Aloha! This is Heidi at EC Peesy. I'm going to show you some elimination
communication supplies. If you are new to the concept, EC is a gentle method of
allowing a baby opportunities to use the potty. It can be started anywhere from
about birth to 18-months-old. I already filmed a supplies video for doing EC
with a newborn so that's from about 0 to 3-months-old age. If you're planning
to practice EC with an expected baby be sure to watch that video as well but
this one will also be helpful. This video shows supplies for practicing EC with
any age baby. First thing is a potty. You don't absolutely have to have a
potty you could hold your baby in EC hold over the toilet or sit backwards on
the toilet with them, but I find a potty is a very helpful supply especially once
your toddler is starting to reach the age for independence and they want to be
able to do more things themself. A small potty on the floor will allow them to
get onto the potty on their own. That's going to help to reduce any
resistance. When they're a young baby the parent it's very involved in helping to
offer the potty, but as they reached on toddlerhood and
they start walking and they start wanting to master skills, then you really
want to have things set up so that they can do it themself. This is a small
potty that I'm using right now with my daughter.
I've been practicing EC with her since she was born and she's currently
6-months-old. Five years ago I practiced EC with
my son starting from 1-month-old until he reached potty independence at about
2-years-old. The reason we're using this particular potty is that it's both
narrow and short. This is the Becopotty or "b" Eco potty. It's made from
biodegradable plant-based plastic. Unfortunately, this particular potty has
been discontinued and I think I bought one of the last ones off of Amazon USA.
But very soon Tiny Undies will be releasing their Mini Potty. That's
going to be another really great small sized potty. From the
picture I saw it looks like it's going to be very similar to the discontinued
BabyBjorn Little Potty which is a smaller size than either of the two
BabyBjorn potties that are currently available. Again with this one, I look
for a potty that's narrow so the baby can put their feet off to the side and
low so their feet can be firmly planted when they're on the potty. This has
been a really great size for my daughter ever since about 3-months-old.
If you're planning to do EC with a newborn, so anywhere from birth to 3-months-old
I highly recommend getting a top hat potty. This is also advertised as
being good for up to about 12-months-old if you're just using it in a car or for
traveling. For us it was really like the first two months that we found this
super helpful. You can use it in your lap and you can see my newborn supplies
video for more of a demonstration of the top hat potty. That's available from
Tiny Undies. I'll include a coupon code in the description box below this
video to get $5 off an order from Tiny Undies. Here we have two
travel potties. This is the Potette Plus. It has in it the collapsible reusable
liner and I like to use a preemie prefold in it for when we're out and about in
case if there's no bathroom nearby to rinse it out. I have a comparison
video of these two. This is the Potette Plus and this is the OXO Tot travel potty.
So if you'd like to see more in depth how these two compare then watch my
comparison video on them. One other travel option we've been using is this
Gimars foldable toilet seat reducer. If we're going somewhere
where I know there'll be a bathroom like we're just going shopping at the mall
then I might bring this one along just because it's smaller, more compact,
doesn't take up as much room in the diaper bag. It works okay with
my daughter but she really doesn't get much of a squat position on it the way
that she can with the Potette Plus. Even just the Potette Plus on the toilet as a
seat reducer gives her a little bit better position.
Now I'm going to show you some wet bags. If you've watched any of my videos you
probably know that I'm a big fan of wet bags. There's a couple reasons for that.
They're very multi-purpose. They can be used for cloth diapering. They can be
used for caring potties, for carrying wet swimwear. They are something that
lasted really well. We had a wet dry bag that I got when my son was a baby and we
were still using it four years later when I got pregnant with my daughter. We were
still carrying the Potette Plus in it. I really like baby gear that you
know you can use for years and years. You can use it for your baby and when
they're no longer a baby you can use it for sending a spare outfit with them to
daycare; you can use it for your swimsuits. I really like that you can
get a lot of use out of wet bags. I'll show you some specific kinds that I
really like. This is the Bambino Mio one. This one is special because it's kind of
a round shape on the bottom which makes it the perfect size for carrying the
top hat potty in. That's what I would do when I was carrying the top hat potty in
the diaper bag for my daughter. Pack it in this one. This is the
portfolio from Logan and Leonora. It has one non-waterproof pocket and then a
bigger waterproof pocket. I like to carry a couple of these preemie prefolds in
the outer pocket that I use inside the potty if we're not by the bathroom.
