Elimination Communication: How it's going

In a word: well. In three words: Incredibly, surprisingly well. While I had lapsed for a week or so after I wrote the last post, diving into Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer proved to be just the inspiration I needed to get back into it. And while it took us a little while to get reattuned to Eden's signals, I'm happy to report that it's going really well now.

Per Bauer's book, we picked up a Baby Bjorn infant potty for less than $10 on Amazon and we LOVE it. While we occasionally still use the toilet or even a sink depending on what's handy, this sturdy, ergonomically-shaped little potty can travel room to room with us, and it's also good to give Eden a consistent place to go. However, we've even embraced wholeheartedly the idea of pottying her while out and about. Previously we'd only been EC'ing at home, but recently we've taken her to potty when it was convenient (the ladies' room at a restaurant, a friend's bathroom, the great outdoors while we were out for a walk) and it had gone so well that I wondered why we hadn't been doing it all along. After all, grownups go to the bathroom when they're out and about without resorting to crapping in their pants--why should it be any different for babies?

What I do is put Eden on the potty and cue her to go just before we leave the house. Then, if she's showing any signs of fussiness before or when we get to our first destination, I put her on her "travel bowl". I also put her on when we come out of a store or if I nurse her while we're out. While it might sound like a lot of trouble, pulling down her pants and putting her on a bowl is actually less trouble to me than listening to her fuss when she has to go, cry hysterically when she's wet, and attempt to change her wet or dirty diaper in her carseat while she's frantically wiggling--not to mention then taking care of the dirty diaper.

While she occasionally wears a diaper during her fussy time in the evenings or on a long outing, for the most part, she's wearing these 2T training pants (a little baggy, but comfy and absorbent). For clothing, dresses were an easy option in the summer, and her sleep sacks are nice at night (though she hasn't gone at night since she was about a month old, but they're good for those early-morning piddles), but pants are a good easy-up-and-down option too, especially now that the weather is cooler. Some sleepers have snaps that allow strategic access; some don't unsnap in a helpful location, and some have zippers (which require getting her totally undressed to go to the bathroom--fairly impractical). So pants and undies are what she wears most of the time. When we're outside on a walk or coming and going from somewhere, it's incredibly easy to squat down with her, slide her pants down a little, and pee her in the grass. Probably not an option during a cold midwestern winter, though!

So how do we know when she needs to go? Timing is one way: we always put her on the potty and make her "psssss" cueing noise when she first wakes up and right after she eats. I've found that if I have her in a carrier during a nap and pay attention to when she first starts to seem restless, I can often potty her without completely waking her up, and she'll return to sleep and sleep another 30 minutes or so. This wasn't the case with diapers, when she would wake up wet, angry, and have to be changed and wiped (and thus fully awakened). We also pay attention to when she seems distressed, wiggly, or even just distracted--she'll be playing with toys or breastfeeding and suddenly get a faraway look in her eyes, and generally it means she needs to go potty. Sometimes it's just been awhile and it seems like she might need to go. And every once in awhile, as I'd read but not quite believed in various accounts of EC--I just "know" she needs to go. Finally, in addition to the obvious timing of peeing when she wakes up or eats, she has her own patterns that I've come to know. She seems to have a few distinct "wringing out" periods during the day when she'll go as often as every 20 minutes. One occurs around 11am, another sometime between 2:30 and 5, and another shortly before she goes to bed. We try to be especially conscientious about watching her signals and just frequently putting her on the potty during those times. As a result, the rest of the day tends to be pretty predictably dry, so we often take her on walks or even short trips without needing a diaper bag!

At home, we average about 1-3 "misses" per day. These might be times when I don't get a clear signal from her, or times when I miss it because I'm distracted (I've gotten peed on a number of times while talking on the phone or watching a movie. Once, even, while writing this post). She's even pottied when friends of ours are watching her. There are also times when our signals are fine but we end up with a wet lap or bed because we spill the potty or don't get her on at the right angle. However--I'll take my accidents when her pee and poop are totally benign, versus when she's two or three and eating solid foods!

