What ECing Is and Isn’t

EC Misconceptions

Why We Started To EC

Starting Elimination Communication

Elimination Communication Equipment

EC Links

Well, all you need really is your baby...

.....but many mums find some of the following equipment can really help them and a lot of these things would be bought later on for an older child anyway, so it is not money wasted.

For Starting EC at a New Born stage
Prefold Belt to be used with Flat/Prefold nappies
Pee Pot

For Starting EC with an older baby
Baby Bjorn Little Potty OR other small potty
Little Bjorn Toilet Seat OR Padded Toilet Seat

ECing outside the house
Folding Potty WITH disposal bags OR washable reusable bag
Folding toilet insert seat

When the ECing journey is getting smoother and you are feeling braver
Trainer Pants
Real Underwear

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Locating the above in England
Find further details on the EC Links

Prefold Belt
Noonee Wilga
The EC Store

Pee Pot
The EC Store
Continuum Family Store

Baby Bjorn Little Potty
Perfect small potty for small children, highly recommended
Ebay

Small Potty
Tesco, Boots, Mothercare

Little Bjorn Toilet Seat
This seat is full adjustable and does not move whilst being used, highly recommended
Ebay

Padded Toilet Seat
Tesco, Boots, Mothercare

Folding Potty WITH disposal bags
Tesco, Boots, Mothercare
Ebay

washable reusable bag
Instructions to make this can be found on the internet

Folding toilet insert seat
Ebay

Trainer Pants
Bright Bots are the best for ECed children as they come in very small sizes. Small fitted my daughter between 5 months and a year.Medium fits my one year old daughter
Twinkle On The Web

Real Underwear
Noonee Wilga
The EC Store
Continuum Family

There are several stages that a baby goes though as an ECed child before they are fully graduated (Grad 4 is the equivalent of being successfully traditionally toilet trained.)

Quote from the Yahoo EC Group

Elimination Communication Graduation Stages :-
Stage 1:Staying dry pretty reliably with caregiver's help
Stage 2:Signalling rather consistantly, needing occasional reminders
Stage 3:Independence in going potty
Stage 4: Self sufficient, including wiping

Babychair has definately reached Stage 1, we have had NO misses in the last three full days and today (day 4) we are half way though the day with no misses either !!!

During her sleep time, she wears nappies and she wakes up dry and only wees if I am slow getting to her in time. During the day she is in real pants at home and trainer pants outside the house.

She still dislikes the potty and prefers using the proper big toilet with the piggie toilet insert and I am introducing a folding toilet insert to start using ouside of the house.

Babychair often signals clearly that she wants to wee, by either signing toilet (which she did this morning in the local park and held on until she got home to wee) or by climbing the stairs to go to the big toilet (followed closely by either DH or myself).

Yesterday I thought she said "want toilet" and she did need it when I took her but we'll see if she repeats that phrase. It is a shortened version of a question I frequently ask her i.e. "Do you want the toilet ?" with the toilet sign

I am still avoiding milk and this really seemed to the turning point in catching her wees. My washing pile is nearly non existant and she is wearing her real pants more and more. Not bad for a one year old

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EDIT Day Five was one miss whilst sister was holding her.
Day Six was one miss whilst Daddy was looking after DD and I was in shower.
Day Seven no misses so far 3pm in the afternoon.
So that is two misses in a week

Babychair had her first birthday party today (although her real birthday isn't until tomorrow)

We had a lovely day and BBQ though it was a very dull and overcast day and most of the guests stayed indoors, the skies did not open until the end of the cooking.

Babychair was lucky enough to recieve many lovely presents and was so well behaved depite being very tired at the end of the day due to her refuse to nap all day.

She was dressed in a lovely three striped dress that my mum bought for her and I put her in as much as possible as I love it I

We thought we better put her in trainer pants under the matching dress pants, just in case we were too busy to catch her signals. But three out of four of the bathroom trips resulted in wee and the fourth in a session of turning the bathroom light on and off. Unexpectantly we had a no miss day today, the only one nappy being a nap time one. Such a clever girl

Because in an emergency situation you will not have the time to look up this life saving information. Please make sure you and your family have been on a situable first aid course or at the least read this link now.

Don't put it off read it now, it will only take a minute and it could be the difference between life and death for a child.
CPR Information for a choking child under 1 year old

If you have more time, here are some other articles on CPR
Full list of CPR Information

Before I start this post, I need to make it clear that our Babychair is fine, healthy and currently tucked up in bed sleeping peacefully.

