Hi Moms,
Just wondering if anyone has ever used glycerin (a laxative) to help their child get over fear of pooping on the toilet. You insert it in their butt and they are supposed to poop within a minute or so (just enough time to get them on the toilet). My son will not poop on the toilet at all but he is fine with going pee. He's been wearing underwear for awhile now and that's not helping. My sister recommended it to me and I know it sounds a little crazy but she did it with her daughter who was afraid and it worked after one time. I'm planning on asking the pediatrician but just wanted some thoughts from other moms out there. Also, if you have other solutions to overcoming fear of pooping on the toilet please share them. Thanks!
Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts and experiences. This really helps, especially the moral support! We have been using a reward system of stickers for peeing (same as at his preschool) on the potty and I've offered a smiley faced cookie for him if he goes poop on the potty. Well...I did try the glycerin once and he did poop on the potty but then pooped later in his pull up right before his nap. It startled him a little but I did not have to fight him to insert it and he seemed proud afterwards. I probably won't try it again for awhile (if at all) and will see the ped tomorrow to get his thoughts. My son is normally very regular (1 or 2 poops per day) and it's getting pretty messy with the underwear so yes I'm getting a little impatient. His teachers think he is ready and so do I so we'll see. He still does not normally tell us when he has to pee (or after he has an accident). Is this typical?
I have used glycerin for constipation on my son as an infant but not for potty training. I am in the same boat as you are. My son will pee for the most part on the potty but is scared to poop. I know if he would just do it once he would be fine. I let him run around naked and he pees but when its poop time he asks for a diaper....so I know he knows when he has got to go....he is 3. I will be watching this for advice...good luck to you!!!
If he is pooing fine then don't use it. I had the same experience with my little boy (now 5 1/2). He was peeing in the toilet but not pooing for a long time. I thought it was becasue I didn't really train him to pee sitting down, that's why he's not used to sitting on a toilet. At around 4 when he finally stopped wearing diapers, he would still ask for it to poo. So he'd wear his diapers just to poo. Crazy. It went on for some time until one day he just decided he could poo in the toilet. I think those materials from kandoo helped. But bottomline is, it takes sometime for these poor kids to muster courage to sit on the bowl and let's not rush it. At the start I have to assure him I'll wipe his butt (not him) or he'll not do it. But after a while, he started wiping by himself. So, good luck!
I am having the same problem with my 2.5 yo DD. I wouldn't recommend the glycerin though. Number one, although a suppository seems like a simple deal, those tissues are delicate and the less they are tampered with the best. It is possible to cause small tears, trauma, and even perforation to the area when inserting suppositories. You may notice that rectal thermometers are rarely used anymore, that's why. Also, using medication when it's not needed, even over the counter, is really not a very good idea.
Second, it may be somewhat traumatic for you son to have that put in. Especially if he tries to fight you. So then he will be even more scared of the potty and associate the pooping with it. And later in life if he does need a suppository for something he will have bad associations already.
My DD does well with rewards, I would recommend a system like that. Or just wait a couple of months and try again. He may have matured somewhat and be more ready.
Good luck.
I had the same issue, and tried underwear and it didn't work. I instead used the reward system. We created a chart and picked something he really wanted (a Thomas the Train engine) and told him that if he pooped on the potty 4 times he would get the toy. We used stars everytime he did.
Then we switched to lollipops so the train took about 2 weeks and then we did the lollipops for another couple of weeks, and then he just started doing it regularly.
I would be afraid that doing the glycerin might make him more afraid.
Karen,
I did try it with my 3.5 yo daughter. She would pee on the potty, but she was not pooping for days and would only poop in her pullup. I was concerned that she was creating a circle of constipation which would make the poop hurt coming out and she would continue to hold it. So I had read about the glycerin and mineral oil and talked it over with my pediatrician. The glycerin is supposed to clean them out of all poop and you may have to do it for a couple days. Then I was to start mineral oil 3x per day until she was pooping every day and it was soft, but not diarreha (sp?). I was only able to do the glycerin 2 days, after that she ran and screamed about it. Suppositories are a pain, I have had to use them before (tylenol type) when my kids were vomiting so much they could not keep tylenol down for their fever. And the mineral oil did not last long either, I was putting it in her juice and milk and she stopped drinking it when she realized I was doing it with all her drinks.
So, instead I used prune juice, actually a combination of prune and apple juice (2/3 prune 1/3 apple). She actually liked to drink it and it made her regular again. After about 2 weeks of giving her the juice 2x a day, she is fully potty trained. It only took 3 days to get her regular and another 10 days to consistently poop on the potty.
I don't know if this will help the fear, but it definitely helped my daughter become regular so the poop would come consistently. I have to say that when she was holding back and the poop would come it was very large (sorry to be so explicit) and I imagined that it had to hurt her.
I hope this helps!!
My 3 year old daughter had been peeing on the potty for a good 6 months, but refused to go poop on the potty. She was scared to death of it and just wouldn't do it.
I just kept reminding her that she was a big girl if I saw her starting to go I would ask her to go on the potty but I didn't force it, she would resist even more. I had used stickers for pee and she would get 1 sticker every time she went pee, so I told her that if she would go poop on the potty she would get 2 stickers. I also made sure she went into the bathroom with me or my husband when we went to show her that there is nothing to be scared of and tried to make it fun for her.
It took several weeks but all of sudden she just started going on her own. Now she doesn't even ask for the stickers anymore, but she does announce it loudly in the house when she does go.
Hang in there, they will get it and I strongly recommend a reward system that worked for us. Good luck, I know how frustrating it is.
When my son was holding his poop during potty training, our ped told us to use mineral oil. It's a lubricant and laxative, but it's not abosorbed by the body. The child won't be able to hold it, it's not IMMEDIATE though, take about a day and you can't overdose them on it, because you body doesn't absorb anything.
This worked really well and we had little problems after he was going regularly (which is usually the problem, they hold it hurts, they don't want to go, etc).
Good Luck!
C.
Well I did. And he was 8 months at that time. So he wasn't afraid, only curious. And it helped only after a couple of days use. He started pooping on the potty ever since. I have given a detailed answer on this portal to someone else's question.
