Tracking elimination communication: a practical guide

What elimination communication is

Elimination communication (EC) means responding to your baby's need to pee or poop the way you respond to hunger or tiredness: you learn the signs and offer a potty, bowl, or sink at the right moment. The term was coined by Ingrid Bauer in 2001, though the practice is far older and common in many parts of the world.

Most families who try EC start somewhere between birth and about four months, but you can begin at any point in infancy. It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing: many start with one predictable moment, like after a nap, and keep diapers as backup, often until somewhere between 9 and 18 months. Pediatricians generally consider EC safe as long as it stays gentle and low-pressure.

Parents usually lean on four tools:

• Timing: babies tend to go at predictable moments, like right after waking, 5 to 20 minutes after a feed, or when a diaper comes off.
• Signals: squirming, grunting, going still, fussing at the breast, or a particular face.
• Intuition: that “I think they need to go” feeling, which gets sharper with practice.
• Cueing: a sound like “psss” that you make while your baby pees, so it becomes an association over time.

Tracking strengthens the first tool, and the first tool is the easiest one to learn from a log.

Why track EC at all?

• Timing is invisible until it's written down. In the fog of newborn life, you won't remember that the last three pees all came about 15 minutes after a feed. A log does.
• Caregivers need the same picture. If a partner, grandparent, or nanny takes a shift, “when did they last pee?” is the most useful thing to know.
• Progress is easy to miss. On a hard day it can feel like nothing is working. A week of logs often shows more catches than you thought.

What to log for each catch or miss

1. Time. Log as it happens or backdate it; exact minutes matter less than consistency.
2. Catch or miss. Did it land in the potty or the diaper?
3. Pee, poop, or both. Poops are usually easier to catch and follow different rhythms from pees.
4. Context. Just woke? Mid-feed? In the carrier? Just out of the car seat? This is what turns a list of times into a pattern.
5. Dry diaper checks (optional). A dry diaper after a nap is good news: it often means a catch is likely right now.

Skip anything that makes logging feel like a chore. A log you keep for two weeks beats a perfect log you abandon after two days.

How to read your EC log

After three to seven days, look back over the log and ask a few questions:

• What happens after waking? This is the most reliable catch for many babies. If most post-nap events are misses, try offering the potty before anything else.
• How long after a feed? Note the gap between a feed and the next pee or poop. If it's consistent, set your offer for just before then.
• When do misses cluster? Late afternoon, car rides, and busy outings are common miss times. That's fine; many families simply don't try EC then.
• Is the gap between pees growing? As babies get older, the time between pees usually stretches, and your offers can spread out too.

Treat misses as information, not failure. A miss tells you the timing was off, which is exactly what you need to adjust.

Does EC make a difference later?

Research is limited but encouraging. A 2023 survey of more than 11,000 children aged 2 to 6 in China found that those whose families started EC before 12 months were much less likely to still depend on disposable diapers. It was an observational study, so it shows an association rather than proof that EC caused the difference.

How to track EC in bao

bao is a free baby tracker with a built-in, opt-in EC mode. EC is something only some families practice, so it stays hidden until you turn it on:

1. Open Settings and turn on Elimination Communication.
2. When you log a diaper or potty event, the first choice becomes Catch or Miss, followed by pee, poop, or both.
3. A miss is also saved as a diaper change, so your diaper counts and insights stay accurate whether or not you do EC that day.
4. Catches and misses show on your shared timeline, so every caregiver you invite sees when your baby last went.

The other dedicated option we know of is The Log: Potty Training + EC from Go Diaper Free, a free app for iPhone and Android with timing graphs, potty alarms, and EC lessons. It logs pees and poops rather than catches and misses, its iPhone version hasn't been updated since 2023, and users report that logs don't sync between partners, which is where a shared tracker like bao helps.

When your little one moves into the toddler stage, bao's potty training mode takes over, with attempts, successes, accidents, and sticker rewards. See our roundup of the best potty training apps for more on that stage.

Tips that make EC tracking stick

• Log in one tap. Use an app you already have open for feeds and sleep, so EC isn't a separate notebook.
• Track the wins, not the score. Part-time EC with a handful of catches a day is still EC.
• Share the log. When everyone logs into the same timeline, the next person knows when to offer.
• Re-check patterns every few weeks. Growth spurts, new foods, and teething all shift timing.
• Ask your pediatrician if you notice anything unusual, like pain, a big change in how often your baby pees, or blood in a diaper.