You’ve just learned that you can potty-train babies and want to know if it’s too late to begin with yours. Or, you’ve known for a while that you want to do Elimination Communication, but life happened and you haven’t gotten started yet. Either way, we’ve got the tools you need to begin!
(If your baby is older or younger than 5-11 months, we’ve got separate guides here!)
Is it too late to start EC?
It is never too early or too late to introduce the potty! The only thing that changes with your baby’s age is how you approach EC. This guide includes the best approach for babies that are past the newborn stage but still under a year old.
EC sounds like a lot of work. Is it?
A lot of people hear about EC and think that it must be time-consuming. They imagine that EC parents sit around all day watching their babies, waiting to put them on the potty. Or that you must have to put your baby on the potty hundreds of times to get lucky enough to catch anything.
Fortunately, it doesn’t work like that! EC is very easy to build into your baby’s routine; most parents don’t try to catch everything, and they use a diaper backup for “misses” (a fun EC word for accidents).
Here’s a typical EC schedule:
- Potty first thing in the morning
- Potty after breakfast
- Potty between lunch and nap time
- Potty right after waking up from the nap
- Potty before bath/bed
Notice anything about this schedule? ALL of those pottytunities (another fun word!) happened when you were probably changing your baby’s diaper anyway. An easy way to begin with EC is just to offer the potty during diaper changes! Your baby is already bare-bottomed, and diaper changes tend to happen at times babies naturally need to go.
Once you start doing this, you’ll also pick up on your child’s cues (behaviors that precede or coincide with pee/poop), which will help you better predict the ideal times to offer the potty. It quickly becomes second-nature, and poops are MUCH easier to clean up when they go straight into the toilet rather than smeared all over your baby’s bum.
If you’re using cloth diapers, you’ll ease your laundry burden tremendously by starting EC. If you’re not using cloth diapers, you cut down significantly on your diaper trash and cost. Many babies prefer to poop outside a diaper (don’t we all?) and will quickly start to hold it or signal to their parents that it’s time to go.
EC also gives you a massive head start on potty-training. If you start EC now (even part-time or laid-back) you’ll go into potty-training already knowing your child’s timing and cues.
Also, the longer your child poops in a diaper, the more conditioned he will become to that feeling. Some of the most common issues in potty-training toddlers stem from poops: Poop withholding, demanding diapers to poop in, fear of pooping in the potty, etc. All of these can be lessened or prevented by introducing the potty for poops as young as possible.
How to Start
There are two ingredients to EC: Natural Timing and Diaper-Free Time. Both of these ingredients will help you learn your child’s unique elimination pattern and cues.
Natural Timing
All humans have natural times that they need the bathroom; the most obvious example is first thing in the morning. The following are some optimal times to offer the potty. Note that your child might not need to go potty at all of these times; these are simply suggestions for you to get started. You’ll figure out which times work for your baby very quickly!
- After Waking. Offer the potty first thing in the morning and after every nap.
- After (or in the middle of) a Meal: Eating can get things moving, so to speak. For example, some babies poop right in the middle of nursing or right after having a meal of solid foods.
- During Transitions Between Activities: Try the potty after riding in the car, swing, or stroller, before a bath, during a diaper change, etc. Try a few transitions and see if they work for you.
- Watch for Cues: You might already know when your kid is pooping. She might make a "poop face" or have really smelly farts right before. These are “cues”—body language or behaviors that precede or coincide with peeing or pooping.
All 3 of my babies went through phases when they needed to poop mid-meal!
The first step of EC is adding the potty to your routine during these key moments. Pottytunities offered during natural times, like waking or feeding, are what we call “prompts”, because you initiated the pottytunity, not your child. A prompt may be initiated by you in one of two ways:
- You prompt your child based off natural timing (like after a meal)
- You prompt your child when you notice body language cues
Every time you take your baby potty, use a cue noise: A sound that you make that your baby will associate with going potty. The idea is to build a sound association for your child so that he will go when prompted by the noise. Most parents use a sound like “pss pss” or “shh shh” for pee and/or poop, or by blowing raspberries or grunting for poop.
A word about cues
We call this method Elimination Communication because, at it's core, EC is a conversation between parent and child. The parent signals that it's time to go potty using the sound association ("pss pss pss") and the child signals the she needs the potty with cues. These cues can be divided into two categories: Body Language Cues and Intentional Cues.
Body language cues are not intentional. They are behaviors that your child tends to adopt right before or during pee/poop. Almost all children have body language cues to a certain extent, but some are extremely subtle. The best way to pick up on these cues is by doing diaper-free time (more on that in a bit) so that you can prompt your child when you notice them going forward.
