How to Start Potty-Training a One-Year-Old: Elimination Communication

You’ve just learned that you can potty-train babies and want to know if it’s too late to begin with a toddler between 12-17 months old.  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 12-17 months, we’ve got separate guides here!)

Should I do Full-Time EC or Part-Time?

The 12-17 month age range is kind of an in-between period for EC.  You’re heading into toddlerhood, and some babies in this age range are ready to go fully diaper-free (read my 16-month old’s potty-training story here).  Other babies still need time for their bladders to get bigger or for physical or cognitive skills to develop.  Most babies are ready to ditch diapers completely by about 18-24 months.

This guide assumes you want to begin with Elimination Communication on a part-time basis, but if you feel that your child is ready to jump straight to full-time potty-training, click here instead.  There’s absolutely no harm in trying to ditch diapers with a toddler in the 12-17 month range!  If things aren’t really clicking after a couple of weeks, you can do a “reset”:  Go back to part-time EC and try again in a month or two.  It’s quite amazing how much your child will develop physically and cognitively in a few short weeks!

If I can potty-train completely at 18 months… Is there a point to starting EC earlier?

Absolutely!  Especially for poops.  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.

There’s also the mess.  The older your child gets, the more unpleasant those poopy diapers become.  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 landfill waste by starting the potty now rather than later.

You’ll also give yourself a massive head start with potty training if you start learning your child’s timing and cues ahead of time.  Phase one of potty training involves “naked days”, where you do nothing but watch your naked child and put him on the potty when he starts to go.  Part of the naked phase is to learn your child’s natural pattern and behaviors around pee/poop so that you can better predict when they’ll happen.  If you start EC now (even part-time) you’ll go into the naked phase armed with this information ahead of time.

Young toddlers are smart and copy everything you do.  Giving him this task is an excellent way to satisfy his desire for more responsibility.  You will be amazed at what he’s capable of!

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.  All three of my kids went through periods as toddlers when they would need to poop right after we sat down for a meal!
• During Transitions Between Activities:  Try the potty after riding in the car, swing, or stroller, before a bath, during a diaper change, after watching a show, 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.

The first step of EC is adding the potty to your routine during these key moments.  Pottytunities (a fun EC word for potty time!) 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

Again, you don’t have to do ALL of the suggested times here.  Use what you already know about your child to start the potty at times you suspect will be successful.

Since your child is still quite young, it’s also a good idea to use a cue noise.  A cue noise is a sound that you make every time your baby goes potty.  The purpose of the cue noise 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 simply 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.  

Here are some examples of body language cues that parents have observed in young toddlers:

• Squatting
• Passing gas (or especially stinky toots)

• Squirming

• Straining (poop face)
• A certain look (often a blank look) or expression

• Sudden change in behavior (sudden fussiness, suddenly getting still and quiet, seeming suddenly unsettled)

• Hiding (such as in a corner, under a table, in a play tent or tunnel, etc.)

• Pee shivers

• Absently grabbing the crotch or diaper

• Pee-pee dance:  Hopping from foot to foot or wiggling a lot

• 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

Squatting is a very common body language cue, especially for an impending poop!

Intentional cues are when your child deliberately indicates to you that she needs to go potty.  Newborns do not intentionally cue.  A three-year-old can intentionally cue by saying "I need to go potty.”  A 12-17 month old may not be capable of saying a full sentence, but many (although not all) do start intentionally signaling in other ways.  For example:

• Patting the diaper or crotch in an indicative manner
• Crawling or walking towards the potty
• Looking at you and vocalizing or fussing
• Using the ASL sign for “toilet"
• Saying “poop”, “poo poo”, “pee pee”, or “potty”

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:

1. Observe your child to learn his body language cues. 
2. 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.  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.”  When your child 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 philosophy on praise.

The ASL sign for "toilet"

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. 

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.  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.

How much diaper-free time you do is up to you.  If you’ve never done any EC before, though, I recommend a minimum of a couple hours for the first day or two that you introduce the potty.  You’ll get the most bang for your buck if you do a full day (or two) of nothing but diaper-free time.  Once you’ve gotten into a good potty rhythm and are having some success, you don’t need to do any more diaper-free time (unless you want to) until it’s time to ditch diapers completely closer to 18 months.

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

Should I Give Rewards?

Many modern potty-training techniques involve rewards, like stickers, candy, or reward charts. Most parents in the EC community do not use this technique with their children for three reasons.  First, a 12-17 month old probably doesn’t have the cognitive ability to understand the reward system.  Second, it goes against the EC philosophies about communicating cause and effect and incorporating the potty as part of normal life.  Lastly, treats can be hard to stop once you’ve started them.

There are times, however, that EC parents have used rewards with success.  Some parents find that a little treat, like a raisin, M&M, or sticker, is just enough motivation to help a toddler overcome a potty pause.  This is especially true if your child is older (18+ months), has a treat-motivated personality, and is just struggling with something small, like making it to the potty on time without dribbling.  You can phase out treats by either setting the limit from the start (“you get an M&M out of the jar until all of the M&Ms are gone”) or slowly phasing them out.

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:

1. You prompt your child based off natural timing
2. You prompt your child when you notice body language cues
3. You transfer your child to the potty when you notice him start to go
4. 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.

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.

Should my son sit or stand to pee?  And how do I help him aim?

When you’re just starting out with EC, your son should sit to pee. 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.

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:  Give him toys on the potty, read him a book, sing songs, or set his potty beside an activity table he can busy himself with.
• 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.

Baby doesn’t want to stop playing to go potty

Bring the potty to her or allow her to bring what she’s playing with to the potty with her.  You can also offer the potty directly to her toy—or ask her to show her toy how to use the toilet (you might even buy a doll toilet for her toys to use!).  You can also set a timer—tell her she can keep playing for one more minute, and then it’s time to go potty.

Should I switch to training pants or underwear?

A lot of people wonder if training pants or underwear will make EC easier.  The short answer is:  Probably not.

If your baby isn’t fully potty-trained, pee will just go right through underwear or training pants.  They’re also not very easy to manipulate until your child is capable of pulling his own pants up and down.

Once you DO decide to go diaper-free, the best way to begin is with naked days followed by clothes WITHOUT underwear or diapers (commando).  Use loose pants, skirts, or dresses with nothing underneath.  Underwear and training pants feel too much like a diaper and can trigger accidents from muscle memory.  Have your child go commando until you’re solidly dry all day for at least a couple weeks; then you can add underwear.

EC is easiest with clothes designed for potty learning, like Flappy-Nappies® drop-flap diapers and Chappy-Nappy pants shown here

Prior to officially potty-training, I recommend using EC-friendly cloth diapers like Flappy-Nappies®.  These drop-flap diapers pop open from the front or back and can be changed while your baby stands.  If you don’t want to buy completely new diapers, try layering the diapers you already have over a pair of Chappy-Nappies (crotchless pants).  You can also use Chappy-Nappies alone to keep baby's legs warm during diaper-free time!

The Flappy-Nappies® diaper snaps to the waist of the Chappy-Nappy crotchless pants.  Pop it open from front or back to go potty!

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 12-17 month old.  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.  In fact, a sudden potty pause right around 18 months is often the sign that it's time to jump into full-time potty training:  Go here if you think that's the case.  If you don't think your child is quite there yet, this article has suggestions for one-year-olds and potty pauses.

 Have a question that you don’t see here? 

We have lots more info in our Troubleshooting Guide for Young Toddlers here. 

Good luck, and have fun!