So that you can confidently guide interested parents
In your work, it is often about providing guidance to parents without dictating a specific path. Especially during the postpartum period, families don't need new ideals. They need peace, knowledge, and the confidence to find their own way.
Elimination Communication can be a helpful option for some families. For others, it's not a good fit. Both are okay.
Our concern is not that every family lives diaper-free. Our concern is that parents should know that, besides disposable diapers and cloth diapers, there is another option: Elimination Communication.
You don't have to recommend Elimination Communication. But you can explain what it is—and what it isn't.
What you'll find here
Three ways you can professionally categorize, deepen, and lovingly convey elimination communication to interested families.
Essential knowledge for you
A compact introduction to Elimination Communication (EC), diaper-free living, and potty training — with a clarification of terms, a distinction from conventional toilet training, and simple wording for parent counseling.
Basic information for parents
A quiet, basic information page for interested families. It explains elimination communication simply, neutrally, and without product focus – so you can give parents a link without advertising.
Online Course for Midwives
A specialist 1-hour online course on elimination communication in midwifery — with basic knowledge, communication techniques, and specific situations from everyday family life.
Excretion is a need
Babies express many needs: hunger, tiredness, closeness, overstimulation, discomfort. Elimination is also part of a baby's bodily experience.
Elimination communication means that parents offer their baby the opportunity to relieve themselves outside of the diaper at appropriate moments — for example, over a potty, sink, or bowl.
The diaper can stay on. It's not a sign of failure, but often simply a backup.
Elimination communication describes precisely this exchange: parents perceive that their baby might need to eliminate and offer them an opportunity. Without pressure. Without coercion. Without the expectation that it must always work.
FROM THE HOLDING-BACK SUPPORT
Another piece of the puzzle in parent-child communication
Elimination is a need, like hunger, tiredness, or closeness.
Bonding happens during breastfeeding, feeding, cuddling, rocking, and carrying—and it can also happen during elimination.
When parents are allowed to perceive elimination as a physical need, another piece of the puzzle in communicating with their baby can emerge.
Not as a new task. But as an opportunity to understand the baby even better.
Diaper-free doesn't mean: without a diaper
The term "elimination communication" is often misunderstood. It does not mean that a baby is not allowed to wear a diaper. Nor does it mean that parents should start toilet training as early as possible.
Many families practice EC only partially: during diaper changes, after waking up, after breastfeeding, or when they notice their baby becoming restless.
That's why we like to refer to it as part-time EC.
Because this term takes the pressure off. It's not about all or nothing. It's about an offering.
Who is this page for?
This page is aimed at individuals and institutions who do not want to persuade parents, but rather want to provide them with knowledge.
Elimination communication doesn't have to be right for every family. But interested parents should be allowed to understand what elimination communication is — calmly, professionally, and without pressure.
For Midwives
You support families during pregnancy, the postpartum period, and early parenthood. Parents might ask you about elimination communication. Perhaps you yourself want to better understand what "pottying" means and how to professionally categorize it.
Here you will find a calm foundation to guide interested parents without judgment — without prescribing a particular path for them.
For Birthing Centers
You often support families in a very close, holistic, and relationship-oriented way. Elimination communication can be a supplementary topic for courses, info evenings, postpartum discussions, or parent materials.
Not as a concept that families must adopt. But as an option they can be aware of.
For training facilities
For universities of applied sciences, universities, and other educational institutions, elimination communication can be a complementary topic in midwifery training—for example, in the context of the postnatal period, child development, sensitivity, co-regulation, and parental counseling.
The focus is not on products, but on professional classification, attitude, and counseling skills.
For Associations & Organizations
For midwifery associations, professional organizations, and institutions, elimination communication can be an interesting topic for further training, professional inspiration, or exchange.
Our approach is deliberately undogmatic: the aim is not to convince people of “nappy-free” (elimination communication), but to shed light on a little-known topic in a professional, open, and nuanced way.
FOR MIDWIVES
When parents ask you about "nappy-free" / elimination communication
Perhaps parents ask you directly about elimination communication. Perhaps they tell you that they want to use fewer diapers. Perhaps you observe a baby who becomes restless during diaper changes, breastfeeding, or before a bowel movement.
