected sort of tribal situation where we are living, say we're living in mud huts and we don't have much clothing to deal with. And we're like the stone age Indians that the Continuum Concept was all about, your baby can now crawl outside and go right outside the door and then start to crawl outside and then start to walk outside and go with the other children to the potty place outside. This is what we have been wired to do for just so long. We are mammals after all, we do not soil our den. So at this age, when they become mobile in their wiring, they actually don't need you anymore. So their signals often disappear or they change, or they become more subtle. Or as language comes in, they start to change into that.

Number two, sometimes we get potty resistance during months five to 11, because of all the developmental stuff I just named. It should make a lot of sense that we're going to have some indication of these changes about to be happening or that are happening in this period of time, which looks like potty resistance. But what it really is, is a message to you, mom or dad says, "Hey, just be patient, stick with the basics, stick with whatever the Four Easy Catches are happening during this time. And you will get through this once that baby has finished that developmental milestone."

If you want more information, my Potty Pause Resolution Mini Course will cover that if you're having a massive pause. But with potty resistance, there's a lot of things you can do like change the environment, change the receptacle, lots of things, but mostly just patients. And during this time, babies start wanting privacy. So usually around eight months, they start to be aware of people being in the room with them and they don't want to do this while you're in there. Yes, that early, it's crazy. But this will solve a lot of resistance by giving privacy, turning our back, leaving the room, whatever. And I go into a lot more detail with all of this in the Movers and Shakers program. So definitely get that if this peaks your interest.

The third thing we expect in months five through 11 is that babies can begin to use sign language, usually around eight months old. We want to do the tea shaking side to side for potty. We can also pat on our chest, there are lots of ways to do this. So using sign language is a cool thing that you just might want to know what's going to happen next. Great. And when it happens, take advantage of it. We're just teaching them words or things that most parents don't teach words for yet.

Number four, lots of motor and brain development are happening and teething. We just talked about all the motor development. We just talked about brain development. And on top of everything else, ah, they're also teething, so I liked to use arnica homeopathics, the ones that dissolve in their mouth to help address the teething pain, if and when needed. I'd even put topical stuff on the gums, you can use chewed up cloves if you want to, just do your own research, figure your own thing out. But if you soothe the teething issue, you're going to have a lot better time with EC, just a little hint there.

And number five, that will definitely happen in months five through 11 is mobility, duh. And mobility is not only, oh, it's going to be so challenging to start EC. No, it is a great time to start EC because you get to teach your baby all these different parts like how to sit on the potty and all these things that you wouldn't be able to do with a newborn. So it's super exciting, it's really great. You're probably going to need a variety of tools just to kind of roll with the ebbs and flows of EC and babyhood during this age.

But having been through this five times myself and helped hundreds of thousands of other parents through it, I love the movers and shakers, period. And maybe you agree with me. I'm going to link in the show notes, where to get my Movers and Shakers Mobile Baby Program. That's for months five to 11 only. When I interviewed 60 people about this, they only wanted what they needed right now. They didn't want to know what's in the newborn or the young toddler stuff, just help me focus on what I need to know right now. This is a little bit of an introduction to that, in that program we get much more into depth about exactly what you need to know, along with what kind of mindset you need to make this period successful.

Next up in our next episode will be months 12 to 17, what to expect. So if you're in the mobile baby period right now, or even if you're in newborn, we can fast forward and kind of look and see what we can expect during that period in our next episode. Till then, thank you so much.

Again, you can see the show notes over at godiaperfree.com/191, and I will link to everything mentioned in today's show over there. We'll see you then.

Thanks so much for listening. This is the Go Diaper Free podcast at godiaperfree.com. We'll see you next time.