I always thought about ECing my daughter Marcella. But mostly, Elimination Communication was an idea on the horizon.

So I wanted to bring in an expert to write a guest blog. Nicole worked for Better for Babies for many years and we’ve seen her two children go from diapers to potty in their own unique way. It was only with her second child that Nicole explored Elimination Communication and let us in on that adventure.

After you read about her journey you can enter to win a bECOpotty and a pair of Little Beetle wool undies! Details follow the guest blog.

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Written by Nicole Long — mom to Eden (age 4) and Oakleigh (age 2)

It’s amazing, really, how tiny a baby’s footprint is. And to think how innocent that foot is; it will take another year before he even begins to leave his physical footprint on the earth. The carbon footprint? A whole different story.

It’s a different story because we live in a throw away culture. Everything, everywhere. Bibs, table covers, wipes, diapers, the baby jars, containers of  shampoos and soaps, medicine, packaging for new toys … I could go on, and on. It doesn’t take long before these items become a regular on the shopping list. Then the new, massive amount of trash we are accumulating becomes normal.

My husband, David, and I didn’t want our children to begin their lives as victims of a disposable planet. So I started reconstructing my idea of parenting – and reevaluating diapers came out on the top of my list.

Eden & Nicole

My son Eden was cloth diapered and we loved it. David and I would both agree we had an incredibly positive experience with CDing. When my daughter Oakleigh was born, we naturally started her in cloth and it was just as sweet with her as with Eden. Within the first few weeks of Oak’s birth I started letting the idea of Elimination Communication (ECing) trickle into my brain and soon I became aware this was something I was very interested in practicing when I was at home.

Nicole & Oak

Elimination communication is also known as gentle infant potty training – allowing children to learn naturally from birth that one shouldn’t pee or poo on oneself, but use a potty (whatever a potty may be at the moment: a sink, a toilet, a bowl, outside, etc). We started Oak completely diaper-free, then changed her into wool undies or Learners — and sometimes cloth diapers — when she began to walk and winter came around.

Keeping Oak’s footprint as small as possible was as important to me as the bonding process. Actually, the two go hand in hand it seems. I believe there is a bonding process that is unique to green parenting. I was creating a decision for my child that was having a long term, positive effect on her, and Eden’s, life, and even their children’s lives.

So I took the ECing plunge and together Oak, David and I went on a journey to a whole other world. We read facial expressions, listened to our instincts, got in sync with our child like we never had before. I knew when her diaper was wet the moment she pee’d.  I can’t say that at 14 months she was completely potty learned. In fact, at that time she decided she didn’t like the potty and insisted I put a diaper on her so she could pee in it. But that’s fine; still, we were communicating. She walked and crawled to her potty and pee’d in it many times, she never pee’d while I held her, and when she did go, she gave me this look that was total awareness, a look that said, “Yes – we are working on learning something about this together.”

On top of all this, the  number of diapers I use have lowered significantly, which means less water, less detergent, less energy to dry (yes, I am guilty of machine drying my diapers!).  Assuming you don’t flush the toilet every time your baby pees, ECing is the absolute best environmental choice. It is also practiced throughout the world, which is a nice connection to remember. When you are sitting there waiting for your 5 month old to pee in the potty so you can say “Sssssss”, remember there are parents on the other side of the planet doing the very same thing.

ECing can be done very successfully part time – the key phrase to remember is This is gentle. So if it begins to stress you, take a step back, slow down, and try again later. It’s such a wonderful place to practice patience, intuition, and communication with your baby. It’s even become a bonding process between Oak and Eden, since he likes to stand in front of her “ssssss”ing and doing the sign for “potty”. She laughs and smiles in response to his encouragement.

Oak & Eden

So yes, if you invite me over and I take Oak with me to the bathroom, I may be peeing her in your sink. But I promise you, you’ll thank me later. I’m simply doing my part to make up for the disposable world many have come to find (un)comfortably normal.  And besides, I really love Eden and Oak’s little, tiny, baby footprints.

Oak ECs with her doll

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For all you ECers, and for those currently potty learning with their wee ones, we’ve recently welcomeda new product to our online store — the bECOpotty! Perfect for ECing and potty learning, the bECOpotty starts life as bamboo and rice husks, which are left over material from farming. The ground extracts are ground into a fine powder and mixed with a biodegradable resin and pressed into a hot mold and the bECOpotty is born! When your child has mastered pottying, the bECOpotty can be buried in your garden and will biodegrade!

And we’re giving away an EC package — a bECOpotty and a Little Beetle wool undie!

Each of the following count as one entry. You may enter using each method once.

1) Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment below telling us that you did so (include the email address you used in the comment)!

2) Go to our Better for Babies FB page and “like” and “share” our post about this blog and giveaway with your friends!

3) Leave a comment on FB telling us which undie style and colour(s) you like best!

4) Go to Better for Grownups FB page and “like” us. Leave a comment telling us which of our current BfG products interests you most!

