Elimination Communication and Sleep Training: Do They Work Together?

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When I was pregnant with my first child, I went into full-on research mode. Part of all the pregnancy and birth-related research included the topics of elimination communication and sleep training.

I had heard of both topics before and knew I wanted to use them with my baby. However, I wasn’t able to find much information on using the two of them together.

While elimination communication is a newer idea that is just starting to pick up steam, I still thought that someone must have experienced this same question before me. If you are in a similar situation that I was in, then I hope that my experience can help with some of your thoughts and questions!

There is so much to know as a newly pregnant mom, and as you look into new topics, elimination communication and sleep training and definitely two that you don’t want to overlook.

Let’s dive into these topics deeper…

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What Is Elimination Communication?

Elimination communication (EC) or natural infant hygiene is the process of learning your baby’s cues and signals and offering them a place to potty other than their diaper. It means viewing the diaper as a backup rather than the main receptacle. Basically, potty training from birth!

I loved this concept because it is a proactive approach to parenting, versus a reactive one. As a mother, elimination communication has shown me how to understand my daughter’s needs better. I’ve also found that it makes the potty-training journey much more enjoyable!

You can use elimination communication full-time, or part-time, which is what worked best for our family. Full-time requires a lot of attention and becomes the main focus for most of the day and night.

Part-time elimination communication introduces your baby to the toilet and still teaches them to use it, but doesn’t require as much time and effort.

What Is Sleep Training?

Sleep training is essentially putting your baby on a sleep schedule to help them learn to sleep through the night and at specific nap periods throughout the day. It can be a very controversial topic in the motherhood world, but our family has found so much reward from it!

We use the Babywise book approach to sleep training. When my daughter was two weeks old, I started training her to follow a schedule throughout the day and night. The schedule would change as she grew over time. The biggest key to this was following the eat, play, sleep pattern throughout the day.

Our daughter was sleeping through the night by about ten weeks old and has continued to do so since then, except for a few hiccups here and there. The best part of sleep training is that mom, dad, and baby all get the sleep they need!

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What Is My Experience Using Them Together?

My initial thought when my daughter was born was that I could use elimination communication and sleep training together. However, they seemed to contradict each other when I tried it out!

To sleep train my daughter meant I had to leave her in her crib during her nap times so that she could learn to sleep on her own. It was important to not interrupt her at times, especially if she woke up during the 45-minute intruder, for example.

Taking her out of her bed when she fussed to use the potty would have not taught her to sleep on her own. In fact, at night, if I took her out of her bed and offered her the potty every time she flinched or fussed, then she wouldn’t have learned to sleep through the night.

Basically, elimination communication and sleep training are very hard to do together because elimination communication requires constant picking up and offering the toilet, while sleep training requires you to leave the baby alone at nap time (for the most part – there are exceptions of course!).

For our family, we found that we could still implement some of the elimination communication techniques once our daughter was a bit older and still potty trained her early. It just wouldn’t be full-time elimination communication as I originally had hoped.

How Elimination Communication And Sleep Training Work Together For Us

Once our daughter started eating solid foods at about six months of age, her poops became very hard. She would push with all her might to work them out. Whenever we started noticing her face getting red from pushing, we said “Toilet!” and did the sign language sign to her.

We then carried her to the toilet, and she finished pushing her poop out there. It was amazing to show her that she could do it and not have another cloth diaper to clean too!

Then, as she got older, we would offer her the toilet at times that we knew she would go – mostly after meals or transitioning from the car. With lots of repetition of the word toilet, praise when she went on it and using sign language so started to understand.

Now that she is 13 months old so knows exactly what the toilet is. If we offer her the toilet, she will pee or poop on it. However, she doesn’t yet grasp the concept of signing or saying the word when she has to go. She still wears a diaper or tiny undies throughout the day to catch the moments when we don’t carry her to the toilet.

Kelsey at GoodPointGrandma

Hey there, I'm Kelsey! I'm so glad you are here. I'm a 20-something helping you live your most fulfilling life. I hope you'll join me in this old-fashioned & simple lifestyle!