6 Questions On Elimination Communication (EC), With Christy Santoro |

Elimination Communication is the practice of using cues, timing and intuition to address an infant’s need to pee and poop.

This week’s responses to 6 Questions On Elimination Communication come from Christy Santoro. Christy Santoro is a homebirth midwife based in Philadelphia. Her practice is Motherland Midwifery. She and her husband Martin are having the time of their lives with their sweet girl Itzela! Christy was our midwife for Anjali’s birth.

1 – How did you hear about EC? What sources would you recommend?

I first heard about EC through another midwife who was my client 6 years ago and was fascinated by it and really drawn to it in theory. However, once I revisited EC while pregnant it deeply resonated with my parenting aspirations.
My favorite resources is Ingrid Bauer’s Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene

Diaper Free:
The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene

I really love her writing style and overall approach and philosophy. I also really enjoyed the Potty Mouths podcast!

2 – How old was your baby when you started EC?

Itzela first went on the potty when she was 5 days old. We started cuing her and watching her signals the first few days. It was amazing to see how quickly she picked up on the cuing sounds!

3 – What positive responses, if any, have you gotten from friends and family about EC? What are some negative responses?

As a homebirth midwife, I’ve had a lot of positive responses from my clients and a lot more of my clients are trying EC as a result of being exposed to it and seeing us EC as a family. But I was pleasantly surprised how positive and in to EC much of my family has been. My mom and siblings have all pottied Itzela many times and are fascinated by it. I try to emphasize how it isn’t potty training but some folks can’t hear that and that can be frustrating. One of my most negative experiences is that my cousin often chastises her son for not being potty trained yet when “baby Zela” already goes poopy on the potty. I don’t like our EC practice being used as an excuse to shame another kid.

I really appreciated how practicing EC provided an opportunity for my husband to be so connected and attached to our daughter from an early age. I think for partners of breastfeeding/attachment mothers EC affords the chance to really tune in to baby’s needs in a way that is closest to what birth mothers do and that is really a gift!

4 – When practicing EC, what were some of the challenges you experienced?

It is hard for me to think back right now. I know I got completely destroyed with poop a few times in a way that was funny but kinda overwhelming in my early postpartum hormone days. I feel like I’ve mostly done a good job at not being goal or outcome oriented with the practice but still sometimes find myself congratulating Itzela on going on the potty and especially deal with the “good job” trap with my family and sometimes my partner.

We are using sign language and at some point around 5 months we had a few weeks that Itzela would sign potty all the times she needed to go and I thought, “this is great, it will be so much easier now!”. But that stopped after a few weeks and while she uses the sign some it isn’t reliable so we use timing and frequent pottitunities.>/div>

At this time, we are struggling with nighttime. For the first 7-8 months we pottied Itzela through the night and she went months without using a diaper at night-just a prefold under her and a wool skin pad. It worked great but most nights she needed to pee 2-4 times. At about 8 months my sleep deprivation between being a new mom and a midwife caught up to me and I just couldn’t respond and sit up to pee her every time at night so we started using diapers again. For the past 6 weeks or so she was SOAKING her diapers at night in a way we hadn’t experienced ever with her. I think that was partly her going through a developmental phase as it is better now, but we are struggling to get back on track with nighttime.

We are also challenged by different desires/notions between my husband and me about being truly diaper-free or using underwear but we are working on that!

5 – What products made EC doable for you?

We loved our hemp prefold belt-it was so helpful for the early weeks and months. We also loved our red potty hat from Continuum Family and still use that by our bed. We’ve been using the Baby Bjorn Toilet

Baby Bjorn Potty Chair

insert and like that too. And have the Potette Plus for the car and visits to other folks homes. But a tupperware works great too– I’ll never forget my nephew asking, “Why Baby Zela go pee pee in the Tupperware?”

6 – Do you feel like you and your child have been successful with EC? How would you define success?

I feel like it has and will be a success because we are communicating with each other and my husband and I are meeting her needs. I’m not attached to an age we’ll be diaper-free so it is just enjoying the journey. And she is just so darn cute sitting on the potty with a book! EC has been a beautiful and valuable part of our parenting journey!

Christy Santoro is a homebirth midwife based in Philadelphia. Her practice is Motherland Midwifery (please link). She and her husband Martin are having the time of their lives with their sweet girl Itzela!

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