Go read the Disclaimer again. I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. Seriously.
I looked at a bunch of changing tables, and agonized a bit over this one. On the one hand, it looked useful. On the other hand, it had all of the earmarks of another piece of nursery furniture, which for us, didn't make a lot of sense. Our child has storage furniture (a chest of drawers, a shelf in the library, a trunk for the really nice gift blankets, most of the etagere in the bathroom for diapering paraphernalia -- but I get ahead of myself), but he mostly sleeps in our bed (occasionally napping in the swing, on a sheepskin, or in a basket if he isn't in someone's arms). We never set up a nursery and we don't ever intend to.
When I have baby sat, I usually ended up changing diapers on the floor (or on a towel on the floor, if we were being unusually fastidious) and I watch enough Oprah and Dr. Phil to know that this isn't that unusual when dads are taking care of the kids. I knew I couldn't travel with a changing table, so I thought maybe I'd get a fairly deluxe changing pad and just use that at home and away. Nice piece of continuity for us all. So that's what we did.
The problem then arose: where to put the pad? Well, if we were going to try to get the baby to pee in the sink, the bathroom counter was the logical location. And once the pad was by the sink, the diapers and wipes (more about those in a moment) and ointments (we mostly use olive oil) and so forth congregated about. We ultimately bought an etagere to go above the toilet to store most of this stuff, because the vanity around the sink just wasn't well organized for this purpose. As Teddy grows, we'll probably have to come up with another solution. I'll add more as we do.
We did finally break down and by a second deluxe pad to store in a backpack, stocked with wipes and a few diapers. After we purchased the potty and had it for a while, we purchased a duplicate of that, as well, to store in the car.
Of course, we haven't used the duplicates yet. Go figure. We just carry them around with us and never use them, which I suppose is okay, too. Now that Teddy is rolling over, it's quite dangerous having him on the counter by the sink (he's already rolled into the sink once, fortunately, not yet off the counter and onto the garbage and diaper pail).
A General Discussion of Toilet Learning
A General Discussion of Diapering
Our Experience with Elimination Communication
Elimination Communication Gear
Copyright 2006 by Rebecca Allen.
Created February 3, 2006 Updated April 17, 2006