This book is inspiring and lovely... and written by a fellow Canadian, Ingrid Bauer! (Ingrid came up with the succinct and thoughtful term "Elimination Communication" to describe this ancient practice. She also uses the term "Natural Infant Hygiene" in her book.)

An excerpt from her site:

Natural Infant Hygiene is a gentle, compassionate, and practical way to care for a baby's elimination needs from infancy.

Rather than teaching a baby to eliminate into his or her most intimate clothing and cleaning up after the fact, mothers and fathers learn to listen and respond in the present moment to the baby's needs and communication.

http://www.natural-wisdom.com

PLEASE SUPPORT THE AUTHOR DIRECTLY: If you buy through a book-seller, these authors get a huge chunk taken off their often small profit margin. Please buy directly from the website and support these pioneering authors.

"Once upon a time there was a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, who assisted in a village medical clinic where women from the neighboring regions visited for the various examinations and immunization shots offered . Often watching a long line of colorfully dressed women, he saw that many of them were carrying a young infant on their body, secured by a piece of tied cloth. At various times during their long wait, a woman would take her child out of the sling and carry the small naked body over to the bushes. Overcome by curiosity, he went to investigate what was happening in the bushes. He watched a woman hold her infant in a squat-like position as the child either urinated or defecated. He also observed that none of the woman had any soil marks on their clothing or body from her baby. He was amazed, and so he asked one of mothers how she knew when this obviously preverbal child had to relieve itself. With equal amazement the woman looked at him and said "How do you know when you have to?"

READ more of this article at:  http://www.timl.com/natec_1.htm

ORDER Natec's powerful and informative booklet here: http://www.gaiayoga.org/ordering.html

Laurie Boucke's great site and book of the same title. This was the book I read first and it convinced me to give this method a try. IPT is full of great first-hand stories, anecdotes from other cultures, and beautiful photos. Laurie has been researching and educating on this topic for over 20 years. A must read.

http://www.timl.com/ipt

And the link to Laurie's NEW book Infant Potty Basics, which has a VERY fetching picture of a young EC'ing lad.... I think you all should order it just for that picture, really:

http://www.white-boucke.com/ifpb.html

(If you order this book, please mention my website)

I personally am not a big fan of the term IPT, but this is ONLY because people tend to view the word "training" as meaning somehow we're coercing the baby to do something against their nature. (The more recent term has been "Potty Learning" for this very reasons, to reframe the language in a more positive way) Laurie has had people react this way, and has this to say about it "In the statement 'infant potty training,' the word 'training' is used in the positive sense of a loving exchange between mother and baby. As the term 'potty training' is so prevalent and is commonly used in Internet searches and medical, anthropological and other research, it has been incorporated into the book title."

And lastly, a link to Laurie's numerous articles on Suite 101:

http://www.suite101.com/articles.cfm/9089

PLEASE SUPPORT THE AUTHOR DIRECTLY: If you buy through a book-seller, these authors get a huge chunk taken off their often small profit margin. Please buy directly from the website and support these pioneering authors. If you buy either of Laurie's books, please mention my website as where you heard about it, I'd really appreciate it! :-)

Earthmoon's great site, which was the first one I came across.

http://seafish.freeyellow.com/

There is a great section on this site for "late starters". http://seafish.freeyellow.com/late.html

She also has a fantastic email list for those wanting support, info and the experience of other EC parents.  The elist can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eliminationcommunication/

and, don't miss:

Another must read site chock full of info is

http://www.s-line.de/homepages/bradfisch/eFamilieEC.htm  done bilingually by Friederike Bradfisch.  Freddy EC'd her older son, and is now EC'ing her infant who started while still in the hospital after giving birth!

Freddy runs a German EC email list too: http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/TopfFit

Here are a couple of Pamphlets that anyone may reproduce in their entirety.  (There is a place to add your own name as "Local contact")  The first one deals with EC from an environmental or "Green" angle, the second one, written by Jen (whose story is found on the "In Other Words" page) is a mini-intro to the basics of EC.

http://www2.go-concepts.com/~jensoko/domenic/greenEC.doc

http://www2.go-concepts.com/~jensoko/domenic/mainstreamEC.doc

EC Funnies

Truly, THIS is the reason I use EC.  (Warning, mild language....)                                   http://flowgo.com/flowgo2_view.cfm?page_id=41329

Bronwen passes along this tidbit about a movie called "Chinese Ghost Story":  "It is sort of a scary cartoon actually, but at the end- you just won't believe it-  the little baby fusses, the daddy says, "oh, time for pee pee", the mommy unwraps the baby from the blanket, holds him naked in a squat facing the audience, and then he pees a lovely arc onto the protagonist's head!" 