Home girl

Matt and I recently made the decision to try to keep Eden as close to home as much as possible. While we've always been big fans of long country drives, Eden decidedly is not. When she was a newborn, she'd sleep peacefully in her carseat, but that time is no more. She's been growing progressively more agitated in her carseat for the past several weeks, and after a car trip out to Shenandoah during which she screamed at an ear-splitting volume for over an hour, we've decided it's in everybody's best interest to limit ourselves to things within walking distance as much as possible.

And that's really fine with us. We like to be at home and we knew that having a baby was going to change things. The big difference is that where we previously ran all of our errands together, now one of us will likely end up staying home with Eden. But it's probably best for her health anyway, and we know it's best for her comfort. And we know it won't last forever.

I'm pleased to announce

...the ringing in of a new era.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in six months...my rings fit again!

Stuff we love: Rescue Sleep Remedy

I'll be the first one to admit that the philosophy behind the Bach Flower Essences sounds pretty wacky to me. Unnamed substances distilled from flowers used to balance complex emotional problems? Kind of farfetched even for people like us. But when we tried them ourselves about a year ago, we were particularly pleased with the results of Rescue Sleep, which we found calming and sleep-enhancing.

So it's only natural (at least for us) that when we found ourselves with a restless, fussy baby, we gave a couple of squirts to her. It stopped her crying, anyway, as she tasted it with a funny and amazed look on her face. It didn't knock her flat out or anything, but within minutes, she was calmer, and then--asleep. Over the past few months, we've repeated the process a number of times a week and always been really impressed with the results. Even with her teething pain, we've actually found it to be more effective in calming her down than Hyland's Teething Tablets, a homeopathic remedy lots of parents rave about.

It could be the flower essences, or it could be the 27% alcohol solution they're preserved in (grape brandy, to be exact--and brandy is a time-honored remedy for teething babies). Either way, I'm not arguing with success. The bottle runs around $8-10 and lasted us over a year with occasional use; the next one will probably only last about half that long or less, since we're using it more often with Eden. Still, probably not much more expensive than something like Children's Tylenol, and we don't like the idea of giving our baby drugs unless absolutely necessary (and that stance finds more support every day). We get it at Whole Foods, but you can also order it online. Amazon has it for under $8 with free shipping! And right now, Mambo Sprouts is offering a $2 off coupon. Effective, natural, and a coupon to boot--what more do you need to know?

Krill oil: My cure for baby eczema

A number of weeks ago, to my dismay, Eden started developing rough, red patches of eczema on her arms and legs. Having struggled with various bouts of itchy scaly skin throughout my life, I had hoped she would be spared. Alas, she apparently was not. I rubbed coconut oil on it in vain--while it might have kept it a little softer, the angry pink outlines were still there.

It wasn't until a bottle of Omega-3 krill oil capsules arrived in the mail from my mom that I had an epiphany. I'd taken either fish oil or cod liver oil pills throughout the pregnancy, and had continued doing so since Eden was born. However, I get them through my mom, who is some kind of vitamin dealer, and I had run out and was waiting for her to send more. It wasn't until I started up again that I realized that the period during which I'd run out was exactly when Eden had developed her skin trouble. I hardly dared to hope that taking them again would rectify the problem, but it did! Within about a week after starting up again, her patches of eczema were all totally gone, and so far they haven't recurred. I'm convinced that was what did the trick, since it was the only thing about our diet and lifestyle that changed--both when she flared up and when it went away. Below you can see the difference:

The great thing about breastfeeding is that I don't have to try to figure out how to get her to take fish oil--just take it myself. But when she strikes out on her own, foodwise, you can bet that I'll be sure to figure out a way to do so.

Natural remedies for breastfeeding first aid

Michele at Frugal Granola has a great post up about how to create a natural Breastfeeding First Aid kit and her experiences with clogged milk ducts. I am crossing my fingers and feeling fortunate that I haven't had to deal with these yet, but based on the experiences of other nurses I work with (we don't exactly get predictable--or even regular--breaks sometimes), I know it's probably only a matter of time, and so I've bookmarked this excellent resource! I love Michele's blog because it lives up to its name: affordable, natural solutions to all kinds of issues in family life.

