There are times when you are feeding that you can feel your baby eliminating. Can you catch that? YES. What about when you’re out and about? Yes, you can potty then too. EC at night? Find out here.

EC/ Pottying during feeding

Young babies often pee or poo during a feed and you can use this to your advantage:

1. Undress baby from waist down, or as above use split pants for warmth, or your nappy belt and muslin.
2. Put a potty between your legs under baby’s bottom, or keep it close by. A potty between the legs can be tricky to position at first but get easier with practice.  A “top hat” potty can help – see this blog post for a great picture of this in action).
3. The wool puddle pad will protect you/your clothes/the chair or feeding space and keep baby warm.
4. An absorbent cloth between baby legs helps soak up any unexpected eliminations.

EC / Pottying at night

Sleep is always the priority, but some babies will fuss and wake up to poo. As far as I was concerned, cleaning a poopy nappy in the dark was far worse than holding baby over a potty. Potty pooping also encourages baby to release al the poop which means they will be more comfortable and sleep better afterwards. You will usually know when a poop is coning, but when its feed time or other times in the night you would wake up to assist your baby, offering a potty can sometimes be a revelation in getting better sleep between these wakings.

If you potty at night, keep the conversation to a minimum and the lights low.Night clothes need to be easily removed, so sleep suits can be faffy. I use a regular nappy and just take it off for pottying at night. Regular sheets and blankets instead of sleeping sacks are quicker.

You may also want to consider a wool puddle pad to protect your mattress, especially if you are bed sharing.  They make a great non-toxic alternative to standard mattress protectors.

EC/ Baby pottying when out and about

I love the flaparap system for on-the-go pottytunities. You can also use tiny training pants, or your one-wet nappy belt and folded cloth as I’ve described. The key to successful outings is to know when you next expect to need to offer an opportunity to eliminate. If you have done your groundwork at home, as I’ve described above, you should be able to start incorporating pottying into your out-of-house times too. The potette is a great little travel potty which also turns into a toilet seat reducer. But you don’t necessarily need anything special – just your attention and your motivation, and somewhere private and appropriate to eliminate. Heres a pic of my husband with the baby at 4 months old:

Here, we are using flaparaps and split crotch trousers. She did a little squirm in the sling and we realised it it had been 25 minutes her last pee. One quick stop in this private spot and a few seconds later all done. She was dry for the whole 2-hour outing.

How do you handle pottying at night or when out and about? Share your stories here!