Anyone get flack for ECing?

[gracefaith]

I can tell my in-laws don't like what I'm doing. They are good people and too polite to say anything, but everytime I potty him, I can tell that my MIL especially is disturbed by it. I think they worry that it's pushing too much and unhealthy for him. I explained that I'm just catching and following his cues, but I think they just think it is too much for him developmentally.

Has anyone actually had someone give them a hard time about it? Or, like me, does is bother you that family members think you might be doing something that isn't good for your baby?

[GadgetBaby]

I was wondering this too. I have only told my mother in law because she is intelligent enough to listen and try to understand instead of just judging right away.

Btw I'm still pregnant with my first, I just plan on ECing. My mother in law just bought me "Diaper free baby" today.. I am excited! :) And this is my first post!:goodvibes:

[duckieheart]

Yes.
People often tell me that I am pushing her developmentally, and that I am stealing her baby hood (as if sitting in waste has something to do with baby hood). Ive been told that I disrupt her day by chasing her around to pee, and that I am bothering her.
But, I know whats right for her. And obviously this is what is right for us.

[allielb]

Yes, my mom was skeptical, but once she caught a pee, she was hooked. She has since read Diaper Free because she was so interested. My in-laws are just like yours, they probably think it is pushing her, but are too nice to say anything. We spent a week at their house over the holidays and they seemed to come around a little. At they end of the week, my MIL said "she seems to do really well with that." I think that is as much as I'll get from them. Oh well.

Welcome gadgetbaby! Where in Oregon are you?

[GadgetBaby]

I'm in a small town by Salem. My name is Carrie, nice to meet you! :ohyeah:

[TaivensMama]

People have been really positive about it so far, of course my mother who is not open minded about ANYTHING thinks I am strange for doing it, but once everyone sees all i have to do is hold her over the sink/toliet and say sssssssss she goes are so flabbergasted that they forget it's "weird" and think how cool it is that she doesn have to sit in her own waste, and also realise other dultures MUST do this if there are no diapers!...My mom thinks it the strangest thing ever though...but she also says and I quote "well you did breastfeed Taiven till he was in college" (I nursed him till 30 months)

[*SweetPea83*]

The whole side of my dads family think it's "stupid"... and a waste of time! They usually roll their eyes if she's fussing and I run her to the potty. But... I don't let it get to me too much. They have voiced that they don't care ffor my parenting style, and I just tell them that... they don't have to agree with anything I do with my children, they are mine, and I do what I think is in THEIR best interest. I hate to be that way, but that's what has gotten me through it. One the complete other hand... my mom was is AW. She thought it was the greatest thing ever!! So I had a lot of support from her!

[mumma1010]

My MIL thinks we're pushing him (he's 16 months). When I caught the first pee and poop at 4 months I was so excited and she responed with "he's not a toy, you know". She isn't all out against it, especially now that he's older and does so well (been dry 5 morning and 6 nap times this week, only missed 3 pees yesterday). But, she still thinks that babies belong in diapers, though this is coming from the same person who says that breastmilk is okay, but she doesn't agree with breast "feeding" (or co-sleeping, "cause it's dangerous). My mother, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have an opinion about our parenting, and our fathers don't say boo about it. Everyone just comments on what a great kid he is and how "easy" of a kid he is. Oh well, he's my happy, healthy, joyful, well-adjusted boy, and DH and I credit that towards the only thing we can - our parenting! We must be doing something right?

[youmb00]

most people don't know I EC. but those who's seen her in action think it's the coolest thing! I think the trick is to just have them witness it..

I don't know why EC is such taboo. I've seen people say that it's "gross" and "unnatural." as if letting your LO sit in her own filth for hours is so sanitary.

[gracefaith]

My MIL has seen me pee him and thought it was kind of neat, but not something to do too seriously, if you know what I mean. I could tell FIL thought is was sort of ridiculous for me to be getting up in the middle of dinner to be taking a 2.5mo old to the potty.

I wish I wasn't so sensitive.

[SaraBear]

my MIL thinks I need to let my baby be a baby. i just ignore her. we will disagree on a lot in the future, I choose my battles. My mom and grandma think its great. but both want to see my LO actually tinkle on the potty, but she gets stage fright and will only go when we are alone. LOL

[kecmom]

Well, being that we just started today, I was seriously disappointed when dh laughed when I told him that dd4 went on the potty. He them proceeded to tell me that it was nothing more than luck, yada, yada- I told him that when it continues, he'd eat his words.
No one else really knows yet. The girls think it's awesome and my 2yo got so excited when her baby sister went on the potty she made a huge deal of it clapping and giving her a kiss! That was the best reaction ever!

