Gifts for the New E.C. Mommy

TM attended a lovely baby shower last evening. Due to her present state of gestation, she looked rather eagerly at the gifts being opened by the honored mother. What are the latest colors and styles for the newborn?

There was a common theme amongst the gifts and the bearers of them. Onesies are a hot item. As the woman with the bountiful belly opened package after package containing all varieties of one-piece body suits for babies, the other mothers in the crowd would chime in knowingly with comments like, "I LOVE onesies!" and "You can never have enough of those." And TM used to hold this similar opinion. What has changed?

Well, obviously, it's infant potty training that makes onesies undesirable.  The flaps that snap between the legs are difficult to hold out of the way when pottying the baby. The snaps themselves can be difficult to manipulate while holding the infant over the potty place and hurrying to get the nether regions bare. And perhaps most frustrating of all, in the case of a miss, the entire outfit has to come off over the head, which can be a messy proposition if the miss was a poopy!

So, what would be a better gift choice if you should be invited to TM's baby shower in about 8 months? Or the baby shower of another mom who plans to E.C., of course. You might want to consider the following issues. Does the outfit consist of one piece rather than a separate shirt and bottom? Can the shirt be unfastened in front, or does it have to be lifted over the head? Is the shirt sort of longish, so that it can be worn without pants and won't look like a crop-top?

This is TM's favorite type of shirt:



And what, besides shirts that snap up the front make good gifts for infant potty trainers? For starters, socks and leggings. These babies may spend a lot of time without pants, so anything that covers the feet and legs will help keep the little one warm.How about a dozen cloth diapers? I mean pre-folds, not fitted or pocket diapers or anything like that. These should be the high quality ones which are sold on places like e-bay. They should say "DSQ" on the description, which means "diaper service quality". These can used on or under the baby, and they also make for great burp cloths.



Diaper belts (see the post here for a description) and tiny underwear are much appreciated. Cotton blankets and quilts that can be used on a bed or floor under baby are perfect. If the mom intends to use a ring sling or maya wrap, having more than one really comes in handy in case the baby has a miss in the sling.

Other thoughtful gifts could include diaper pails, little potties and stacks of wash cloths. Books and DVDs about E.C. can provide ideas and encouragement to a mom who is having one of those days where she thinks that her baby will peeing on herself until she's 12.

What else? What do you wish you would have received as a gift? What gifts did you receive that were completely incompatible with E.C.?

A New Development

Tommy has started doing something very exciting! He is now just over 13 months old and yesterday he walked to the bathroom door (it was closed to keep him from playing in the toilet) and said "pee pee". Actually it was his cute, baby version of "pee pee" which sounded more like "pah".

Today, he did it again. After peeing a tiny bit in his underwear he headed for the bathroom to finish the job.

TM decided to try to get away from diapers altogether and has been contemplating how to accomplish it. The first step has been to switch from using the prefold diapers and diaper belt to using Gerber Training Pants
during the day while at home.

Tommy will need some more pairs of undies because his older brother has put a lot of wear on the ones he has now. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find the 18 month size training pants in stores, so they will have to be ordered from Amazon.

For times away from home and for nighttime, Tommy will be transitioning to All in One Waterproof Training Pants
from the disposable diapers he is using now. These are also made by Gerber and are available on Amazon.

An EC Uh-oh

The other day TM took Tommy to go pee pee on the toilet in the master bath. On their way out of the bathroom, TM noticed that her bed needed to be made, so she set Tommy on the floor in order to tend to the job. Tommy quickly crawled away to the living room to investigate the activities of his older siblings.

TM made the bed and then plopped down in front of the computer to check email. Unfortunately, she forgot that Tommy was bare-bottomed.

A few minutes later, Tommy came crawling down the hall. Much to TM's horror, she saw that he had poop on his feet. And his legs. And his hands. He was grinning from ear to ear.

This is the stuff of EC nightmares. More than once TM has been asked, "What? You just let your baby poop and pee all over the house?" To which she would always respond, "Of course not!" Hmmmph.

While it is true that one of TM's goals is that her babies won't be wearing their wastes, it is also a goal that they put them in an appropriate receptacle - not just drop them wherever they might fall! In this case, they fell on the carpet, and Tommy crawled through. Then he decided to pull himself up to the piano and play a few notes. Yuck!

Has it been mentioned that the carpet in Tommy's household is a nice poopy brown color? Now TM had to get on her hands and knees and retrace Tommy's path, trying to see poop that was camouflaged in the rug. Mostly she had to follow her nose.

As embarrassing as that is to share, be assured that this is the first time this has happened to TM, and Tommy is her 3rd ECing baby.

Thankfully, there are no pictures to go with this post.

Baby, It's C-C-Cooooold Outside! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

ECing lends itself to nekkid babies in the same way that many parents like to toilet train their toddlers during the summer. The point being that if baby wets his clothing, there is less of it to change and launder. But nekkid babies can be a problem in the winter.

The books about ECing talk about all of the cultures where infant potty training is practiced, and they are primarily in warm climates. The exception is China. Those babies seem to be fully clothed rather than just wearing a string around the waist.

In the United States we have the advantage of climate controlled homes. Even when it is cold outside we can crank up the heat and be toasty warm. This permits us to have our EC babies wearing only t-shirts, socks and diaper belt ensembles, which is the look frequently sported by Tommy.

There may be times, however, when even an American doesn't want to keep her home warm enough for running around naked. Perhaps she heats with wood and on days that are slightly cold, starting a fire will only result in a house that is uncomfortably warm and she would rather just bundle herself and the kids in more clothing.

While TM does intend to make some of those cute Chinese style split pants seen HERE, in the meantime she whipped up some leggings to keep Tommy's legs warm.

To make your own EC leg warmers, find a pair of socks you don't want. It is fine if they have holes in the toes or heels. As a matter of fact, that makes it even better since you will be cutting off that part of the sock.

TM chose a pair of her own knee socks and a pair of crew socks. Stop coveting TM's Ginghers! You can buy your own using one of those coupons for Jo-Ann's where you get 50% off one item. Sorry for the rabbit trail...

Simply cut the foot off of the sock.









Now you have a pair of leg warmers that cost you nothing and took you about 20 seconds to make. You probably spent more time than that just looking for some scissors.


See how warm Tommy looks now? This crew sock is ribbed so it clings to his leg. For an even tighter fit, use a child's sized sock.




Here Tommy is modeling one of each type of sock. The knee sock only has ribbing at the top so it fits and hangs more like a pant leg.


If you have absolutely no skills and you need a pair of these leggings, simply mail a pair of old socks to TM along with $10 for shipping. She will put her Ginghers to work on your socks and your EC baby will be warm in a jiffy!

Of course, you can spend more and buy spiffy brand new ones HERE.

The main thing is to find a way to keep baby's legs warm on those cold days.

The Diaper Belt

Today I want to do "Show And Tell." I will both show you a Diaper Belt and tell you how it is used. My oldest daughter must be credited here, as she is the one who created the Diaper Belts I use. While I could make them myself, she was kind enough to do it for me, saving me the time and effort.

A Diaper Belt is nothing more than a piece of flannel, sewn as a casing with a bit of elastic threaded through it. It looks something like those little elastic headbands you see that are made for bald baby girls.

Here is a photo of Tommy wearing his diaper belt.

To use it for ECing, I simply put the Diaper Belt around his waist, take a prefolded cloth diaper folded in thirds and tuck into the Belt in front and back. When pottying the baby, I merely have to untuck the diaper from the belt in front and flip it out of the way.