Sometime I use the Potette Plus in the bathroom and rinse it out in the sink. The folded
Potette and the folded liner can fit well in this waterproof pocket.
This is my favorite option right now for out and about is to carry this
potty in the Logan and Leonora portfolio. You could also fit the OXO Tot in that one instead.
And then I have a set of three Planet Wise
wet/dry bags. This is the brand we used with my son and I really liked them.
I got a new set for my daughter just in a different color because I wanted to
change things up. We had all monkey themed with my son and I wanted a new
pattern, so even though the old one still worked we got these ones.
This one is just referred to as their wet/dry bag. It has the two pockets.
This one is the Planet Wise wet/dry clutch. I use this one in the diaper bag for
carrying spare outfits for my kids. We used to also use it to send a spare
outfit to school for my son. This one right now I've been using it to
carry a little water bottle for wetting cloth wipes on the go. These are very
multi-purpose you could use them for cloth pads; you could use them as a
toiletries bag; as a snack bag. There's so many different things.
This is called their travel wet/dry bag. With the Planet Wise ones in the big
waterproof pocket could fit the OXO Tot travel potty. Or you could fit the
Potette Plus in there as well. Either one fits. Then this is a little wet/dry
bag from Blueberry. When I requested some training pants from Blueberry for my
upcoming training pants review they sent me along this little wet bag.
It's a good size for this Gimars foldable toilet seat reducer so that's what
I'm using when I want something less bulky in my diaper bag. I do really
like all these but the thing about them is to be waterproof they have a plastic
layer. It's often polyurethane laminate. If you're looking for totally natural;
if you're trying to go plastic-free there is
another alternative. You could get a wool wet bag. This is a wool wet bag from
Organic Caboose. I got this one specifically to hang on my diaper cart
next to the bed because our diaper pail sometimes gets a little
stinky. When I have that by the bed at night it can bother me. I was
thinking, well, lanolized wool helps to neutralize urine and get rid of the
smell so I've just started trying this out hanging this near the bed to use for
the nighttime diapers in hopes that that will reduce any odor. Our diapers usually
don't stink too bad but we are in a hot humid climate so if I go a little bit
longer between washings they can start to smell. For size comparison this is
very close in size to the Planet Wise wet/dry bag but it's just a one pocket
only option. Organic Caboose offers two different ones. This is the larger
size one and then they also have a smaller one that just has one loop on it.
These loops they're designed so that you could hang this off of your stroller.
Since it's wool it's not completely waterproof. Moisture can pass through it.
That's why we call wool breathable.
You might not want to have a bunch of wet stuff in this inside a diaper bag so
they designed it so you could just hang it on your stroller if you're using it
while out and about. I think it's also great to hang it on a diaper cart at
home, as well. For anybody that's looking for the 100% percent natural
diapering options, you could use a wool wet bag.
The next EC supply that's helpful to have is waterproof puddle pads.
One option is to use a wool puddle pad and here I have an extra large family size
wool puddle pad from Little Bunny Bear. Her shop is located in the UK but she ships worldwide.
Again I just really like wool because it's breathable which means
if your baby's laying on it and they sweat like a lot at night
that sweat can escape, instead of if you're using a waterproof pad that has a
thin plastic layer in it the moisture will really be trapped and so they might
wake up kind of in a puddle of sweat. So when I use this
wool puddle pad, what I like to do is layer on top of it a blanket and that's
because if you just spill water directly onto the wool it'll bead up and kind of
run off and then probably get on whatever you were trying to protect from
the moisture. You want to put something absorbent on top. So like a thin
receiving blanket is nice. This is a Cloth-eez muslin swaddle blanket and it
happened to be a really good size for laying on top of this big puddle pad.