[joanna19]

the people in my household thought it was weird at first, but once they saw her going in the potty and how it actually worked, everyone was okay with it. Now my SIL and BIL are trying to potty their son and it is not going well...i think they wish they tried EC

[joanna19]

I was wondering this too. I have only told my mother in law because she is intelligent enough to listen and try to understand instead of just judging right away.

Btw I'm still pregnant with my first, I just plan on ECing. My mother in law just bought me "Diaper free baby" today.. I am excited! :) And this is my first post!:goodvibes:

It's a great book, you'll love it!!

[kthiday]

I get a lot of gruf for it, and as a result, really limit who i tell. My mother in law is actually the person who told me about it- and she is so impressed w/ DS results. My mom was super skeptical about it, but now that DS is PL way before any of his friends, she is a believer and doesn't say anything about it now with DD:giggle: I find that actually i get more comments from people that have kids, and the ones that don't are way more receptive to the idea of being born potty trained. Very interesting.

[hotfudge73]

Taivens mama...WOW...you have smart kid to go to college at 30 months!!! LOL!!!

[mgl]

We just started last week ,and only my mom and dad know. Dad could care less, but my mom thinks it makes total sense and that it is great. Dh is all for it, so that is all that matters to me. I know my ils will just think it is another crazy thing that I do like cd, bw, and not going into another room to bf. I am just waiting for ds or dd to say something about abigail going potty to family or friends. Then we will see what kind of reaction we get, lol.

[amanda_collins3]

We EC'd Kellsie starting at about 6-8 months and she was done with diapers during the day by her 2nd b-day. My in-laws gave me slack about it and made fun of it but once they started seeing the results and that I was actually intune with Kellsie they began to let off - a little. I also constantly told them how most of the world does this and that I was not pushing her, I also got my pediatrician to say it was ok too. We live in a smaller town and it helped that me and a few of my friends made an EC group to help support eachother!

[csorloff]

I grew up in Malaysia where they practice EC-ing. My family were surprised at what a buzz it is causing here. When I was 4 days old, upon waking, my mom would take my old school cloth diaper off and lift my legs and make cue sounds and I would pee and poop. When I was older, she would take me to the sink/potty.

I have been partly ECing my 12 week old DD since she was 4 weeks old. She got really bad diaper rash from a nasty brand name wipe that became a yeast infection so washing her at every change was the only way to go. When it was time to wash her, upon hearing the water and a couple of psssts, she would pee. We are far from diaper free yet but have less dirty diapers and she has even pooped twice in the sink (DD is BFed so it's not too stinky).

DH is happy to try and was pleased when his first attempt yielded a pee :giggle: . We haven't really discussed this with anyone except for my mom. I have gotten weird looks from people when I have mentioned EC and mostly they say it is very time consuming.

DD hates a dirty diaper, even when it is just a bit of pee, she tells us she wants to be changed, so I don't see following her cue and taking her to the potty before she goes in the diaper a waste of time at all. If anything, DD gets angry with you if you are at a 'house' and not washing her. We were at DH's folks and DD wanted a change. DH changed her but decided not to wash her. DD got fussy and unhappy and proceeded to pee after he had wiped her!! So he learned from that one :banghead: . My MIL thinks it is great she pees in the sink. She is nervous about washing DD and the whole sink thing tho. Babies are washed in Asia all the time, so it was natural for my mom (who flew in from Malaysia for 7 weeks) and myself to wash DD and DH is a pro at washing her too.

I also got weird looks about the whole gDiaper/cloth diaper thing too, but hey, it works for us. Prefolds to me are fantastic, no prefolds when I was growing up. We still fold diapers in Malaysia, tho you can buy prefolds now. Unfortunately, the younger generation of parents in Malaysia are all into disposables too- sigh :yuck: .

[gracefaith]

My MIL keeps telling my DS, "You can go in your pants, y'know. That's okay too."

Um, I never told him it wasn't, thank you, but I don't know why you are encouraging him to.

Oy.

[csorloff]

So I have an update. My MIL came over today to spend time with DD, who will be 3 months next week.

When she had toured China last summer, she had noticed that very very young babies were being carried around with split bottom pants and no diapers and didn't understand how they could do that and the parents not get peed/pooped on. I told her that those pants are sold here too and that there are a lot of parents who EC that use things like that at home and have diaper free 6 month olds. I actually buy some when DD is better at pottying as it is much faster access :thumbsup:

She said, in her humble opinion, that 6 months is too young. I told her we were doing it with DD, though we are far from diaper free. She acknowledged that we were, but it was us training ourselves to know her cues rather training DD to know when she has to go. I explained to her that babies (DD included) are born with the instinct not to soil themselves or sit in soiled dipes/clothing and they cue you appropriately. I then said that yes, we were training ourselves to listen to DD's cues and that in return was helping her to continue to communicate and letting us know her needs. We were in turn, cueing her to pee/poop when we had her at the appropriate vessel (sink/potty).