An example of a "poop face"
Here are some examples of body language cues that parents have observed in babies aged 5-11 months:
- Squatting
- Passing gas (or especially stinky toots)
- Squirming
- Straining (poop face)
- A certain look (often a blank look) or facial expression
- Sudden change in behavior (sudden fussiness, suddenly getting still and quiet, seeming suddenly unsettled)
- Pee shivers
- Popping on and off the breast or bottle
- In boys: Ballooning of the foreskin
- Parental intuition: Once you start taking baby potty, you might start getting a “feeling” like baby needs to go (my husband calls it his “Spidey Sense”). This can even be a “phantom pee” where you feel like baby is peeing on you even though he’s not.
- “Warning pee”: Small amount of pee comes out, then baby holds it
- A certain vocalization or sound your baby makes. This might be a grunt, blowing raspberries, a cry, or other noise
Intentional cues are when your child deliberately indicates to you that she needs to go potty. Newborns do not intentionally cue, all cues are body language. An older child can self-initiate by saying "I need to go potty".
Can mobile babies intentionally cue? That depends! Many babies in the 5-11 month age range will start intentionally signaling, although it may not be with words yet. Here are some examples of intentional cues for mobile babies:
- Patting the diaper in an indicative manner
- Crawling towards the potty
- Looking at you and vocalizing or fussing
- Using the ASL sign for “toilet”
- Saying “poop”, “poo poo”, “pee pee”, “potty”, etc.
The ultimate potty-training goal is a child that consistently self-initiates the potty by either telling you she needs to go or independently taking herself to the potty. When this happens depends on the child and the method of potty-training, but EC'd children will get there younger than those who aren't introduced to the potty until after age 2.
Once you introduce the potty to a child, older kids will start self-initiating faster than younger babies. Regardless of your child's age, though, you'll mostly be working with body language cues in the beginning. The good news is that there's one EC tool that can help you and your child learn both types of cues: Diaper-free time!
Diaper-Free Time
Diaper-free time is exactly what it sounds like: You observe your naked (or bare-bottomed) child. There are two objectives to this EC tool:
- Observe your child to learn his body language cues.
- Provide opportunities to teach your child cause/effect (I started to go pee + mom put me on the potty = Pee goes in the potty) to encourage intentional cues.
Choose a time for diaper-free observation when you can dedicate your whole focus to your child for at least an hour or two. Your only job is to watch your baby. Do not scroll your phone, don’t fold the laundry. Do nothing but watch your child (you can play and interact with her, of course!).
As soon as she starts to go pee or poop, transfer her immediately to the potty and use your designated cue noise (again, this is usually "pss pss", but some parents grunt or blow raspberries for poop). Keep the potty close so that it’s easily accessible. Yes, you will probably leave a trail of pee or poop during the transfer (more on that in a bit), but do the transfer anyway, even if nothing makes it to the potty.
Talk to your child about what’s happening, too. “Oh! You’re going pee. Let’s go to the potty.” Use the ASL sign if you’d like. If there’s a mess on the floor, you can also matter-of-factly say, “Uh-oh, pee got on the floor. Pee goes in the potty, not the floor. Let’s clean up.”
The ASL sign for "toilet"
When your baby goes in the potty, you can acknowledge it (“You went pee in the potty, where it belongs”) or praise it (“Good job! You made it to the potty!”), depending on your parenting philosophy on praise. Afterwards, be sure to take note of any body language cues you noticed prior to the pee/poop (you can use this potty log here).
The immediate transfer to the potty is extremely important (even if nothing makes it into the potty) because that is how your child connects the potty to pee and poop. Instead of prompting your child, like with natural timing above, this type of pottytunity teaches your child to self-initiate. The more diaper-free opportunities you give your child to learn cause and effect, the quicker your child will connect the dots, start to hold it, and begin intentionally signaling (which, after all, is the ultimate goal of potty-training!).
When your baby will start intentional signaling is unique to your child, and there is a wide range of normal. Some babies start signaling well before their first birthday, others won’t do this until closer to age 2. It might not be consistent in the beginning, either; you’ll likely still have to prompt your child based off body language cues or timing for a while.
You can encourage intentional cues by using the ASL sign for “potty”, consistently talking to your child about the process, and immediately responding to intentional cues when they happen.
Do I need to do diaper-free time?
When you are just starting out with EC or have suddenly hit a potty pause (more about this later), diaper-free time is an effective way to get started and/or overcome a sudden difficulty. Some parents try to block out diaper-free time every day or every week. Other parents have plenty of success with natural timing alone and don't bother with diaper-free time at all! Diaper-free observation is less important for younger babies, but is crucial for toddlers when wrapping up EC.
My recommendation is to do at least a few hours of diaper-free time when you’re just starting out. From there, if you’re having success with the potty from timing and cues alone, you don’t need to do more diaper-free time until you either hit a potty pause or you’re ready to ditch diapers altogether with your toddler.
