Beyond the Sling Book Giveaway!

If you're my age, you'll remember Mayim Balik from the TV show Blossom. More recently she is known from The Big Bang Theory. Outside of acting, Mayim is also becoming well known for being an attachment parenting and EC advocate, and has recently released a book entitled Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children The Attachment Parenting Way.

Mayim writes in a warm and inviting tone and the book is a real joy to read from start to finish. With a PhD in Neuroscience who studied the hormones of attachment and human bonding, Mayim is able to show that attachment parenting not only feels intuitively right for most of us, but it has support in science as well.

There are chapters on breastfeeding, co-sleeping, constant holding and elimination communication as well as consumerism and toys, medical intervention and gentle discipline. She also addresses mommy needs and keeping your partner relationship strong, areas that often get neglected and are often seen to be in conflict with attachment parenting.

I loved this book so much that I've decided to give away a copy of it at the end of the month to one lucky customer. All orders over $25 (before shipping) on our website this month (April 2012) will automatically be entered into the draw for the book on May 1.

We also have copies of the book available for sale as well, if you just can't wait to read it! :)

New EC Resource -- EC Simplified: Infant Potty Training Made Easy

I'm excited to announce that a fantastic new e-book has just been released - you've got to check it out! It's called EC Simplified: Infant Potty Training Made Easy and it's written by Andrea Olson, Diaper Free Baby Mentor in the SF Bay area and fellow WAHM.

I'm just working my way through this book now and boy, I wish I'd had this to read when first starting out with EC eight years ago! It's amazingly hands-on and visual, and features tons of photos and diagrams. It's loaded with great information and tips in over 160 pages. And I love Andrea's warm style of writing.

ECSimplified is available as both an e-book and an audiobook. And, when you purchase, you get access to great bonus material – an Exclusive Book Owners Site featuring a private 25+ Video Library Collection (over 45 min of instruction); a variety of hands-on tools; special guides for caregivers, Dads, etc.

If you're like me, you like to be able to see what's in a book's Table of Contents to get a feel for what sort of information is in the book and whether it's what you're looking for. Andrea has kindly given me permission to share EC Simplified's Table of Contents:

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EC Simplified: Infant Potty Training Made Easy

by Andrea Olson

Table of Contents

Welcome!

Who I Am

Who This Book is For

Why I Wrote This Book Backward...

Helpful Icons

Chapter I: How To EC

The Basics Part 1: When Does Baby Need to Potty?

Breakdown of Part 1, Step 1: Observe

Breakdown of Part 1, Step 2: Cue

Common Cues

Breakdown of Part 1, Step 3: Notice Baby's Signals

Types of Baby Signals

Babywearing Signals

Breakdown of Part 1, Step 4: Notice Baby's Natural Timing

Breakdown of Part 1, Step 5: Become Aware of Generic Timing

Generic Timing: Common Times That babies Need to Go

Breakdown of Part 1, Step 6: Notice Your Intuition

The Basics Part 2: How to Potty Your Baby

Breakdown of Part 2, Step 1: Notice It's Potty Time

Breakdown of Part 2, Step 2: Acknowledge, Undress, & Go to Potty Space

Possible Potty Environments

Possible Potty Receptacles

Breakdown of Part 2, Step 3: Position & Cue

Breakdown of Part 2, Step 4: Be Patient...

Breakdown of Part 2, Step 5: Notice When Baby Says “I'm Finished”

Breakdown of Part 2, Step 6: Reflect or Say Nothing

Breakdown of Part 2, Step 7: Clean Up

The Positions & Other Photos

Indoor EC Positions

Outdoor EC Positions

Car Pottying Positions

Pottying While Breastfeeding: Soaker Pad Setup & Positions

Aiming the Boy Penis: Positions

Diaper-Free Observation: Setting Up a Soaker Pad

Other Photos of Babies in Various Positions

Important Tips for Ecing

14 Tips for Your EC Practice

Chapter II: Unique Potty Situation How-to's

Unique Potty Situations and How-to's

Pottying While Breastfeeding

Pottying in Nature

City Pottying

Car Pottying (Next to Parked Car)
Car Pottying (Inside Parked Car)