I explained how babies become diaper-trained and that is what makes potty training in general so difficult as kids have learned to ignore their own cues and have become so used to sitting in a dirty diaper. By continue to EC, we are encouraging DD to continue to be aware and communicate her potty needs.

I know that this is not something she is going to do with DD so I figure it will be a while before DD spends the night with her grandma. I am still BFing anyway. Hopefully by the time DD is 6 months old and is a super EC baby, MIL might come around. :banghead:

[silver]

most people don't know I EC. but those who's seen her in action think it's the coolest thing! I think the trick is to just have them witness it..

I don't know why EC is such taboo. I've seen people say that it's "gross" and "unnatural." as if letting your LO sit in her own filth for hours is so sanitary.


I'm not arguing with the general point of this post, but I do think it's quite an assumption to make that people who don't EC let their child sit in their own filth for hours. I'm pretty sure that proper diapering invovles changing when soiled :thumbsup:

[silver]

My MIL keeps telling my DS, "You can go in your pants, y'know. That's okay too."

Um, I never told him it wasn't, thank you, but I don't know why you are encouraging him to.

Oy.

lol, that's EXTREMELY rude of her. That's her "indirect" (pretty direct, if you ask me) way of insulting your parenting? It would be hard for me not to put her in her place.

[csorloff]

I'm not arguing with the general point of this post, but I do think it's quite an assumption to make that people who don't EC let their child sit in their own filth for hours. I'm pretty sure that proper diapering invovles changing when soiled :thumbsup:

Haha, agreed silver,... however, I have had a lot of people who are so surprised DD gets mad instantly when her diaper is soiled and comments that most babies that young prefer to sit in their dirty diapers :yuck:

[hershyyyy]

It's not that babies who are diaper trained prefer to sit in their own poop they just don't think they have any choice:(

[csorloff]

It's not that babies who are diaper trained prefer to sit in their own poop they just don't think they have any choice:(

Agreed - and why would I want to train my peanut to think that way ? Maybe I will ask my MIL that :giggle:

[gracefaith]

Also, I do know that a lot of people will let their kid go A LONG time with a wet diaper, especially if they use sposies. Like, multiple pees. I think EC has made me too sensitive, because if DS pees, I have to change his diaper ASAP. I just can't live with the thought of him sitting in a soggy dipe. I tried and tried to get over this for nighttimes - using microfiber doublers and fleece liners - but I had a really hard time wrapping my mind around it. Now that we are ECing, he is dry most nights, but if he's not, I have to change him. I just can't help myself.

[apmommatnt]

I told my friends mother about ECing and how my dd was EC'd without us even knowing the name for it...she says "Sounds like it was you who were trained...not her." WHAT?? She was implying that our dd trained us to run to her and yada, yada...people are weird...period. Someone will say SOMETHING to ANYONE regarding ANYTHING regardless if it has ANYTHING to do with them at all...I don't get it. This is such a wonderful thing that we can do by listening and trusting our childrens natural born instincts, why is it looked upon as being a training method or worse yet, wrong? We are happy, our children are happy..there is nothing more you could ask for.

[suebe333]

I think what ya'll do is awesome , I just wish I had known about it when DS was younger,,, :cry:

[Jz_Doll]

I told my friends mother about ECing and how my dd was EC'd without us even knowing the name for it...she says "Sounds like it was you who were trained...not her." WHAT?? She was implying that our dd trained us to run to her and yada, yada...
If I can be "trained" to know when she needs to potty, then yay me. It is no different then being "trained" to know when she needs to eat or go to sleep. It all makes for a happy, healthy baby, no matter what it is called.
Is it just because our babies are not old enough to walk over to where we are, tug on our sleeve and ask to go to the potty that makes it us who are trained? I just explain it as me giving her the chance to not to have to go in her diaper, I don't even suggest she is "potty training early". Particularly when talking to my friend whos 2 year old screams when made to sit on the potty. Now that sounds like something worth waiting for!

[gracefaith]

LOL - yeah, I consider myself the one getting the training more than my kiddo.

[litljenarey]

It's very odd but I seem to get a better response when I tell people I am planning to EC my first than when I tell them I'm going to cloth diaper. :headscratch:
Maybe I'm just pretty good at explaining EC or something. Everyone I tell says that they've never seen it but may have heard of it, and the concept makes alot of sense. Most of the time they wish me good luck and ask me to tell them how it goes.
I tell them we are going to use cloth until she's diaper free and people get very defensive and annoyed. Then all kinds of mean and innapropriate comments come out.