The important takeaway here is that diaper-free time is a tool. If you aren't using the tool effectively, you will gain nothing from it. Don't misinterpret diaper-free time as just "naked play time". If baby just plays naked on the kitchen floor while mom is busy cooking dinner, baby just pees on the floor and no one learns anything.
Only do diaper-free time when you can dedicate your whole focus to your child and transfer her immediately to the potty as soon as she starts to go.
How do I contain the mess?
The easiest way to keep diaper-free time mess-free is to take your child outside. If this is not possible due to weather or other concerns, contain her to a room with tile floors or line your carpet with waterproof pads and towels.
To summarize diaper-free time
- Watch your bare-bottomed child closely for at least an hour or two
- As soon as she starts to go pee or poop, transfer her to the potty and make your cue noise
- Take note of any body language cues (you can use this potty log here)
- Talk to your child about the process to reinforce the connection and encourage self-initiation
- Minimize mess by doing diaper-free time outside, on tile flooring, or by protecting surfaces with towels or puddle pads
How do I actually take my child to the potty?
If your child can sit unassisted, simply set your child on the floor potty or toilet seat reducer. If your child is mostly able to sit up but not quite stable yet, you can hold your child on the potty or toilet seat or use the classic EC hold. No matter how stable your child is on the toilet, DO NOT leave him unattended on the toilet until he is capable of climbing on and off unassisted, usually well into toddlerhood.
Keep one hand on baby until she's stable enough to sit unassisted.
The classic EC hold, or newborn EC hold, is the default position parents use to assist a young baby to use the toilet. Grasp your baby in your arms by the thighs so that he is in a squat position with his back supported by your chest. If you have a boy, free up a finger to help him aim. You can hold him like this over a little potty or sit backwards on the toilet with him.
The classic EC hold
Keep a stack of wipes near the potty (and a changing pad, if you need one for easier cleanup). It’s also never too early to work with your child on washing his own hands!
Be sure to use your chosen cue noise every time your baby goes potty. Again, most parents use “pss pss pss" or grunt/blow raspberries for poop.
Putting it all together
Offer the potty to your child as much or as little as you like. These pottytunities will usually be made in one of the following four ways:
- You prompt your child based off natural timing
- You prompt your child when you notice body language cues
- You transfer your child to the potty when you notice him start to go
- Your child self-initiates the potty
How frequently these happen, if at all, depends on how you approach EC and your child's development. Your goals at this stage include:
- Giving your child lots of practice using the potty before it becomes a full-time thing
- Cutting down on messy diapers
- Giving your child autonomy and encouraging self-initiation
- Learning your child’s timing and cues so that you’re well prepared to ditch diapers with your child later
What this looks like will vary from family to family and from child to child. There are no rules! Just have fun with your child and enjoy the process.
What kind of potty do I need and how do I clean it?
Most potties are designed for toddlers aged 3-4 (that’s the average potty-training age, after all), and will be much too large for your baby. Brands that sell mini potties include Baby Bjorn, IKEA, and Tiny Undies.
You can also use a toilet seat reducer over your actual toilet for easy cleanup. Baby Bjorn makes a great seat with a good splash guard, or you can buy a new toilet seat for your toilet with a mini seat attachment built in.
I also recommend the following items:
- A foldable toilet seat reducer and/or foldable potty for outings
- Waterproof pads for diaper-free time
- Step stool for the toilet and/or the sink
- Soap dispenser that your child can use
To clean the potty:
- Pee: Dump the pee in the toilet (or a bush, car tires, etc. on outings when a toilet is not accessible), rinse with water, and dry with a towel. Pee is sterile, so sanitizing is not necessary.
- Poop: Dump the poop into the toilet, rinse, clean with a disinfectant of your choice, rinse again, and dry with a towel. If you’re out and about without access to a toilet, line the potty with a plastic bag or diaper for easy cleanup.
- Poop hack: Put a square of toilet paper into the potty beforehand so that the poop doesn’t stick to the potty and is easier to dump.
What is a potty pause?
A potty pause is the term for any kind of EC regression, similar to a sleep regression or a nursing strike. They can happen at any time, but there are ages where they commonly occur. Crawling, teething, starting solid foods, learning to walk or talk, and sickness are all common culprits for a potty pause.
Sometimes a potty pause is characterized by your child suddenly protesting or refusing the potty. Other potty pauses are the result of natural changes in your child’s elimination patterns, which cause a string of misses until you figure out your child’s new timing and cues.
Like nursing strikes and sleep regressions, you don’t have to give up your EC goals when a potty pause hits. Read this article for some ideas on how to tackle a potty pause.
General Tips for EC
The following are general tips for Elimination Communication.
- Model the potty for your child and be matter-of-fact about all things pee and poop. Have an open door policy when you're using the bathroom. If you're weird about pee and poop, your kid will be weird about pee and poop, and you don't want that. There's nothing weird about it! We all go pee and poop.