Cold Weather Ecing

Nighttime EC

Key Points & Tips for Success

How to Protect Your Bed

Night Pottying Troubleshooting

If You Choose Not to Night Potty

How We've Done Our Nighttime EC Routines, Stage by Stage

Some Things to Remember

Late-Starters (5-12 mos) & Early Start Potty Training (12 mos+)

28 Tips for Starting Later

EC for Working Parents (& Other Part-Timers)

Tips for Maintaining a Part-time EC Practice

Caregivers & EC

Example: “A Day in the Life of a Working EC Parent”

How to Diaper with EC

Cloth Diapering Vocabulary

2 Cloth Diapering Methods

How to Pre-wash & Wash Cloth Diapers at Home

2 Disposable Diaper Options

Chapter III: Background & Philosophy

Defining EC

Baby Instincts

But How Could One Possibly Know a Baby Needs to Pee?

All Over the World... Except Here

Us Compared to 1/2 of the World

Many Names

Some Simple Definitions

Well, What About Conventional Toilet Training?

What EC is Not

Philosophy

Why EC Works

Social Conditioning

Why Ecing in Modern Society May Be More Difficult & Take Longer Than In Tribal Community

A Tribal Example (Balinese) from Jean Liedloff, author of The Continuum Concept

The Continuum Concept, EC, & Child-centeredness

Vocabulary

15 EC Terms Defined

When to Begin EC

What “Starting Early” Can Involve

Do I Have to Do EC 24/7?

But What If My Baby Doesn't “Ask” Me to Go?

A Gentle Commitment

What to Expect (Outcomes)

An Encouraging Note for Late Starters (5 months +)

Why Is It A Challenge to Start at 5 Months or Later?

Reasons Parents Don't Start Early

Keys to EC

13 Keys for Ease & Grace

Do I Have to Do Away With Diapers?

The Importance of Diaper-free Time

Benefits of EC

Over 18 Benefits of Doing EC

Chapter IV: Troubleshooting

Potty Pauses

Defined (Again)

Possible Reasons for Potty Pauses

How to Get Through a Potty Pause

An Alternative View on Potty Pauses – Just Part of the Learning Process

Troubleshooting

When It Stops Working

Why A Younger Baby Might Cry Every Time You EC

If a Non-newborn Baby Protests When You Offer a Pottytunity

Boy Babies & Aiming Penises

We're in Position & Cueing but Nothing is Happening

How to Deal with Your Own Frustration

How to Assess Your Situation

Chapter V: Gear

EC Gear: Clothing & Other Great Tools

Clothing

Potties & Accessories

Diapers & Accessories

Wipes

Creams

Pads

Baby Carriers

Miscellaneous Gear

DIY Gear

Chapter VI: Resources

Resources

Books About EC

Books About Related Parenting Styles

DVDs

Videos

Websites Featuring Info on EC

Websites that Sell EC Gear

EC Forums

Groups

Email Lists/Groups

More Online Resources By Subject

Bonuses

Fill-in-the-Blank Forms

Fill-in-the-Blank Signs

Reminder Signs

Bonus Guides & Letters

Exclusive Video Library

Thank You! 

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Looks fantastic doesn't it?!


For more information and to order, please visit EC Simplified. Your purchase through this link will support both Andrea's and my family business, so thank you in advance!

EC with a Newborn

I just wanted to pass along this great blog post on newborn EC from a customer of ours in Quebec, Canada. EC from birth is such a fantastic experience!

Where to Find Continuum Family Around the World

I am often asked if we offer our CF line of EC-friendly baby clothing and accessories at wholesale. The short answer is "sorry, no". While I love the idea of having other small businesses support us in bringing our custom items to as many places around the world as possible, we have made a conscious decision to keep things small here at Continuum Family. For now at least, it suits us best to be a family-sustaining business. We have embraced the business practice of smallering, which means we plan to grow the business only as much as we want to grow it, running our business instead of letting it run us.

That being said, there are currently two companies, Dream Nappies in Japan and Windelmaus in Austria, that are carrying select CF items. Dream Nappies carries our prefold belts and T-shirt tunics/gowns and Windelmaus carries our tiny undies and pull up training pants.

 tiny undies order destined for Austria

While we will remain the exclusive distributor for our CF line in North America, we will review any requests for other international companies to carry our CF items on a case by case basis.