5) Tweet this: “I entered to win a free bECOpotty and Little Beetle wool undies @betterforbabies #LittleBeetle” then leave a comment here telling us you did so and giving us your Twitter username!

We’ll use a random number generator on Monday at 2PM E.S.T. to determine a winner. We look forward to hearing from you! :}

{Leah & Lauren}

“‘Little Beetle’ what? Did you say ‘Learner’? Ohhh… you mean ‘Training Pant’?”

At Better for Babies, our decision to call our training pants “Learners” wasn’t about branding or being trendy. Like everything else we do, it’s about our philosophy, and what we think of that great adventure that takes little ones from diapers to undies.

Limited Edition -- Jitterbug Red Learners!

It usually doesn’t take long in the presence of children to acknowledge that the grownups have just as much to learn as the children themselves. When we begin to guide those children in their potty journey, we don’t train them or tell them how it is. More often than not, it’s they who are showing us how things are going to go at any given moment; we’re along for the ride. We can only help, encourage, remind, and provide the supplies. You see — it’s not so much about training as it is about parents and children learning together!

We’re hearing the term “potty learning” used more and more often these days, and this makes us happy. We’re so glad to see, and be a part of, norms continuing to shift and expand.

And, in honor of our Limited Edition Jitterbug Red Learners, we’re doing a random giveaway of a Little Beetle Learner on our FB page! Just do each of the following to enter:

1) Subscribe to this blog and leave a comment telling us that you did so.

2) Go to our FB page and “like” and “share” our post about this giveaway.

3) Leave a comment on FB telling us what you’ve learned from your child’s potty learning!

We’ll use a random number generator on Friday at noon E.S.T. to determine a winner. We look forward to hearing your stories! :}

{Leah & Lauren}

Jitterbug Red joins Little Beetle's traditional colour offerings

We keep hearing how ‘delicious’ and ‘edible’ the new Jitterbug red diaper looks, so we decided to share a little more about its name and what it means to us!

Reminiscent of the earthy and mystical garden beet, we named our latest Special Edition diaper ‘Jitterbug Red’ — feeling  inspired to give a nod to several of the great influences in our world’s artistic community:

• Early 20th century swing dancers: their liveliness, and captivating blend of rhythm and improvisation

• Satirist Tom Robbins: the author of many brilliant works of fiction, including Jitterbug Perfume

• And our incredibly popular local outdoor community theater, Theatre on Cedar: which adapted and performed Jitterbug Perfume for the stage last year — with Mr. Robbins’ blessing!

The cast of Theatre On Cedar’s Jitterbug Perfume
{Can you spot 2 current & 3 former members of the BfB family?}

As supporters of the world’s artists (including YOU!), we hope you find inspiration in something unexpected today.

{Lauren & Leah}

We love our Little Beetle fitted diapers. But what about those prefolds?

A newborn size prefold is a versatile staple in your cloth diapering mix. And it’s a perfect, tiny fit for a newborn.

“But I don’t have a newborn? Why would I want a newborn prefold?”

Even if you don’t have a newborn, don’t worry … there are lots of great uses for your tiny prefold and lots of reasons why we think you’ll want one.

• it’s FREE —- right now, anyway! Better for Babies is currently giving away 1 FREE newborn size prefold with the purchase of every 2 Little Beetle diapers. Use code PREFOLD at checkout*

•  they are amazingly soft and sturdy, like a cuddly workhorse

•  lay it inside a wool cover for a slim diaper option on older babies

•  use it as an impromptu changing mat while on the go

• add lots of extra absorbency in a diaper or Little Beetle Learner (albeit a bulkier option)

• wipe up spills, messes and more

• they have an amazingly long life as household cloths and rags when prefolds stop being used by little bottoms! It’s great when an item you purchase can fill so many needs. Reuse!

We’d love to hear how you use your prefolds! Comment here or post them to our Facebook page!

* Yes, you may purchase any combination of 2 Little Beetle diapers and enter the code for your free newborn size prefold. Prefold will be the same wonderful organic cotton velour and hemp as always and will come in either Sunny Orange, Elemental Blue, or Willow Green — it will be a surprise!

Happy Monday

We need 4 more testers for product development. If you EC with your little one or your child is advanced in potty learning and fits our size 1 undies, let me know today!

Testers will receive a free pair of wool undies (presently only spots open for size 1) and a small questionnaire to answer plus our unending gratitude for helping make the world more comfy, less wasteful.

You can see the changes aren’t extreme but they are cute! Essentially, we added a contrasting waistband (a fun way to utilize fabric remnants that might otherwise go to waste) to our present Little Beetle organic wool undies. That’s all we changed but it adds substantial rise to the pattern and thus we need some help determining the new size range and how this increases the undies’ versatility in use.

Most of the tester spots were filled within an hour of posting but I am adding a few more so don’t hesitate to write in!

{post by Leah}