If I was going to do diaper-free observation time with my baby, I could
have these two and then have her on top and then I would usually also put a
cloth prefold diaper under her to absorb any extra moisture, so something
like this. Then if she were to pee during diaper-free observation time
both of these could just go in the diaper or laundry. Another option for a
wool puddle pad like this is you could put it underneath your fitted sheet on
the bed. That's what we're doing now. She moves around too much to just be
laying on top of this. When she was a very young baby it worked great, but now she
would grab this and try to eat it, so we keep that underneath the fitted sheet on
our bed to protect our bed. I also have a smaller one of these Little Bunny
Bear wool puddle pads that we use as her diaper changing pad, again with a
prefold on top to absorb any moisture. If you prefer
organic cotton, then Komfi Baby in Canada offers waterproof puddle pads
made with quilted organic cotton and they would have a plastic waterproof
layer inside that. Then for changing on the go I use a Logan and Lenora
change pad. This is the regular plastic coated waterproofing and
Polyester. What I like about this is that it's just really trim so it's easy to
fold up and it has a little magnetic closure, so when I'm doing a diaper
change / pottytunity in a public bathroom this is easy to get folded up
and get it back into my diaper bag. It's just less bulky than carrying a
wool changing pad on the go.
Now I'm going to show you some options of cloth backups that you could use
while practicing EC. Why we call it a backup is when we're doing EC
our hope is that the pee or poop goes in the potty or toilet but we know that
sometimes it's going to end up in the diaper. So we just changed the way we
think about the diaper. Instead of a diaper being the primary place that we
want that baby to pee or poop in fact the diaper is there just as a backup, just in case.
Maybe you missed their signal; maybe you were busy cooking dinner and you just
couldn't offer the potty at that time so we have the diaper to rely upon.
Some people practice EC mostly without diapers just using them while they go out.
I think that most families who are doing elimination communication are
using diapers or training pants on their babies. Often, elimination communication
is referred to as "diaper free" "diaper free baby" "go diaper free". I think that
really just originated as a way to sell more books. It's a catchy title it makes you
think "Wow! Diaper free babies!". But most who are doing EC in a Western culture
are wearing diapers. I have seen firsthand in India babies that go around
naked with no diaper whatsoever and their moms are practicing EC without
actually calling it that. So in some societies it's a little more doable if
it's more accepted and more widely done. I've also seen babies EC'd just off the
side of the road or off of a park bench in Vietnam and in China I've seen little
toddlers walking around in their split pants where they can just find a grassy
patch and go pee. But if you're in the United States and you're driving in a
car a lot; you have couches; you have carpets, it can really reduce the stress
and make it a lot easier on yourself if you use a backup. One of the easiest
options is clothprefolds and I talked about these in my video on "Easy Cloth
Diapers for EC" so I won't go into too much detail about that. Just real
quickly if you're gonna be doing EC I do highly recommend getting
some prefolds. Those are used along with a diaper belt that goes around the
baby's waist. This is a smaller diaper belt that I use with my son. It's from EC Wear.
This is a larger diaper belt that I sewed. Then this is newer to the
scene it's called the Bandie and this one un-Velcros, so even if you are just
cloth diapering and not doing EC this can be a pretty cool way to attach
prefolds or flats onto your baby instead of using a Snappi or pins. It's also
elasticy like a diaper belt. It can be adjusted a little bit more here and then
this way when the baby's laying down if you wanted to you could actually un-Velcro it
whereas these ones have to be pulled off so I could see this Bandie
one being really nice if you were to have had a poo miss in a prefold that you
could get this off easier by just un-Velcro'ing it and it allows for a
little bit more adjusting. Little Bunny Bear also offers an adjustable
diaper belt and a sewing pattern for an adjustable diaper belt if you're
interested in making your own. So again, watch my video on "Easy Cloth Diapers for EC"
for a demonstration of how that works to use the diaper belt and prefold.
For starting with a newborn I really really loved the Babee Greens interlock
wool diaper cover. This one that snaps on the sides. I liked that you could adjust
the leg holes a little bit tighter and the waist a little bit looser or the other
way around depending on whether your baby has chubby legs or a bigger waist.
If I were to be starting all over again with a newborn I would get two of
these newborn size Babee Greens wool covers and then I would get two of the
size small ones. These could be used along with the
newborn prefolds. I would get at least 24 of the newborn prefolds
from Green Mountain diapers - the Cloth-eez prefolds. And I'd get two of these
newborn and two in small, if I had it all to do over again. Then for after
the newborn phase maybe two months, three months,
some parents wait a little bit later like five or six months - Flaparaps which
are a drop-flap cloth diaper can be a nice option. And again, I've already shown a
demo of these on my daughter. Right now we have four of the Flaparap shells
and that's a good number for us because we're using the Flapraps
about half the time and then some other type of back up about half the time.