Parenting… a Radical, Political Act

On a day recently when I was questioning my decision of 6 years ago to quit the office 9-5 and become a stay-at-home/work-at-home mom, a link to this article found it's way into my inbox. I felt immediately re-inspired...

The only thing I would add is: “Each time I take my baby to the potty and put reusable cloth on his bum I am sticking it to the disposable diaper industry and feeling good about minimizing my contribution to the landfill”.

Which Training Pants for EC?

Jane in Australia writes:

Hi,

I would love to order some of your training pants for my 10 month old daughter, Alice, and wanted to see which ones you would recommend - I haven't used training pants before, but was wanting some to hold one wee when we're out, and so not to wet Alice's clothes, but not too extra absorbant that I won't be able to tell if she's done a wee or not?

Thanks for your help,

Jane

For training pants, it's a bit of a trade off -- if you want something that won't wet outside clothing then you need to get ones with a waterproof (PUL) outer, yet these ones make it difficult to tell if they have gone without checking inside the pants. However, something that you will be able to see or feel easily that she has gone will likely wet the outer clothing to some degree. Training pants with a PUL layer inside give you the best of both worlds -- they generally won't wet outer clothing unless they're left on for a bit. Yet you should be able to feel them and see that she's gone. I would recommend going with bamboo training pants, as they are more absorbent than cotton. In particular, my CF Side Snap Trainers in bamboo, with optional PUL layer inside and bamboo velour inner are a very absorbent option. And I've just added some cute print outer options in bamboo interlock. I will also soon be getting some solid color outers in bamboo french terry.

Another good choice if you want a pull up option would be the EcoNix by BongoBaby. These have bamboo velour and inner PUL layer on the soaker section, although the body is cotton (organic).

In general, I recommend going with a side snap trainer unless you and your baby are fairly consistent with catching poops. ;)

EC Gift from Japan

I was touched and absolutely thrilled to receive this gift in the mail the other day:


It was from three of my Japanese customers -- a ceramic chamber pot and lid. In case you can't read the card, it says:

Dear Deirdre,

Hi. We hope you and your baby Malcolm are spending the sweet and intimate time! This chamber pot is a gift from the three of us. We find it extremely helpful in ECing baby boys :). Good luck!
Sincerely yours,
Keiko, Chiharu and Maiko from Japan
P.S. We love your hand-sewn baby gears. Thank you always.

I am really loving this pot! It is perfect for nighttime pottying. It is so much more stable than the plastic ones (no worry about spilling the potty contents all over the bed in the dark) but it's not that heavy. And, it is perfect for pottying a boy because it is deep enough that I can lower his bum right down inside without touching bottom and he doesn't pee over the top! :)

I will definitely be getting some of these for my store in the near future. They will be a great alternative to the plastic potty.

EC in Brazil

Tamara H. wrote:

Congratulations to your beautiful baby! I'm so glad I found your shop. I'm a German midwife living in Brazil and I'm looking forward to showing your things at Brazil's first and only EC group that I'm leading.

Warm wishes,
Tamara
http://www.slingando.com/

I'm so glad you found our shop too, Tamara! I love that my EC products are making their way around the world. Although I've had some go to Chile, these will be the first ones going to Brazil.


Tamara has chosen a great selection of EC trainers and undies to show parents interested in EC. I will be most interested to hear how her talk goes. For now, I must get back to sewing, before baby wakes... :)

Big in Japan

One of the things I love about having an online business is the opportunity to make contacts with people in many other countries. So far, I have had the pleasure of doing business with many European countries, Australia, and more recently Japan. In fact, this past month I had a surge of orders from Japan for some of my EC-related items such as our Continuum Family baby gowns, diaper belts, and split crotch pants. I found out through one of my Japanese customers that she is going to be one of the main presenters at an upcoming EC conference entitled "Babies do not need diapers -Quest for the lost physical abilities of human body" on November 2nd at Tsuda College and she wanted to have some of my supplies available for people interested. How exciting is that?! I was also able to facilitate a connection between this customer and Christine Gross-Loh, author of The Diaper Free Baby, as they both live in Japan. I had the song "I'm Big in Japan" by Tom Waits running through my head all day after that... :)