In such cases, it can be helpful to be able to explain EC calmly and clearly.
Not as a recommendation that must apply to everyone. But as an option.
A simple formulation for your consultation could be:
„Neben Einwegwindeln und Stoffwindeln gibt es auch Abhalten. Das bedeutet, dass ihr eurem Baby in passenden Momenten anbietet, sich außerhalb der Windel zu erleichtern. Ihr müsst dafür nicht komplett windelfrei leben. Die Windel darf einfach Backup bleiben.“
Gerade im Wochenbett ist diese Haltung wichtig: Eltern müssen nichts zusätzlich schaffen. Sie dürfen etwas ausprobieren, wenn es sich leicht anfühlt.
Und sie dürfen es genauso wieder lassen.
FOR BIRTHING CENTERS
Another topic for your parent engagement
Birth centers often create space for questions that go beyond standard information: How do we want to support our baby? How can we recognize their needs? What approaches suit our family?
Elimination Communication (EC) can be valuable complementary knowledge here.
Not as a concept that families must adopt. But as an option they are welcome to know about.
Abhalten kann in Geburtshäusern dort seinen Platz finden, wo Familien offen über bindungsorientierte Babybegleitung, Körperwahrnehmung, Wochenbett, Nachhaltigkeit oder den Alltag mit Neugeborenen sprechen.
Ihr könnt das Thema zum Beispiel einbinden in:
- Geburtsvorbereitungskurse
- Wochenbettgespräche
- Elternabende
- Informationsmaterialien
- Kurse rund um natürliche Babybegleitung
- Gespräche zu Stoffwindeln, Nachhaltigkeit oder wundem Po
Für Geburtshäuser stellen wir gern Informationsmaterial und Flyer bereit. Auf Wunsch kann auch ein kurzer Online-Impuls oder Workshop für euer Team oder eure Elternangebote stattfinden.
FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Exclusion Communication in Training and Education
Elimination communication touches on several topics relevant to midwifery education: infant development, the postnatal period, parent counselling, sensitivity, co-regulation, body awareness, and attachment-oriented support.
The term "diaper-free" is often misunderstood. This is precisely why it can be useful to categorize the topic professionally: What is elimination communication? What is it not? What are the opportunities, limitations, and typical misunderstandings?
We are happy to provide a compact workshop concept for universities of applied sciences, universities, and other training institutions.
Im Mittelpunkt steht nicht die Frage, ob Familien windelfrei leben sollten. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Fähigkeit, ein wenig bekanntes Thema fachlich einzuordnen und Eltern wertfrei zu begleiten.
Mögliche fachliche Bezüge sind:
- Wochenbettbetreuung und frühe Elternzeit
- Eltern-Kind-Kommunikation
- Feinfühligkeit und Co-Regulation
- kindliche Entwicklung und zunehmende Autonomie
- Körperwahrnehmung und körperliche Bedürfnisse
- wertfreie Elternberatung
- Abgrenzung zu Sauberkeitstraining
Auf Wunsch stellen wir ein kurzes Konzept mit Lernzielen, Ablauf und fachlicher Ausrichtung zur Verfügung.
FOR ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS
Specialist impulse or further training on excretion communication
For midwifery associations, professional organizations, and institutions, elimination communication can be an interesting topic for further training, professional impulses, or exchange.
Our approach is deliberately undogmatic.
It is not about convincing midwives to practice diaper-free parenting. It is about shedding light on a little-known topic in a professional, open, and nuanced way.
The workshop provides background knowledge, language, and counseling confidence so that interested parents can be well supported – without pressure to perform and without dictating a specific path.
Im Mittelpunkt steht nicht die Verbreitung einer Methode, sondern die fachliche Einordnung: Was ist Ausscheidungskommunikation? Was ist sie nicht? Wie können Eltern informiert werden, ohne dass daraus ein neues Ideal entsteht?
Für Verbände und Organisationen stellen wir gern ein detailliertes Workshop-Konzept zur Verfügung.