However this afternoon Babychair started to choke on an apple. She has been eating apples for months and usually eats a whole apple daily but this one must have gone down the wrong way or something.

I could see and hear her choking, I couldn't see the apple in her throat, so I lay her over my knee and did back compresses....still choking. Turned her to the front and tried the chest presses, still chocking. Her eyes were watering, her mouth was watering and her lips were turning blue. I turned her onto her stomach again and smacked her back harder. She coughed and started crying and so did I.

I have never been so scared and felt so helpless at the same time. I was lucky I had been on a baby first aid course as part of the new mothers group when I had Babychair and knew what to do, even if I was worried that I wasn't doing it right and worried that I had hurt her (I haven't) whilst doing it.

I am so relieved that she is alright and I was shaking and upset for hours after the incident. Babychair was fine after having a breastfed to calm her down. Then she demanded to be put down on the floor, where she headed straight for the apple which had made her choke in the first place. I got there first and threw the apple in the bin, cue tandrum from Babychair.

We went for a nice soft tea...baked beans and yougart... spoon fed, just to be on the safe side. My heart would not of stood a second choking inicident today.

Babychair went with me to the local hairdressers to have her hair cut.

She sat on my knee with a towel wrapped around her shoulders and was very interested in the hairdresser combing her hair. The hairdresser was so kind and patient and managed to cut her hair so confidently, there is no way I would of risked getting that close to my daughters face with scissors.

She looks so much sweeter with her hair trimmed and her fringe out of her eyes

This is a beautiful 3d computer animation of Van Gough's "Starry Night" painting, created by Robbie Dingo, using a software known as Second Life. At one time this impressive 3d computer model was online, so you could actually walk around this painting, sadly it no longer exists but this film gives you a glimpse of what an amazing world he created.



Want to learn more about the software used follow this link to the Second Life website.

Starting Weight
Date January 2005
Weight 260 lbs (18 Stone 8lbs)
Dress Size 28/30
BMI 44%
Virtual Model

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Current Weight
Date August 2007
Weight 200 lbs (14 Stone 4 lbs)
Dress Size 18
BMI 34%
Virtual Model

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Target Weight
Date Whenever, thought at some point in 2007 would be nice
Weight 180 lbs (12 stone 12 lbs)
Dress Size Unsure maybe 14/16
BMI 30%
Virtual Model

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Ideal Weight
Date Never, LOL
Weight 164 (11 Stone 10lbs) down to 144 lbs (10 stone 4 lbs)
Dress Size No idea and will never find out
BMI 28% down to 25%
Virtual Model

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Get your own virtual model from My Virtual Model Website

Nope, I haven't gone UP to an Size 18, I have gone proudly DOWN to one

I can not remember the last time I was in a teen dress size rather than the twenties !!!

But my size 20 jeans had got so loose that I no longer had to unbutton them to get out of them, so I went down to Tesco and spent £5 on a size 18 and I have spent all day wandering around, thinking these are a size 18 !!!

I'm going to try and get a photo of me in my size 18 jeans this weekend and put it here....
ADD_PICTURE_HERE

In 2005 I was heading to 19 stone and a 28/30 dress size....I think this is one of my biggest pictures.


I started a health kick in February 2005, eating less of my nice food and a lot of gym visits and lost a fair bit before my wedding in November 05. I dropped three dress sizes so I was a 24/26 for my wedding day


Straight after the wedding I got pregnant with the beautiful Babychair, no idea on dress size or weight at this time I was enjoying being pregnant.


December 2006 I started getting very sick with painful attacks. Turned out I had Gall Bladder problems, two emergency hospital admissions, many hours throwing up and a totally fat free diet, meant my weight plummeted...not recommended in any shape or form.

I am following a moderately low fat diet, as my body no longer has the ability to deal with fats the way it use to.
Now in August 07 I am hovering around the 14 stone mark and a size 18. Here is a picture of me at my sister and mothers birthday party in Leeds.


I really need to lose another stone or two but I can't see that happening as my weight loss has stopped despite a much better diet and more regular exercise.

Food wise, I now eat dry bran cereal with raisions for breakfast, fruit for daytime snacks, salad, wholemeal pitta bread and turkey ham salad for lunch and an OK tea (not very low in fat but a reasonable sized portion with lots of veg) My downfalls is eating in the evening, occassional takeaway and drinking wine at weekends

Exercise wise, we are going to the swimming baths weekly as a family so both DH & I get a chance to have a proper swim. I aim to start Salacise class again from Monday assuming my scar stops hurting and a couple of times a week I play for an hour on my dance mat (often whilst having a drink at the weekend) Not sure if the dance mat is classed as proper exercise but it takes a lot of energy and I get sweaty and out of breath so I assume it is good for me, not that it really matters as I play it for fun not for exercise.