I'd want more if I was doing them all the time. Then we have twelve of
the small pads and six of the large pads. So again that's working out for using
Flaparaps as half of our backup. I kind of wish I had bought more of these organic
cotton pad. I bought them in time before the organic ones sold out but it
would be nice to have more of these because then we could have used
Flaparaps more exclusively once she reached three months old and not felt like we
had to have some other backup to go along with them, because they are my
favorite now that she's in the mobile rolling and crawling phase. And then these
are some flannel cloth wipes. If you're going to be cloth diapering you might as
well use cloth wipes as well. I like them a lot better than disposable wipes.
I just dip them in some water right before using it; use one to wipe;
then one to pat dry. I think that gets her a lot cleaner than a disposable wipe that
would leave behind some residue. With my first baby I really felt like I was
supposed to use disposable products in my diaper bag whenever went out, so I was
using disposable inserts in gDiapers at first and I was using disposable
wipes, just because everything I watched and read said "use disposables" if you
travel or in your diaper bag. Really, it's not necessary as long as you bring
along those wet bags like I showed you before. It's perfectly doable to use
cloth diapers and cloth wipes even when you're away from home.
And definitely at home I much prefer them. Then another option for backup
instead of diapers is you could use training pants. I have just a few
options of training pants to show you right now because I'm going to be doing
a couple videos that's a very in-depth comparison. I have about 12 brands of
training pants that I've been testing and I hope to share with you so you guys
can get an idea of which ones work best for EC. So I'm just going to show you a
couple for now. This is a waterproof option. These are Charlie Banana training pants.
I like that they have an organic cotton layer inside. They come in two
different versions. This is a side-snap one that unsnaps on both sides, so if you
were to have a poop miss. With my son once we really got rolling with EC and
he was about six-months-old we weren't having any poop misses, so I always
thought it was fine just to have trainers that pull down. With my daughter
she started crawling and eating solid foods right at the same time when she
was six-months-old and we've been having a lot of poop misses lately, so now I really
am starting to appreciate that sometimes even with EC you need something that unsnaps.
We used these while we were traveling recently and it's nice to have
a waterproof option. With waterproof training pants, they're not completely
waterproof. It can still leak out a bit and get on clothes. I like that the
Charlie Banana ones start in really small sizes. This is already a
size medium starting from 16 pounds. They have size small as well if you're
looking for something it's really for a small baby. Those are Charlie Banana.
Then for some just cotton training pants that don't have any waterproofing in them
these two are Tiny Trainers size 12 months and I have washed these on warm water so
they probably shrunk a bit. These are Tiny Trainers in size 18 months and my
daughter wore both these sizes when she was 3 to 4 months old and that's just
because she has really chubby thighs and so she outgrew this part here What I
really liked about Tiny Trainers is they're super absorbent. Even the
inside absorbing layer and the outside are both cotton. They are 100%
cotton but they absorb better and than pretty much any other cotton
training pants that we've tried - and we've tried pretty much all of them!
These are Under the Nile organic cotton training pants.
This brand was my favorite with my son. He started wearing training pants around 10-months-old
and we switch completely to training pants at 12-months-old with him.
They were still a little bit big on him, but the waistband
fit well enough. With my daughter she's still only 6-months-old so these
are actually still too big on her. They are 12 to 24 months. She does wear
them sometimes but it's not a complete seal around the leg. Again, these
absorb a miss well, so one pee. They held up really well. With my son we were
washing them over and over again in pretty harsh conditions and they lasted
really well for him. When I'm using just 100% percent cotton training
pants that don't have any waterproofing in them what I like to do is pair them
with wool shorts or you could use wool longies which are long pants.
We live in the tropics so we use the short version. Also wool soakers which look
like a diaper cover would work. The great thing about wool is once you
lanolize it (and lanolin is just the oil that naturally occurs on the sheep's wool)
that's water repellent. So a wool
shorts or wool diaper cover works as a semi-waterproof cover over
trainers, so that if they have a miss, the pee leaks through, it won't get on things.
