This kit provides you with the basics for you to get started with EC

The EC Booklet helps you and any other carers understand EC quickly

The Top Hat Potty makes EC so much easier

Please note that most babies will outgrow the Top Hat Potty by 1 year of age.

Top Hat Potty

1. Place the Grip Band around the neck of the Top Hat Potty, where your legs will go.

2. Place the cotton cover on the top of the Potty.

3. Sit down and place the potty between your legs.

5. Place your baby on top of the potty. You may need to gently hold down the genital area if you have a boy.

6. Follow the EC process - when your baby has finished, you can use a Reusable Wet Wipe to clean their bottom.

7. Empty the Top Hat Potty in the toilet by removing half of the cotton cover and pouring the waste. Clean as required.

The Top Hat Potty is excellent to keep handy in the living area during the day or by the bed. It is perfect for taking out of the house or when you need to potty in the car and on-the-go. Please see more detailed instructions on the blog here.

Potty Dimensions: 17.8cm x17.8cm x 11.4cm

Weight: 141.8 grams

Top Hat Potty:

Recyclable, BPA-free Plastic

Top Hat Potty Cover: 100% cotton fleece

CaliBaby, under CaliWoods, is a bCorp-certified social enterprise that is woman-led, and NZ-owned.

EC Booklet:

Printed in NZ on recycled paper

No extra packaging.

Top Hat Potty

Tiny Undies, USA, in their China factory.

EC Booklet

Created by the CaliWoods team and printed by our local printing partner in Auckland, New Zealand

To Clean:

For day-to-day washing of your potty, please use warm water and soap.

For additional cleaning, use boiling water and soap or a vinegar-water mixture in a spray bottle.

Machine wash the Top Hat Potty Cover on a normal, warm machine wash cycle. Line or tumble dry low.

Care:

The Top Hat Potty is pretty low maintenance and easy to look after just please don’t put it under anything heavy.

End-Of-Life:

1. Donate or sell your Top Hat Potty on a second-hand marketplace. This gives it a second life and helps us to produce less and use fewer resources.

2. If your Top Hat Potty has reached the end of its life, remove the Grip Band and the Top Hat Potty Cover and then place it into your curbside recycling. Please landfill the grip band and the cover.

Shipping costs, shipping materials, carbon offsets, and estimates for delivery times can be found: HERE.

* Please note that all sales are final due to hygiene reasons.

EC is an option for families to potty babies by responding to their signals, natural rhythms, and parent/caregiver intuition. Their pees and poops are 'captured' in a potty, toilet, or out in nature, as opposed to relying solely on nappies. Nappies are used as a backup as there will be 'misses'.

To learn more about this have a read of the blogs HERE or join our Sustainable Babies in NZ support group HERE.

New to EC?

Read our Intro To Elimination Communication blog HERE

Or our EC FAQs - The Basics blog HERE

EC is an option for families to potty babies by responding to their signals, natural rhythms, and parent/caregiver intuition. Their pees and poops are 'captured' in a potty, toilet, or out in nature, as opposed to relying solely on nappies. Nappies are used as a backup as there will be 'misses'.

To learn more about this have a read of the blogs HERE or join our Sustainable Babies in NZ support group HERE.

Once you understand the basic techniques, EC is easy and slips into your daily routine. The hardest thing is overcoming our notions (and society’s!) of what the newborn and toddler period looks like. In Western culture, EC isn’t the norm, so there isn’t the family and cultural support that you would find in the East.

EC is an option that can be so rewarding for you and your baby! You will likely have nappy freedom earlier, less mess to clean, little to no nappy rash, and could even benefit from a less grizzly baby.

Each baby is different, and so is each parenting journey - commit to learning and have patience and compassion for you and your baby.

Resources:

1. The EC Basics Booklet has everything you need in hard copy to start. It’s an easy read for partners or family members to get them up to speed.

2. The Sustainable Babies in NZ Facebook group is a supportive community we created that has every question and EC-related topic we could think of to help you on your way.

3. The CaliBaby Blog has different posts that will help you get started with EC and the Top Hat Potty.

From birth to 12 months old.

Some babies will be able to use the potty after 12 months but this will depend on size. Often the behavioural patterns will change too and your toddler could prefer to use a floor potty or toilet.

Babies ages 0-18 months is EC. After 18 months, it is toilet training and the approach and techniques are different.

You can certainly do EC without a Top Hat Potty, the first year just won’t be as easy. There’s something magic about not having to get down onto the floor each time or being able to easily do EC in the car.

We did EC from birth and for the first few months we had no Top Hat Potty because we had to ship the potty from the States. We knew nobody who did EC before, and we weren’t sure it was actually a thing that would work. Let’s just say it worked really well and having the Top Hat Potty in the first few months would have been really helpful - and we relished it from 3 months onwards to about 12 months!

If you aren’t sure you could use a DIY version to try EC, like an ice cream container to trying holds over the sink or toilet, first.

The Top Hat Potty is easily emptied when your baby has finished. It’s just a matter of lifting the cover and then emptying the waste into the toilet. Rinse or clean with warm water and soap if required.

You will find that it’s a lot less cleaning than changing a soiled nappy. Please see the detailed cleaning instructions above.

The booklet gives an all-round view of EC as a technique and is perfect for beginners. It is also useful if you are practising EC but still are confused about some of the processes, want more insight, or are troubleshooting. Please remember that there is also online support in our FB Group ‘Sustainable Babies In NZ’ for any specific issues that you are coming across that aren’t covered in the booklet.

When designing the topics, layout, and graphics in the booklet we tried our best to give a solid foundation to the techniques and theory of elimination communication. It is such as big topic with lots of information, I found it hard to get a clear and concise summary when I was learning about it before our little boy was born. This is the probem I wanted to solve for parents that are completely new to EC.

Since the process varies wildly from child to child (even parents that have done EC with multiple children have said how different each baby was!) we can’t guarantee that you will find all the answers in the booklet but that is why we have online support for all those unique little things that will come up.

Domestic shipping: we aim for 2 business days, but please allow up to 5 days plus extra for rural delivery. International shipping could take up to 14 business days. Please refer to our Shipping Page for the most up-to-date information.

Due to supply chain challenges and courier delays, shipping times could be longer than usual. We are doing our best with this, so please contact us if you need customer service support for your order.

All our products are subject to quality control, and we provide a guarantee against manufacturer defects as per the Consumer Guarantees Act.

The guarantee covers any manufacturing, design, or material defect. Please notify us within 30 days of noticing any defects.

This warranty does not cover drops, blows, improper use, or other issues not attributable to a manufacturer's defects. Still, we do our best to help customers use our products for as long as possible. Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Yes, we offer full and partial refunds per the Consumer Guarantees Act. We cannot offer returns on this item for hygiene reasons. Please enquire for more information about our Refund Policy.