Surprising Baby Hack of Elimination Communication

Barbara has passed down her knowledge of elimination communication to her daughter – who was offered the potty from age 10-months. She now enjoys watching her daughter offer elimination communication to her grandchildren. It was all by chance that she learned how to potty her baby, when their family relocated to Germany with two diaper-wearing little ones. At this time infant potty learning was not called elimination communication, but the process of offering her daughter the potty and the communication between the two of them is what we now call elimination communication. Sharing her story, she hopes to inspire other parents to ‘give it a try’.

When my first child was a baby, I didn’t give much thought to diapering and potty training; I just pretty much did what everyone else did. But when my younger child was 10 months old, my family relocated to Germany for about a year. Both kids (aged 10 months and 2.5 years) were still in diapers, but we were potty training my oldest.

While in Germany, I met a British woman who also had a 10-month-old, and she told me how her daughter used the potty. I had never heard the term “elimination communication,” but that was essentially what she had been doing—she explained how after her daughter had her “tea”, she would sit her on the potty! I actually didn’t believe her until I babysat the child myself. After her feeding, I put her on the potty as I had been instructed and watched in amazement as she used it.

My older child was currently in the process of traditional “potty training.” I introduced my 10-month-old to the potty as my friend had done and was surprised when she began using it. At one point, before she was even walking, she crawled to the bathroom, saying “poo-poo” and dragged the little potty to me. By the time she was a little over a year old, she was out of diapers during the day; we took our little potty with us everywhere, including hiking through the Alps, for the children to use. When we returned to the States, I had two fully potty trained kids, including at night, without any of the dreaded “potty training” struggles!

That baby of mine is now in her 30’s and an ardent supporter of Elimination Communication with her two little ones, both completely out of diapers day and night by 18 months!

This little potty’s journey did not end once Barbara’s two babies were grown up. To find out what happened next, read her daughter Chelsea’s story in part two.