elimination communication

Today (2/24) Sol is exactly three weeks old. 

Before Sol was born, the girls were telling me about "elimination communication". I had never heard of that before and I was skeptical. The idea is that you can minimize diaper use by training the baby to poop and pee in a container rather than in a diaper. The real training is on the parents to learn to recognize the cues that the baby needs to go. 

Here is a video that explains the way it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3du12gD-iaU

I would never have bet on this in a million years.

Over the past three weeks, the girls have begun to learn some of his cues. For example, often he will cry even after he has been fed and it turns out he needs to pee. Before the girls learned this cue, they would discover that his diaper was wet. Now, if they get his diaper off in time, he will pee like Old Faithful. While he still screams bloody murder when he is on the changing table, he calms down when the change is done and he has a dry diaper. The logic is that needing to pee is uncomfortable and that's what he is complaining about.

Meg and I were pretty oblivious to this concept when we were potty training Annie and Honora, although we were informed that this is customary in many traditional societies. If this had been on our radar, we might have recognized that one of Annie's signature moves was to hide under a table a yell "don't talk" was her way of letting us know that she needed to poop. But by then, it was too late.  You're welcome, Dy-Dee.

Tonight, after he finished with his early evening feed, Lara took him to the changing table and during the change, she offered him an opportunity to pee (holding him over his little potty). He did. While he was at it, he pooped. She brought him out to the living room to demonstrate. Since he wasn't done, he performed.  

Since he is mostly still breast-feeding, his poops are pretty liquid and not yet smelly.

Here's a better look at what he produces. 

The girls say he is pretty regular.

Since this was Oso's traveling water dish, he had it later for a midnight snack. JUST KIDDING!