Elimination communication can lead to fewer diapers in landfills

Elimination communication is popping up all over the internet since Mayim Bialik was named celebrity spokes mom for the Holistic Moms Network. Also called "potty whispering" or sometimes "infant potty-training," elimination communication can dramatically reduce the number of diapers washed or landfilled for families that do it.

Author's daughter on the potty at 15 months.

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Web Resources

• Diaper-free Baby hosts a directory of
  local support groups
• What is Elimination Communication? 

Books

• The Diaper-Free Baby: The Natural
  Toilet Training Alternative
• Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of
  Natural Infant Hygiene

For parents practicing elimination communication, environmental concerns aren't necessarily a deciding factor but can be a nice bonus. According to the Real Diaper Association, single use diapers are the third largest consumer product contribution to landfills and make up 50 percent of the household waste for a family with one child in diapers. The average American child will use more than 6,000 diapers before potty training. Fewer diapers used means less waste in the landfill from disposables or less water and energy to wash reusable diapers.

While many stories describe EC or diaper-free babies as a new trend in attachment parenting, it's not new at all. "That's exactly what I did with my kids," said Jeannette Hayes (87) of Baltimore, Maryland when she was told about elimination communication by her granddaughter. "I didn't want to wash nappies so I held them over the potty after they ate."

In practice, elimination communication can range from parenting completely diaper-free to simply offering babies a potty break when it's fits into a family's routine, such as at diaper changes and upon waking, while depending on diapers the rest of the time. Many practitioners of even part-time EC believe it encourages easier and earlier potty training by maintaining body awareness in children.

Critics claim that young babies don't have the ability to "hold it" when they need to go but EC advocates will tell you that it's up to the parent to anticipate the need, not the child to hold it. "EC is not potty training for babies," writes Krista Cornish Scott on her site Free to EC. "Nor is it 'adult training' either, at least not in the derogatory sense." Scott argues that EC is just another way she meets her baby's needs.

Elimination communication is about the child learning to communicate a need and a parent learning to receive that communication. Most parents who EC incorporate some kind of signing in the process.

"With Miles we started at 6 months, he stopped peeing in diapers at 12 months and was in undies at 18 months," Bialik told Celebrity Baby Blog of her experience with her first child. "This is with no coercion and no reward. He also did not speak. He could sign for potty before he could eat solids, walk or speak," she said.