I like to use just the cotton training pants at home when I want to
see immediately when there's a miss so I know to change them right away and offer
the potty. Even if they just had a miss in their trainers it's likely there's
still more pee for them to put in the potty. And then I really like to use the
wool if we're going out away from home so I have that peace of mind from the
waterproof aspect.
Now I'd like to show you some options of small underwear for EC graduates.
Once your child's at a point where they no longer need a backup like
training pants or a diaper. Once they're getting almost all the pees
in the potty; if they're self-initiating to go use the potty; they're letting you
know through words or some other signal that they need to use it then you could
go ahead and try underwear. I do usually recommend that there's a period between
using diapers and starting underwear where you let them just go bare bottom
and then go commando for a couple weeks. So that they really realize that the
diaper is gone. Sometimes if you try to go straight from diaper to training pants
or underwear it still feels tight and restrictive to
them like they have a diaper on and so they will treat it like a diaper. So it is good to
take a pause between using diapers as a backup and before you introduce underwear.
We did about two weeks with my son where I just had him wear shorts
with a loose elastic waistband. That's easier for them to get up and
down with just one layer. I just bought a bunch of cheap shorts so he were
to have a miss I could just change him into a new pair. So once they are ready
for underwear, it can be a little bit tricky to find small sizes, so I'm just
going to share with you four brands that offer small sizes. These are City Threads
and I apologize they're kind of faded. These are from years ago but they're
really high quality so they've still helped up. What I like about City Threads
underwear are; they're made in the United States; they use really high quality
fabric; and they start from size 18 to 24 months. These were a really good fit
on my very thin son when he was two-years-old. I tried them on my daughter
the other day, who is six-months-old and they also fit her. So it really depends
on the size of your child. You can't go just by if it says
12 months or 18 months on the size tag. But City Threads, these are the boys briefs
they also offer boxers and the offer some girls styles as well.
The next one is Komfi Baby. They're offering organic cotton underwear for EC'd
babies, so they start from, I believe, six-months-old. These particular ones are
size 12 months. My daughter fit in these when she was 3 to 4-months-old.
What they have as well is you can also buy these soaker pads so if you want to
have your baby wear the underwear but they're not ready for just regular
underwear yet you can add in the soaker pad so it acts kind of like
training pants. When I got them they only had these really big soaker pads but
they're working on making smaller ones to fit better in these smaller sizes. I really
love the fabric of these. It's a very comfortable fabric and I like that the
Komfi Baby underwear has elastic around the leg holes to make it a little
stretchier. This would definitely be one of my top choices
once my daughter is ready to move on to regular underwear, is to get them from
Komfi Baby. I'll include a discount code in the description below if you're
interested in ordering underwear or EC clothing from Komfi Baby.
Then these ones are little boxers from Grovia. They sent these to me when I
requested some training pants to review.
They sent along also a diaper and some underwear. These have matching tank tops.
My daughter was wearing that in the cloth diaper video. What's so cool
about these is they made them gender-neutral so they can be for a girl
or a boy. They're kind of like a little boxer style. These ones say that
they're 2T but they fit perfectly on my six-month-old baby. They are very small
for a 2T. I also really like their tank tops because it was hard to find a
tank top in a small enough size to fit my six-month-old. This pack
came in these colors that they have another pack that has like pink and
another color. So those are Grovia Unders.
These are some Tiny Undies. These are particularly their LEARN collection.
The LEARN ones have these little tabs on the side to show your child where to
pull up or push down. The reason the the bear looks kind of upside down is it's so
if your child lays them down in front of him or her they see the bear
facing them upright. So that tells them which way to put the underwear on.
Again, the different colored leg holes so you can be like "put it through
the aqua leg band first and then the gray leg band". So it helps them learn to self dress.
These particular ones are 3T.
These are a very large version of Tiny Undies. They start all the way from six months
which would be itty bitty tiny size. My daughter started with the Tiny Trainers
from wearing the 12-month size, so that was when she was three-months-old.
We never even had a six-month size. So definitely check their size chart and
then if you're going to be ordering from Tiny Undies I might also recommend just
ordering one size up from there, especially if you're going to wash them
in warm water and they might shrink a bit The waistband band on these already fits my daughter
but they're kind of too big on her - 3T. So those are a few options for
once you're ready to switch to underwear.
