Quotes That Explain EC

Rather than teaching a baby to eliminate into his or her intimate clothing and cleaning up after the fact, parents learn to listen and respond in the present moment to the baby's needs and communication. From Diaper Free!

Infants are aware of elimination from birth–just observe their movements, facial expressions, and vocalizations when pooing–and often cry or give other signals to be changed. But we don't watch and listen. What if we were to do so? I have found that if we respond positively and proactively, babies will experiment, practice and learn in this regard, just as they do with other milestones such as crawling and walking.

You start by briefly whispering a watery sound such as "sssss," "pssss" or "tssss" in your baby's ear at potty time to help the child learn to associate this sound with releasing the sphincter muscles. If it's (nearly) time to go, infants can release on cue. From Potty Whisperer


This helps to establish a communication link the baby gives a sign or signal and is held out in a similar position, with the same sounds. Very quickly the baby begins to learn, and may exaggerate those signs, or may cry when he/she needs to eliminate. Likewise, the carers become more and more confident at reading those signs and responding in time to ‘catch’ the elimination. The baby learns to relax their sphincter muscles on cue, thus gaining an awareness of where the muscles are and what purpose they have, as well as an awareness of control.

As the practise progresses and the communication deepens, the carers intuition may also come into play. We can come to intuitively ‘know’ when our baby needs to eliminate and can respond accordingly. This adds a deeply satisfying element to our relationship with our babies and reminds us of the incredible energetic exchange that is taking place between carer and babe. From The Potty Shop

Natural Infant Hygiene has been described as an art, as it is a subtle dance between baby and parent. It involves constantly learning together and responding to nuances in behaviour and reinforcing them to foster stronger non-verbal communication.

The timing catches are easy to get, are regular times, such as when he wakes up and after feeds or at nappy changes.

The cue is the "sss psss" sound that lets him know when to go. The position is also a cue, as is running water. Exhaling onto his head was a cue that developed later.

The signs are the largely involuntary expressions, movements and sounds he’d regularly make when he needed to go. The uncomfortably full bladder would initially prompt these signs. Later they would become signals.

The signals come later when the baby can indicate with a voluntary action that he needs to go, such as moving towards the toilet place, using sign language, and later, speech. Even at three months he occasionally signalled a need to go by looking at the bowl. From six months several times a day he'd crawl over to the pee-bowl to signal his needs. From 12 months he regularly used vocal signals.

Intuition is when you get the feeling baby needs to go, and they do! Slow for me to respond to well, comes with experience as a combination of timing and subconscious awareness of subtle behaviours I think! I call it the "Baby Radar" or say "My Potty Sense is Tingling" when I feel he needs to go. From Tribal Baby

Perfection is not the aim – communication is...
It was empowering for my confidence, knowing one more way to respond to and HELP my baby. Saving nappies is secondary to this wonderful benefit - communicating with my baby...
Just as weaning is not the aim of breastfeeding, it is the bonding, nurturing, nutrition, and protection it confers - with EC, the aim is to care for baby’s hygiene needs in the present moment – ‘now’, rather than later when it is perhaps more convenient to me...
Toilet independence is merely the result of a natural process of development and practise from birth, just as weaning is the natural result of a breastfeeding relationship. The baby does not require ‘toilet training’ as their natural awareness in nurtured through infancy and beyond. All babies have the instincts that my baby has. We can practise and encourage this awareness, ‘tuning in’ to these instincts during their early months before they fade and baby ‘learns’ to go only into their nappy by five to six months. From Tribal Baby

The Potty Whisperer No-Nos:

no punishment
no pressure
no coercion
no shaming
no competition
no showing off
no obsessing
no perfectionism
no rushing toilet learning
no attachment to time goals
no negativity

From The Potty Whisperer