If It’s Eco You Want, Cloth Diapers Are Good, and EC Is Better
The following is a guest post from Jeremy Dyen. Jeremy is the Stay At Home Papa, who shares his experience with music, fatherhood and family. At his blog you can get attachment parenting tips, listen to music and more… Jeremy also hosts a blog at http://clothdiapersexpert.com.
There are plenty of blogs and articles out there tauting cloth diapers as the eco-friendly choice over disposables. I, myself, have written about it. Cloth diapers conserve our natural resources, while disposables use more energy for manufacture and transport, and create a ton of waste that fills our landfills.
But there’s another option out there: diaper free.
Okay, maybe you have heard of this. Maybe not. Actually, the term diaper free is a bit of a misnomer. The term was coined by Ingrid Bauer in her book Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene. The more correct term for what is often called diaper free or early potty training is Elimination Communication (EC). EC is a practice of using cues, timing, and intuition to facilitate an infant’s need to eliminate.
Basically, you watch and listen for signs that your baby has to poop or pee, and you give them the opportunity to do so on a potty or over a container. You also cue them, such as with a sound like “Sssss.” With some repetition, the baby will begin to respond to the cue, although just holding them over the potty sometimes serves as a cue. I was surprised to find that when I held my 2 week old daughter over a little potty and made the “ssss” cue, she peed. I swear, it really works!
Of course, it has its ups and downs – periods where you are catching most of your baby’s cues, and having very few “misses” along the way. I kid you not when I say that my wife and I only had to change a poopy diaper 5-6 times in my daughter’s first 6 or so months. Introducing solid food changed the cues, and now in the 9th month we’re starting to get the hang of it again, as is our daughter.
Okay, so how does this benefit anyone, and how does it benefit the environment? Well, there are several benefits which I’ll list here:
- You will be fostering better communication with your child. If you just try EC, you will be communicating very early on with your child. As a father, I believe EC has helped me understand my daughter’s needs, and it has brought me closer to her. It has given me a way to connect, and feel a more integral parenting role.
- If you are the least bit successful, you will be doing less laundry, thus saving energy.
- If you use disposables, you’ll be using far fewer of them with EC. That means more savings for you, and less waste in landfills.
- You’ll be using less products altogether – fewer wipes, diapers, and diaper spray. Again, that’s less products bought and less waste.
- Your baby will likely be “potty trained” much earlier than with mainstream potty training.
- EC is more hygienic because your baby will spend less time in soiled diapers, even if you just practice it part time. Your baby will be less susceptible to diaper rash and urinary tract infections.
With elimination communication, everyone wins: you, your baby and the environment. If you would like to read more about how to practice EC, you can read my Elimination Communication For Dummies post.