Update: Here's a picture she sent me after the conference of her makeshift EC store:

Custom Orders at Continuum Family

I'm getting more and more requests lately for custom orders for baby clothing, which is exciting. I love hearing about what people want that they can't find out there and seeing if I can help bring it to them. Here are some recent examples:

1) When Cathy in Australia wanted some split crotch pants for her baby daughter, she mentioned she was looking for something in a wind-resistant fabric. I happened to have some Solarweave on hand that I use to make pouch slings as well as summer baby blankets. Solarweave is a 100% nylon fabric that is wind and water resistant as well as having a minimum 30 SPF. I knew it would be too lightweight on its own to use for the pants, but I suggested to Cathy that we could line it with either a cotton interlock or polar fleece - she opted for polar fleece.



So, here's a picture of the finished pants with the cuff rolled up to show the coordinating fleece lining. I thought they turned out quite nicely, even though Solarweave is not easy to sew with as it has absolutely NO give to it. It was tricky to get it to fit well over the polar fleece.

However, Cathy was very pleased with the pants and sent me this photo and message:

Hi Deirdre,

Just a really quick email to tell you how much we love the pants!! Just tried them today during our unseasonably cold weather (meant to bet he hottest month!) and they fit well, soft and comfy, look great (much more discrete than I expected too), work well for pottying, and misses easily sopped up from the material. Although we don't yet have the cold winter wind I'm so happy to have some pants that are a bit wind resistant. We do lots of walking with her in the wrap, little legs hanging out. And then she is all for exploring - starting to crawl and walk - and the water resistance might make them a bit easier to clean, and definitely to dry them afterwards (I'm envisioning lots of muddy pants this year).

Thanks so much for making them,
Cathy

2) Another custom request we had was from Gloria in Bethlehem, PA who wrote me saying: "I loved the weight of the fleece in the split-crotch pants ... would it be possible to do custom fleece jogging style pants as well?"

I adjusted my pattern a bit and designed what I hoped would be a trim baby jogging pant that fits nicely over training pants or undies. Gloria was pleased with the final result and sent me this message:

Hi, Deirdre.

Thanks so much for the terrific fleece pants. Got them today - and so far, we LOVE THEM. I'd say the pants are an absolutely perfect fit. There's more room through the legs than in a more-fitted straight-leg or legging style pant (love that). The ankles are perfect. The waist is perfect. The rise is perfect. I'd say there might be enough room for a trim-fitting fitted diaper underneath. Not certain. Certainly enough room for diaper belt + prefold. They are by no means too baggy. I love them. They fit like sweat pants are supposed to fit. Perfect! Thank you!

Gloria

I will have these slim-fit fleece pants available on my site in the near future, as either a jogger with elasticized leg as these are or a straight leg pant.

3) Leslie in Honolulu, Hawaii wanted to order a bunch of potty cozys for her attachment parenting mother's club, but wasn't crazy about polar fleece. She wrote "I know this probably doesn't exist, but I would love to have a cozy that isn't made from plastic!" I told her I could make them for her from hemp/cotton fleece, which wouldn't have the water repellent qualities of polar fleece, but is a very durable and naturally antibacterial fabric. She was thrilled with the idea and promptly ordered a bunch of hemp fleece cozys and prefold diaper belts. I thought it was a great idea for a product, so have now added the hemp cozys to my site, for both the potty bowl and the regular potty.

I've also had some requests for custom items from the gorgeously soft merino wool interlock I'm using for trainer covers, which I'll be working on when I get my next order of wool in later in March. Keep those custom requests coming!

New Hemp Pull Up Pocket Pants

One of my customers recently asked me about getting some non-waterproof Pull Up Pocket Pants. She really liked the design, but she wasn't fond of PUL and prefers to use a wool cover for those times when she wants more protection. So, I asked Bongo Baby to do a custom order and here's what she sent:



Aren't these gorgeous? They're made of hemp terry on the outside and either hemp terry or bamboo velour on the inside. She dyed them with solar dyes to make them a little more interesting. In addition to the purple she also sent some done in an indigo tie dye:



I got a few extra pairs for my store, 'cause I think these are a great option for a stuffable but non-waterproof trainer.