The next supply that helps make it easier practice elimination communication is to
choose EC-friendly baby clothes. In the early days if you're practicing EC
with a newborn or just getting started then I feel like EC is a little more
work and you might as well make it as easy as possible in yourself. I do think
that once your baby gets to about five or six months old that doing EC can
actually be easier than relying 100% percent on diapers. Especially when we're
out and about with my daughter who's six months. If I take her to the bathroom; put
the seat reducer on; she pees; pat her dry; go wash hands; and we're out of there.
It's actually quicker than doing a diaper change. But even so, I just like to
keep it simple and easy so we use EC-friendly clothing. I just did a video
demonstrating these on my daughter so just want to mention a couple options real quick.
This is a t-shirt from Komfi Baby
that says "Potty me please!". I prefer t-shirts over Onesies or bodysuits that
snap between the legs. You can get cotton - short sleeves; long sleeves; kimono
wrap type are good for newborns; and Merino wool jersey is a nice option in
cold weather. You can find those kind of shirts from Truly Charis and I'll link
them below. I also like Rock-a-Thigh Baby socks.
These are thigh-high socks. This is size zero to twelve months, and yes you can
use them on a newborn. I used them with my daughter as a newborn.
I also liked Lamington Merino wool socks with her. Another option that I used
with my son are Judanzy. Those are easy to find on Amazon. I'll put the link below.
These are some baby leg warmers from Judanzy. There's many brands
of baby leg warmers on Amazon. Split crotch pants. These particular ones are
from Little Bunny Bear and you can get the pattern too sew these yourself.
I'll link a couple shops below that offer split pants. Sleep gowns are a great option for
nighttime. They usually come either up to size six months or nine months.
They have elastic in the bottom. It can lift up. So that's a great option at night.
Another option for cold weather at night is to use a sleep sack. This is a Halo
sleep sleep sack and this one unzips from the bottom, or can look for one
like the Woolino sleep sack that unzips this way. If I lived somewhere that got colder
at night I would definitely get a Woolino sleep sack. That's made with
Merino wool and organic cotton.
I'm going to show you a couple other baby gear that aren't specific to EC
but they're very helpful to have when you're practicing elimination
communication. One is a soft structured carrier like this one. This is a Lille Baby Complete
that I've been using my daughter. It doesn't have to be
particularly this. You could use a wrap which is what we're using here as a
tablecloth. With my son in the newborn phase we used
the baby K'tan which is similar to wrap but it's two circles of fabric which
makes it easier to put on and that was a soft stretchy option so he really liked
that as a newborn. And then for him after that we used an organic Ergo Baby
carrier. That worked well all the way up until he was about two-years-old
I was still wearing him. This Lille Baby one it says it can be used from the newborn
phase about seven pounds but I found my daughter really wasn't that comfortable
in it when she was that young. When she was about three-months-old and fitting
better in it she liked it more so now she's happy to be worn in this and the
reason a carrier is so great is babies have a natural instinct not to pee on
the person who's holding them. One signal especially when they're really young is
if they start to try to climb out of your arms and they're kind of panting or
breathing heavily. That can be a signal they need to pee. When my baby's in
the carrier she usually does not pee in it, but as soon as I take her out that's
a perfect opportunity to use the potty. So if we've been out for a walk and we
come home right after I take her out of carrier, put her on the potty and it's usually
always a sure catch. So it's great to do babywearing along with elimination
communication. Another thing is this little lamp. I really like it for
nighttime diaper changes or offering the potty at night. It has a remote control.
The only thing I didn't like is it smelled a little from the finish on here
when I first got it, but it's aired out now it's fine. You can do different
color settings so we do the red at night so we don't disturb our sleep too much
when we're offering the potty or changing a diaper. So it's really convenient to have -
my baby wants the remote! - a remote controlled lamp.
Also for nursing at night. The last EC supply I'd like to mention
is that it's helpful to read at least one book about EC, so I will link my list of
recommended EC books in the description box below so you can check that out.
Here we have two board books. This is "Tiny Potty". It teaches your baby all the
steps for using the potty without mentioning diapers and she likes to chew
on it. This is "Night Potty" which reminds your baby and bear to wake to pee.
Thank you for watching. If you'd like to learn more about elimination
communication and potty training please subscribe and check out our EC Peesy blog.
Bye!
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