Mailing Lists

"The Big EC list" :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eliminationcommunication/

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Freddie's German EC list:

http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/TopfFit

Sara's Swedish EC list:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blojfribaby/

Anna's Italian EC list:

http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/senzapannolini

Forums/Discussion Boards

Mothering Diapering Board http://mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=38

Earthy-Birthy Discussion Board

http://pub3.ezboard.com/ftheearthybirthythoughtswapohhhhhhclothdiaperingtheadictionlol.showMessage?topicID=118.topic

Parent's Place Discussion Board

http://boards2.parentsplace.com/cgi-bin/boards/eliminationtraining

Personal Webpages & Articles

I can't believe I never came across this one before:                                                    http://www.cottonbloomers.com/ec.asp

Teri's homepage and EC diary:                                                                   http://www.theenchantednursery.com/NatInfHyg.htm

Lisa's Top 10 Reasons to EC                                                                         http://www1.ttcn.ne.jp/~ramona/nodipes.html

Laureen's page:

http://www.sonic.net/~elfnree/controversy.html

Laurie's page (not Laurie Boucke, author of IPT), talks about her parenting philosophy including EC:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/darvwill/ourphilosophies.htm

MOMYS Archive writings about IPT. (someone disses Laurie's book...grrrrr):

http://www.momys.com/infant_pottying.htm

The Cultural Conflict over Toilet Training

http://oz.plymouth.edu/~megp/webct/culturalconflict.htm

Scott Noelle's eloquent article, "Going Diaperless":

http://nurturenet.com/etc/goingDiaperless.html

Lisa’s Page

http://www.chisp.net/~lboyle/ec.html

Elly’s Journal

http://www.users.qwest.net/~ptlfhb/journal.html

Laura’s Page

http://www.geocities.com/laura_ta/ec.html

Darshani’s Page

http://home.earthlink.net/~sukumaran/NaturalParenting/potty.html

Jana’s Pamphlet and page

http://male.fig.org/jana/child/goingdiaperless.html

http://male.fig.org/jana/child/diaperless.html

Mama Roo’s EC pics

http://groups.msn.com/MamaRoo/ecpictures.msnw

and Article:

http://www.mamaroobabysling.com/DiaperFree.htm

Zion's Potty Page

http://www.timl.com/bb.htm

Economad's EC Page

http://www.economads.com/libaware/ec.php

Sarah's Blog

http://quickeningmoon.blogspot.com/2002_02_17_quickeningmoon_archive.html

EC-Friendly Products

Baby Bjorn review at Epinions

http://www.epinions.com/kifm-Health-Diapering_and_Bathing-Potty_Seats-All-Baby_Bjorn_Little_Potty

Poquito Pants

http://home.pacbell.net/rubelin2/wonderbaby/about.htm

Very mainstream EC video (perhaps to convince the in-laws you're not crazy?)

http://www.maternitymarketing.com/pottyvid.htm

***Caveat: I have not SEEN this video, so cannot vouch for it's content***

Kathy's brand-new site with EC products to buy and enjoy!

http://www.vavoova.com/diaperfreestuff/home.html

EC-Friendly Publications

The Compleat Mother Magazine has printed articles supportive of EC, most recently in their Autumn 2002 issue:  http://www.compleatmother.com

The Aussie Mag, ByronChild has an article by Sarah Buckley, MD, about EC in their Dec 2002-Feb 2003 issue (Volume 4).  Check out the mag at http://www.byronchild.com

Mentions of EC in other articles

NEW fantastic article for mainstreamers about EC in Boulder, CO newspaper: http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/youth/article/0,1713,BDC_2479_1785364,00.html

"Rethinking Potty Practices":

http://babyparenting.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa062701a.htm

Babyworld website in the UK:

http://www.babyworld.co.uk/features/potty.asp 

Joseph Chilton Pearce “Magical Child”

http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/magicalChildECExcerpt.html

Economads journal

http://economads.com/log20010108-20010201.php

Article on Commune Living

http://www.twinoaks.org/community/media/articles/style-weekly.html

Wikipedia – Free Encyclopedia

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_communication

Conflict Girl’s Blog

http://conflictgirl.blogspot.com/2002_01_20_conflictgirl_archive.html

Diaper review & mention of EC

http://www.motherspirit.net/articles/pregnancy/diaperreviews.htm

Sarah Buckley's article (Must be a member of this site to view.  If you're not a member, YOU SHOULD BE!!! Join today...)

http://www.birthlove.com/pages/sarah/bottom.html

Great article about an American woman and her baby living on an island in the South Pacific and coming up with her own style of EC.                               http://www.gonomad.com/family/0101/brash_diapers.asp

Other Languages

Fun French article                                                                                                      http://smz.phidji.com/amp/jhin.asp

Italian article for "late-starters"                                                                                                                 http://www.white-boucke.com/reviews/lateitalian.html

Russian article about EC                                                                                                                                    http://www.white-boucke.com/reviews/iprussian1.html

Czechoslovakia (Article written by Friederike and translated into Czech)

http://www.rodina.cz/scripts/detail.asp?id=2140

Finnish page

http://www.babyidea.fi/vinkkeja/vaipattomuus.html

Another Finnish page

http://kotisivu.mtv3.fi/vvv/

Julia's German page - she also has a discussion board on the topic                                 

http://kids.kairos-web.de

Bianka's German page
http://www.attachment-parenting.de/left05.htm

For all your Swedish EC needs, Sara Sjungargard's lovely site:                                   http://www.geocities.com/slokorv/

Natec's "Elimination Timing" translated into German
http://www.continuum-concept.de/pottydeutsch.htm

Looks like Swedish translations of Ingrid Bauer & Laurie Boucke's articles http://www.activebabycare.com/tidning/x9905b.html   http://www.activebabycare.com/tidning/x9910v.html

Laurie Boucke's articles get translated into Italian                                                                                                                                        http://www.white-boucke.com/reviews/ipitalian.html  &  http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/9089/67105