Spotting

Tommy is the third baby this Mommy has worked with to establish Elimination Communication. Two out of those three babies experienced what TM calls "spotting".

As the name implies, spotting means that something leaves a spot. In this case, it means that a spot of poopy is left in the diaper. The spots are small, ranging in size between that of a dime and a quarter. (My apologies to all non-United States readers who won't be able to gauge the size of the spots being described based upon American coinage)

The problem of spotting is easy to manage with the Diaper Belt system described in the previous post. You may recall that the prefold cloth diaper is folded into thirds then placed between Tommy's legs; the diaper being held in place by mean of tucking it into/under the Diaper Belt in front and back. Upon arriving at the potty place, such as the bathroom sink, the diaper is untucked from the front of the Diaper Belt and removed from between Tommy's legs. It remains tucked in the back to keep it from falling off all the way - because we are assuming the diaper is still DRY and will not need to be removed.

At this point, if "spotting" is discovered, it is dealt with thusly: rather than just removing the diaper and putting it in the diaper pail, it is removed and re-folded so that the spot is contained within the folds rather than up against Tommy's skin or on the outside where it may contact TM's clothing. Ick.

In this manner, the diaper with the spot can continue to be used until it gets wet or gets another spot. This saves on laundry. Isn't that clever?

By now you be wondering, why does the spotting happen? I have my own mini-theory. It goes like this: the poopy is sort of watery in a young baby, and the liquid part of the poopy just manages to leak out of the anal sphincter. You will be glad to know that both of my spotters outgrew the problem by 3 or 4 months. And, as my second EC baby proved, the problem is not universal.

The big question TM had upon encountering the problem was, "Why isn't this problem addressed in the expensive books purchased on this subject?" The title of one of these books is Diaper Free. As the name implies, the author actually had her baby go bare bottomed. Either she didn't have a spotter, or she has an even greater tolerance for poopy than even she admits in the book. Even with leather furniture and no carpet, no one wants dots of poop all over their clothing and home. TM is not overly squeamish about poopy, but this phenomenon nearly caused her to give up ECing, thinking EC baby #1 had a physical anomaly.

Anyway, take heart if you have a spotter. The baby will likely out grow the spotting and in the meantime, you can use diapers to catch the mess.