Natural Baby Essential: Coconut oil

Image by JPhilipson

Matt and I are all about products that do double, triple, or quadruple duty. Particularly those that are a single ingredient. Like baking soda--aka deodorant, toothpaste, kitchen cleanser, catbox deodorizer, stain remover, etc etc. Since we've had a baby, coconut oil has become one of those.

Eden's never really had what I would consider a full-blown diaper rash, but every once in awhile her butt will start to look a little red. We were using Burt's Bees Diaper Ointment, which worked beautifully and smelled wonderful, for the first month. Then all of a sudden one day I put it on her--no broken skin and no more red than usual--and she screamed absolutely bloody murder and would not stop. Assuming it had to be the cream, I quickly washed it off and she eventually settled down. We tried it one more time, just to be sure that was it, and sure enough--the same thing. She obviously developed some kind of sensitivity to one or more ingredients in the product--which was a shame, because we really liked it, but there was nothing we could do.

So we were on the hunt for something new. We'd obtained some refined coconut oil (basically it's processed and flavorless and cheaper than the raw or virgin coconut oil that's pricier and healthier) when I was pregnant in an effort to help slow stretch marks (it didn't work, but it is a wonderful moisturizer). I decided to try some of that on Eden since when I'd used it, I had appreciated how quickly it melted into my skin without making it feel greasy. Anything oily or greasy (like zinc oxide or petroleum-based balms) are a concern with cloth diapers because they can cause the diapers to repel water, which leads to leakage.

It worked beautifully. We applied a little coconut oil (easy because it's sort of a soft solid when you scoop it out, then melts at body temperature and soaks right in) to the red areas with each diaper change and by the next day, all traces of redness were gone. We've been using it for over a month now and it's shown no signs of causing problems with her diapers, and usually clears up her skin overnight.

Eden also developed a case of baby acne around 4 weeks old, which didn't seem to bother her much, but was something of a bummer to me, since she'd had such lovely creamy baby skin. I'd read that 4 weeks is a common time to develop it, and that it nearly always clears on its own by about six weeks, but I noticed that heat, drool, and dry skin seemed to exacerbate it and so though it might seem counterintuitive, I rubbed a little coconut oil on her cheeks in an effort to help her skin balance out. Sure enough, by six weeks her skin was beautiful and clear. I think it probably would have cleared up by itself anyway, but it seemed like the rough texture was improved by applying the coconut oil once or twice a day. Her cheeks still tend toward dryness and so I usually apply it to her face every morning and after a bath, and these days she looks like an "after" model for Clearisil.

We also use the coconut oil as an allover moisturizer after her bath, and I know some people swear by putting a dollop in the bathwater as well. We wash her in our bathtub and so since we don't want to slip and break our necks on an oily floor, we tend to avoid that measure. But as a moisturizer, it's effective, surprisingly nongreasy, and happily, completely nontoxic--so when she puts her hands in her mouth immediately after we apply it, we don't have to anxiously scan a list of ingredients to make sure she's not eating poison. It has just one ingredient, which we love.

Lastly, Eden has a tendency to develop a dry and occasionally flaky scalp--and I've found it helps quite a bit to rub some coconut oil into her head before she gets in the bathtub. In the tub, I just rub her head with a wet washcloth and that's it (no soap). Afterward, I rub in a little more coconut oil and she's good to go. Her hair and scalp never look or feel greasy--just soft.

We received ours from a generous friend who had it on hand, but there are a number of sources for coconut oil on the internet or at health food stores. You can get a 14-oz jar from Amazon for about $7 shipped. It also makes an easy and flavorless cooking oil. What we've done is take a larger batch and scoop it out into smaller containers--like baby food jars--so that we can have one in the kitchen, a small one by the changing table, one in the bathroom, etc. I usually scoop it into a jar and then microwave until it melts, then re-solidifies into a smooth block.

Relatively cheap, completely nontoxic, extremely effective, and very multipurpose--we're sold.