Alicia Silverstone is elaborating on her unique parenting practices.
In an interview for The Ellen Fisher Podcast, the Clueless alum, 45, shared that she and her son Bear, 11, still sleep in the same bed together. She also opened up about the “elimination communication” technique she used when Bear was a baby in an effort to potty train him early.
“Bear and I still sleep together,” Silverstone said. “I’ll be in trouble for saying that and I don’t really care.”
The actor went on to describe motherhood as the “most unbelievable experience in this world,” explaining that when Bear was first born, she wanted to “savor every moment of his life.”
“I wanted to have more [babies], but then my relationship got messed up and it was not a great time to bring one in,” she said. “I didn’t want to have one right away because I was so in love with my Bear. I wanted to squeeze every little moment out of him so it wasn’t until he was 3 that I was ready to make another baby — and then I didn’t have a partner, so that’s why I don’t have four babies.”
Silverstone shares Bear with ex-husband, musician Christopher Jarecki. The two officially divorced in 2018 but continue to co-parent their little one together.'
The Crush star, who’s spoken publicly about the benefits of being a vegan and raising her son vegan, also touched on using the “elimination communication” method, pointing out that Bear "never went poop in a diaper again after 8 months."
As written about by Yahoo Life in January, elimination communication, or EC, as described by an American Academy of Pediatrics journal article, is a potty-training method "using the infant's natural timing and cues to recognize when they need to defecate or urinate." By identifying these cues, caregivers can “coordinate elimination in the toilet rather than in a diaper."
Silverstone, who started practicing EC with Bear at 6 months old, said she found immediate results by immediately placing baby Bear on the toilet when she was done feeding him and after he would wake up from a nap.
“Babies wake up a lot and babies eat a lot, so if you just practice putting them to the bathroom after that, that will knock out half your diaper usage,” the actor added of the practices that worked best for her.
Picking up a baby's unique cues for when they need to go potty, she added, is a fun part of the process.
“There was a period of time where I was watching him naked and watching the cues,” she said of Bear. “The cues part for me was really fun because I thought that he was flirting with me because he would do this little smile. That’s when he had to pee.”
Despite whatever criticism people have of Silverstone’s parenting — from veganism to bathing with Bear in the tub or allowing his hair to grow long — the actor said “every choice I make is either built on instinct or deep research.”
“Nurturing this little monkey and having him, you know, I just wanted to do what was healthiest for him at every turn,” she said.
The actor has been unapologetic about the important lessons she wishes to instill in her son. Last year, Silverstone spoke to Yahoo Life about how she encourages Bear to be "whoever he is in his heart and soul."
"I know that innately it is my job to be his teacher, but I think we mostly teach by example," she said at the time. "I’m not running around shouting and getting angry and telling him what to do; that’s not how he is. I see children who get very angry and throw tantrums a lot, and you look at the parents and it’s not much different. They have to look inside themselves to see how they’ve got there.