Enthalten sind unter anderem:
- Titel und Zielsetzung des Workshops
- Zielgruppe und Dauer
- Lernziele
- inhaltlicher Ablauf
- fachliche Haltung und Abgrenzung
- Hinweis zur Produktneutralität
- Angaben zur Teilnahmebescheinigung
Auf Wunsch kann der Workshop als Online-Fortbildung, kurzer Fachimpuls oder gemeinsamer Austausch umgesetzt werden.
OUR STANCE
Perceive. Understand. Offer options. Let parents decide.
Good support does not mean dictating a solution.
It means providing knowledge and empowering parents to find out what suits their child, their life situation, and their resources.
Precisely this attitude underlies our work.
Elimination Communication can be an option. No obligation. No goal that must be achieved. No judgment.
The responsibility and decision remain with the family.
„Wir möchten nicht, dass Eltern noch etwas leisten müssen. Wir möchten, dass sie eine Möglichkeit mehr kennen — und frei entscheiden dürfen, ob sie zu ihnen passt.“
Genau deshalb sprechen wir über Abhalten und Windelfrei ruhig, fachlich und ohne Druck.
Nicht jede Familie wird Abhalten nutzen. Nicht jede Familie braucht es. Aber jede Familie sollte wissen dürfen, dass es diese Möglichkeit gibt.
FLYER FOR PARENTS
Something quiet to pass on
Sometimes it's helpful to give parents something they can read at their leisure later.
That's why we provide a parent flyer on Elimination Communication. It briefly explains what Elimination Communication is, what "diaper-free" does not mean, and how families can start small.
Without pressure. Without perfection. And with the diaper as a backup.
Der Flyer ist für interessierte Familien gedacht — nicht als Aufforderung, windelfrei zu leben, sondern als einfache Erklärung einer Möglichkeit, die viele Eltern noch nicht kennen.
Du kannst ihn in deiner Praxis, in Kursen, im Geburtshaus oder bei einzelnen Wochenbettbesuchen weitergeben, wenn Eltern mehr über Abhalten erfahren möchten.
Der Flyer eignet sich besonders für:
- Hebammenpraxen
- Geburtshäuser
- Geburtsvorbereitungskurse
- Wochenbettbegleitung
- Elternabende
- Familien, die nach Windelfrei oder Abhalten fragen
Wenn du Flyer für deine Arbeit bestellen möchtest, kannst du uns eine kurze Anfrage schicken.
Frequently Asked Questions
Answered briefly and clearly — so you can confidently classify Elimination Communication and diaper-free living.
As a midwife, do I have to recommend elimination communication?
No. That's not what it's about. It's enough if you can explain to interested parents what elimination communication is, what it isn't, and how they can start without pressure.
Elimination communication is one option. Not an obligation. Not a recommendation that has to be suitable for every family.
Is Elimination Communication early potty training?
No. When doing elimination communication, the baby doesn't have to do anything. It's not about a baby being potty-trained early or gaining control over their bladder and bowels.
The caregiver offers an opportunity. The baby may accept or not.
Do parents have to be completely diaper-free?
No. Many families continue to use diapers as a backup. Some only practice EC during diaper changes, others after waking up or when they notice specific cues.
Part-time EC is a more relaxed entry point for many families.
What if parents don't recognize signs?
Then they can start with simple standard situations: during diaper changes, after waking up, or after breastfeeding.
Parents don't have to be able to read every signal. They can simply offer something at appropriate moments.
What if parents are overwhelmed?
Then elimination communication does not have to be an issue. Especially during the postpartum period, some families first need rest, sleep, healing, breastfeeding support, or emotional stabilization.
Sometimes one sentence is enough for later: "If you're ever curious, you can simply try it out during diaper changes."
Is the online course a product presentation?
Is there a certificate of attendance?
Yes, a certificate of participation can be issued for the online course, detailing its duration and content.
The formal recognition of the course depends on the respective regulations in the country, federal state, or canton.
Can I forward the parent page?
Yes. That's exactly what it's for.
The basic information page for parents explains elimination communication calmly and understandably, without product focus, without registration, and without pressure.
Can I order flyers for parents?
Yes. You can request free flyers to distribute in your practice, in courses, at the birthing center, or to interested families.
Is Elimination Communication suitable for every family?
No. And it doesn't have to be.
Holding back a year is one option. Some families benefit from it, others don't. The important thing is that parents can decide without pressure.