So I hope to stay at this weight and I aim to improve my evening meals and reduce evening snacking and keep up the excercise. To be honest if I can just keep constant at Size 18 and get a bit healthier, then I will be very happy indeed

It is one week shy of Babychair's First Birthday, therefore I have been breastfeeding Babychair for just under a year also.

I was reading my initial thought on breastfeeing in an earlier blog entry called Extended Breastfeeding in which I was convinced that I would not breastfeed beyond a year.

Well, I am here and I can't see a reason to stop. Babychair has a strong reaction to the cow's milk that I drink, so I would not want to put her on it and I feel it is pointless to wean her off the breast onto formula, which is less healthy, more expensive and a lot more faff than breastfeeding.

Plus both Babychair and I enjoy our nursing relationship, it is much more than nutrients, it is comfort for her and is a way of soothing her when she is teething or tired. Lastly there are many extended health benefits for both of us, the most important one to me is the fact that Babychair has not been sick (other than a stuffy nose) over the last year, even when I have been very sick, she has not got it and I think this is mainly down to the fact that she still gets breastmilk.

So I have decided to see how things go, l hope to let Babychair make the decision to wean herself, as long as I am still happy to nurse her. As I do feel a nursing relationship is a two way street and both mother and child should be happy for it to continue.

Lets see what happens

I can't believe this but I think Babychair is trying to dress herself !?!

Babychair managed to pull her red dress on and off her own head this morning. So she was wandering around looking though the arm hole and finding the head hole and pulling it off again.....It amused her for ages

I have been interested in the concept of Soap Nuts for ages and today I finally caved in and bought myself some and Lavender Essential Oil to try, from the In a Soap Nut Shell website

Basic idea is shove a few Soap Nuts in a sack, into the washing machine and a few drops of essential oil in the conditioner drawer (optional) and you can clean your washing with no expensive chemicals.

Apparantly the only disadvantage is that over time the whites might need a boost as the Soap Nuts don't have any bleach in them and the reverse is also true, colours stay bright and don't fade either, which is good.

If I find I need my whites to be whiter, I'll buy Ecover bleach which is a natural non-chlorine bleach to use occassionally with the Soap Nuts.

I can't wait for them to arrive, lets hope they actually work !!!

Babychair has just had an explosion of using new hand signals and signs.

She has used and responded to 'Milk' and 'More' since she was tiny and started pointing at things to give more meaning to her "What's that ?" information gathering for quite a while and she waves hello and bye to everyone....including the bedtime television show.

We are never going to be 100 sign word vocab family but I think introducing some signs can be very helpful.
So I have been trying to introduce a signs for 'food' and for 'toilet', as I thought they would be the most useful for us.

I signed and asked her if she needed to go to the toilet, never expecting an apt response, when out of the blue, she copied me and signed toilet twice. I was so excited and took her upstairs where she did a courtesy wee for me. She also started pointing to the ceiling to indicate wanting to go upstairs when she wanted to find piggie.

I never thought that a 12 month old baby could understand and communicate so well on so many levels. Babychair never fails to amaze me on a daily basis...just seeing her makes my heart melt...from the chirpy morning calls to the over tired strop. DH & I are truly blessed by Babychair.

WARNING TMI ahead......

..........One of the automatic wee triggers for Babychair is hearing me wee or running water, so I always offer her the potty/toilet whilst we are in the bathroom. If I need the loo, I place Babychair on a potty on the floor next to the big toilet and we go together.

Recently she has been very anti-potty, prefering the big toilet with her beloved Piggie toilet seat insert but will still wee 'with me' in the morning.

Yesterday morning she stood up off her Baby Bjorn Little Potty and picked up her toilet seat insert, tried to put this on the toilet by pushing it into my knee, cried and then crouched down on the laminate floor and did a wee there instead...poor baby girl.

I felt so bad that I was mid-flow and couldn't help her and she was so cross that she had to wee on the floor. So I have learnt to hop around the bathroom with my legs tightly crossed, whilst my DD sits on the toilet singing and playing with the sink plug, toothbrush or shadows on the bathroom wall before she finishes and lets me use the toilet.

We need two bathrooms, or maybe I should start using the potty in the mornings !?!