Talking Poop | 7 Month Old Goes on a Potty, Wait.... WHAT?

One of my very good friends and I have our eldest girls only a month apart. When our girls were around 6 moths old, we popped over there for lunch one day. When we were done my friend asked if I minded her little one going on a potty. She has previously said that she does a poop, every day on a POTTY. I really did not mind. I have never seen anything like it! Sure enough she did, just like my friend said, go to the toilet. She was 6 months old. I could not believe my eyes. 

SO.... I never bothered to try it with my youngest because we had a ton of free nappies and I just did not understand how to go about it. But now with my 2nd babe in reusable nappies the thought of scooping real poop out is just not very appealing. So, we gave it a go. 

When Sisi turned 6 months we started Baby Lead Weaning. Quicker than I though she started to gobble food down (proof in the poop I say!) and washing her poopy reusable nappies became impossible without, well, scooping the stuff out. So one day, with Sisi just over 6 months when I saw she was trying to go to the toilet I grabbed the potty and put her on and she went to the toilet on a potty for the very first time. And that really was it.... We carried on. Every time I see she is trying to go I put her on. She will now wait until she is sitting down.

From then on we had a few misses where she had done it at nigh and right after her nap, but any other time I saw she was trying- on a potty she went. My friend used sign language for poop every time her little one went (we use sign language for 'thank you' as I completely misremembered how to sing 'potty', but of course it can be any sign as long as you are consistent!). The idea being that the child will later sign when potty is needed (babies are able to sign long before they can speak, or so I am told). We are only few weeks into this but in the last week, no misses (no jokes). 

From what my friend explained they quickly become accustomed to doing this to the point where they will hold the poop UNTIL you put them on the potty. Babies are so clever. I am still so amazed at this and I would honestly put a video up if it wasn't, well, so personal. This system does have a proper name - Elimination Communication, if you fancy looking more into it. I can't recommend it enough. Have you tried this? Or do you think it's a time waster?