- Get big siblings on board. My kids loved going potty with their baby siblings and demonstrating how everything is done. This also helped prevent potty regressions after the birth of a new sibling--many kids see the new baby wearing diapers and want to go back to diapers, too. But if baby also uses the potty, big siblings are less likely to regress.
- Change your baby's diapers immediately when wet or soiled. Remember, the goal of EC is to avoid a "diaper-trained" baby. You want your baby to get used to feeling dry, not wet. Changing diapers as soon as possible prevents your baby from being conditioned to the feeling of urine and poop against her skin.
- Cloth diapers are better for EC than disposable. Disposable diapers wick moisture away too well, so baby doesn't get the immediate feedback of wetness when she goes pee. You'll also be more likely to leave her in a wet diaper longer, because throwing out a barely-peed-in diaper feels wasteful. Disposable diapers have also been linked to bedwetting past age 5. Lastly, disposable diapers are buried underneath layers of clothes and pants, but if you use drop-flap diapers designed for EC like Flappy-Nappies®, the potty is always easily accessible (read more on this below).
Some common Concerns
Should I potty my baby in the same place every time?
Where do you want pee and poop to go? The potty. That doesn’t mean you have to use the exact same potty in the exact same place every single time, though. Even as adults, we use the bathroom in different places: We use public toilets when out and about, we use grandma’s toilet at grandma’s house, we might pee in a bush while we’re hiking or camping, and we might use one of several toilets in our own homes.
It’s not as important where you put the potty, so long as it’s the potty your child is peeing and pooping in. I personally like to keep a potty in my child’s living/play area, by the bed (for nights), in the car (for on the go), and I’ll also take the baby to the toilet using a toilet seat reducer. I’ve also used a car tire or a bush in a pinch.
Baby sits on potty but doesn’t go. Then pees/poops on the floor (or diaper) right after!
Your child needs help making the connection between pee/poop and the potty. Next time she sits on the potty for a while without any action, let her off the potty… but DON’T put a diaper back on. Leave her bare-bottomed and watch her closely. As soon as she starts to go, put her straight back on the potty. Keep repeating this until she makes the connection. You can help her make this connection faster by doing a good long diaper-free session. She will pick up the association very quickly!
Baby won’t poop even though I know he needs to (or stops pooping after you transition him to the potty)
This is very common when you’re just starting EC after using diapers exclusively. Some ideas to help:
- He might need a deeper squat: Get a very low potty that puts him into a deep squat or stack books or blocks under his feet to assist with this position.
- He might need help relaxing: See “baby suddenly resists the potty” above for ideas on how to distract a baby so that he’ll relax.
- He might need privacy: Try looking away while he goes potty or (if he’s old enough), turn your back or even leave the area or room to let him potty alone. CAUTION: Only leave if he’s in a safe, baby-proofed room and using a little potty that he can safely get off of by himself. Always stay within sight and earshot. NEVER leave your child alone on the toilet or in the bathroom.
- You might need to reinforce the connection between poop and the potty: See “Baby sits on potty but doesn’t go. Then pees/poops on the floor (or diaper) right after!” above.
- He might just not need to poop: Has your child’s regular poop schedule suddenly shifted? That can happen! Try offering later.
- He might be constipated: Discuss the possibility and treatment options with your pediatrician.
- He may be uncomfortable with the feeling of going poop outside of a diaper. The longer you wait to start the potty, the worse this problem will become, so definitely don't delay EC any longer. Your best bet is to try a full day or two of diaper-free time to give him plenty of opportunities to go without a diaper on. Going forward, poops in the potty should be a priority so that he doesn't fall back on old habits.
How do I dress my baby?
At this age, you will almost certainly be using a diaper backup most of the time. The best diaper backups are ones designed for EC that can be removed quickly when it’s time to go potty. Flappy-Nappies® drop-flap diapers pop open from the front or back and can be changed while your baby stands.
Flappy-Nappies® open from the front or back to go potty! The diaper snaps to a separate waist belt.
Pair them with t-shirts or dresses and a pair of Chappy-Nappies (crotchless pants) for warm legs and easy potty access. You can also layer regular diapers over the Chappy-Nappies!
Attach the Flappy-Nappies® diaper to the crotchless Chappy-Nappy pants for warm legs and easy pottytunities all year round!
My baby boy sprays pee everywhere
You can help him aim by choosing a potty or toilet seat reducer with a good splash guard. Discourage him from playing with his private parts during urination, as that can cause a big mess. Show him how to aim by using a finger to point his penis where you want the urine stream to go.
Have a question that you don’t see here?
We have lots more info in our Troubleshooting Guide for Mobile Babies here.
Good luck, and have fun!
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