Caregivers try to recognize and respond to babies' bodily needs and enable them to urinate and defecate in an appropriate place (e.g. a toilet).
The term "elimination communication" was inspired by traditional practices of diaperless baby care in less industrialized countries and hunter-gatherer cultures.
In the UK, baby-led potty training is a similar system for meeting babies' toileting needs.
The main feature of the system is that care-givers 'hold babies out' or support them on a potty in order for them to void in an appropriate place outside their nappy.
While this practice is only recently becoming known in industrialized societies, it remains the dominant method of baby hygiene in non-industrialized ones.
[citation needed] The terms elimination communication and natural infant hygiene were coined by Ingrid Bauer and are used interchangeably in her book, Diaper Free!
[5] Prior publications introducing Western parents to this practice include the booklet Conscious Toilet Training, by Laurie Boucke (1979), the book Trickle Treat: Diaperless Infant Toilet Training Method, by Laurie Boucke (1991), a pamphlet entitled Elimination Timing, by Natec (1994), and the more extensive Infant Potty Training: A Gentle and Primeval Method Adapted to Modern Living, by Laurie Boucke (2000).
Boucke was influenced by an Indian friend who taught her how mothers in India care for babies without diapers, and she adapted the method to fit her Western lifestyle.
EC is viewed primarily as a way to meet the baby's present needs and to enhance attachment and communication in general.
[8] The practise was commonplace up until the fifties, when Dr Spock's method of delaying the start of toilet training until 18 months became popular.
These are some of the main advantages:[12][13] For baby: reduces incidence of nappy rash; more comfortable; encourages communication; helps relieve constipation and wind.
Conventional potty training advice is based on late 1990s research by Thomas Berry Brazelton, who introduced the "readiness approach".
[14] Brazelton acknowledges that elimination communication is both possible and desirable, but he believes it is difficult to perform in Western society.
Parents report that some babies as young as three months will appear to hold all their bowel movements until they are held in a particular squat position, as long as this is offered regularly enough.
[citation needed] Parents also offer the potty at various times according to routine, e.g. after a feed, after waking, just before bath or bed.
Signals are most effectively observed if the baby is left without diapers for the first couple of weeks of starting elimination communication.
Although much intuition may simply be subconscious awareness of timing or signals, many parents who practice EC find it an extremely reliable component.
[citation needed] Babies are born with a primitive reflex which causes them to empty their bladder when parents remove the nappy and hold them in a squat position.
[20][21] Once the baby has become accustomed to passing waste when held or on the potty, parents are able to adapt the method to suit their lifestyle.