Bringing Up Baby: Elimination Communication update 2

In the middle of 2nd breakfast, Young Atilla this morning got my attention. He grabbed my hand.

"What's up, honey? What can I do for you?" I enquired.

"Poop poop," he declaimed. I am astounded. And, bemused. Like, for real?

Really? You really want to poop now? Am I understanding you correctly?

He insistently toddles off out of the kitchen, bringing me with him. To the toileting room. To the toilet.

 He stands expectantly by the toilet and pats it expectantly. I do the Toilet Routine: I lift the lid, and put on the child toilet-seat; I remove his trousers and nappy. He refuses - "Nuh" - to sit on the seat, and speedily wanders into the hallway.

 "Sweetie, you said you wanted to poop poop," I said, collecting him handily and placing Atilla on the seat. He sits comfortably and waits for nature to take its course.

We participate in time-occupying activities such as taking each bath toy and placing it on each others heads - "Haht" (Hat) - and putting it on his feet - "Shoo" (Shoe) - and blowing across the top of an open bottle, and placing bath toys on the top of the bottle - "Haht". The Gravity Game is always popular.

We spent quite some time waiting for the first hard knob to exit his system. I could smell it. Eventually Atilla had had enough. He made an approximate handsign for "Finish", and said "Doon" (Down).

"Honey, let me check your butt." Sure enough, it was a knot of knob, easily removed.

"Do you want to try pooping again?" He made no protest on being put back on the seat. We multi-tasked some more, with occassional grunts from Atilla as he concentrates on the primary reason for being there.

Sound and fury, signifying nothing. Interspersed, I show him the handsign for 'poop'. Unexpectedly, he attempts the sign too. Wow.

We continue on this vein of activity for a while. Dad then came through, and suggested a changeover of supervision.

Once Atilla understood the proposal, he was quite unhappy and decided he had finished with the pooping activity.

We do the Change Nappy Routine: put baby on the mattress, try to put nappy on baby. Atilla still protested.

"Sweetie, do you still want to poo?"

 "Nuh," he said unhappily anxious.

 "Well, it's time to put a nappy on."

 "Nuh," he said more unhappily, this time in a bent over position indicative of speeding up the evacuation process.

"Let's try the toilet again, just in case."

Atilla is repositioned.

"I'll stay with you until you're finished."

This helps him calm down, and we return to diversionary multi-tasking activities. We do this a very very long time, interspersed with Atilla's face-making, faecal odour, and splashing sound as the shit hits the water. Then he decides he is finished - "Doon".

We do the Cleaning Up Routine; we do the Change Nappy Routine: put baby on the mattress, try to put nappy on baby. This time baby co-operates, and the nappy is quickly put on.

This is the second time he (16.5mo) has taken me to the toilet specifically to poo. On the third time, I will know we really have Elimination Communication going.