Query binding

Hi
I want to sanitize the database queries and I plan to do this with query bindings.

Unfortunately the manual does not show any examples of how to do this with the query building class ($this->db->where ('mycol',$userdata), only examples of query binding with custom written queries such as $myQuery = " SELECT * FROM ....".

Is there any way I can continue to use the query building class while introducing bindings? I really dont want to have to re write every query in every omegle shagle model.