13 Must-Haves For Parents Attempting Elimination Communication

I guess Elimination Communication, or rather EC, is the new “au natural parenting trend.” Out with the cloth diapers and in with the babies of Brooklyn peeing behind parked cars. The next time I see a parent dashing by me with a baby in hand, I think I’ll reevaluate my default theory of catching nearby by subway trains.

For those of you who haven’t delved into that stack of parenting books, EC goes a little something like this:

…the Bedford-Stuyvesant lawyer-turned-Reiki healer became interested in “elimination communication” — or EC, as it’s called— responding to her son’s cues for when to go to the bathroom instead of having to rely on a diaper.

The hope is for the parent to “catch” pees and poops — whether atop open-cloth diapers, toilets, sinks…EC parents make “sisss” sounds or grunt noises when they see their babies going to the bathroom, and over time the kids start to associate those sounds with feeling relieved….Once that association is made, the parents can hold their kid over a toilet when making the noise to cue an “elimination,” she said.

But since elimination communication is reportedly the swanky new parenting philosophy that all the hip mommies and daddies are doing these days, a hot accessory list is obviously in order. Grab a pen. We’re going to do this right.

[ITPGallery]

(photo: Robbi / Shutterstock)