Potty trained...except for Poop

My son had the same difficulty. He was pee-trained for 4 months before being poop trained. What finally worked for him was to break it into stages that he could successfully manage. 1st stage, poop (in diaper ... he was normally in undies at this point, but I'd put him in a diaper to poop) in the bathroom, any position he wanted. 2nd stage, poop (in diaper) sitting down in the bathroom (he chose the floor). 3rd stage, poop (in diaper) sitting on the potty. 4th stage, poop in the potty. We stayed at eat stage until it was comfortably mastered. He also got small rewards (a small candy) for doing it according to the correct stage. Stage 1 was easy. Stage 2 and 3 were harder, but since he felt like he could do it, he was really motivated, and worked on it. Stage 4 was simple, because he had gained the confidence he needed when the diaper was still on. Also, definitely load up on the fiber, at least while training. You want the bowel movements to be fairly soft (and nonpainful). Good luck!

Our son was afraid of pooping in the potty. One day when I knew he needed to go I had him sit there until he went. He had books to look at and I read to him. Ileft him alone and just kept encouraging him. I wasn't harsh but told him he needed to go in the potty. At first he was working harder to hold it in and then finally gave up and went. I made a HUGE deal, called Daddy and the grandparents, etc. I knew that if he did it once, we would be home free and sure enough he was officially trained after that. Plus, I wouldn't let him wear his big boy underwear until he was pooping in the potty, too. I told him that he had to go poopy in the potty 4 times before he could wear his underwear because I knew it was a fear issue and wanted to make sure he was really over it

If I were you I'd just plan to stay home for a few days so you can catch him. Then have a big reward ready.

My daughter was a different story and was just being stubborn. I decided to put her in panties and told her that if she pooped in her panties she would have to sit by the washer until they were washed and dried. Two times doing that and she was ready to use the potty instead of her panties. She sat in a little chair but didn't get to have books or toys while she waited. It had to be a miserable experience.
Good luck. He will get there.

Even if he does poop in the potty doesn't mean he will get it. My daughter will be 2 1/2 in a few weeks, and has been potty trained since april/may area. She still has the problem with the poop. We have the same issue, that she doesn't go daily, so it's hard to schedule that. She gets extra goodies if she doesn't go any in her pants and all on the toilet, but even then it's still a challenge. She is getting better, where it's just some in the underswear and most in the toilet. but i have heard it can take about a year for them to really get the pooping down.

The prevvious poster pointed out about the potty seat. I didn't have that problem with my daugther, but i know enough other parents who did. Once they moved to the small potty, all of a sudden the kid would start going a ton better. So that is definatly worth a try to get him to start going.

When my son was this age, he LOVED Thomas the Train. I bought a few Thomas the train trains and a package of jet air planes. I divied them up into paper bags and put the paper bags on top of the refrigerator. He could see the bags up there and knew there were prizes in them. He got to pick a bag each time he went poop in the potty. There were 10 bags in all and by the time he had done it 10 times, he was trained.

Good luck!
L.

Hi S.-

Pooping is a whole other ball game when potty training. It is rarely easy or quick.

I suggest loading your son with fluids, (water) and fiber to make pooping easy and necessary daily. Then just praise & encourage him to poop in the potty.

Make sure you have a toddler padded seat on the toilet to make it comfortalbe and not scary. Children are often scared they'll fall in or be flushed away.

I hope this helps.

R. Magby

There is lots of good advice here. My son had the same fear and despite all our praise and rewards, was still afraid. One other thing that we tried was letting him stand by the potty as long as he wanted. He would actually push standing up for a while and then we would put him on the potty at the right moment. I think for him, knowing that he could do it his way made it less appealing and after a day or two of that, he was no longer interested in standing up and would sit down with no fear. And another thing, sometimes holding him over the big potty with no little seat helps because their bums are so far down, the poop practically falls out!

Ok, does he have his own little potty, or using the big boy? Maybe he's afraid of falling in or some other strange reason.............talk to him, ask him why......tell him all big boys do this......

Maybe if you offer something bigger than M&M's......like a toy that he would really like to have......not an expensive one, but one that would be cool..........talk to him about it, maybe even go shop and look for it..........then once he does, he gets it.............bribery at this age works great most of the time!!!

Good Luck...and take care.

My grandchildren started potty trainin at the age of 1yrs. old, for some reason they love readin the newspaper( comics) so thats what we would give them, that way they weren`t scared to sit on potty... The youngest who is 2yrs. now gets his daddy magazines and will stay on for a hour if we let him... I hope this helped......

My son turned two in March, and he has been pee-trained since the end of June. He has been pooping in the potty since then too, although he still has poop accidents occasionally, usually within 10 minutes of going on the potty - like he wasn't finished - even though he says he is.

We struggled for about a week before he went for the first time. I took him out of diapers completely and let him poop in his underwear (not intentionally, but if he wouldn't go in the potty, that's where it happened). Before this, he was pefectly content to sit in a poopy diaper if I would have let him. Once he didn't have the diaper on, he was uncomfortable in the dirty underwear and told me right away. Once he realized he wasn't going to get a diaper back, he made more of an effort to go in the potty. My son is usually a twice a day pooper so he couldn't hold it for long. We also gave him apple juice, oatmeal, and yogurt with probiotics (Kirkland brand). This did the trick within an hour.

I suggest getting rid of the diapers all together and just be prepared to clean a lot of dirty underwear. It might take a day or two of not going anywhere, but it will be worth it once he gets it. (I still carry an extra pair of underwear and shorts in my purse in case he has an accident while we're out. Don't go back to diapers when you're out or else he'll think it's okay to poop in his pants).

Good luck. I feel your pain! :)

I probably shouldn't be posting on here since I can't personally give you advice (my DS is 12 weeks old) but I have been doing lots of parenting research [I'm a first timer] and this one site has some pretty good potty training info so maybe it will have the information your a re looking for...good luck!

http://www.theskinnyscoop.com/search/potty+training?utm_c...

My daughter potty trained herself when she was almost 3 but not for poop. She wanted to wear her big girl underwear and after I put it on her she came to me and asked for a diaper on because she needed to poop. I thought it was odd but I put the diaper on, she pooped, and we put the underwear back on. That lasted about a week and one day I found her on the potty pooping by herself. See if maybe he would like to put a diaper on when he needs to poop. I know it sounds weird but it was just what my daughter needed.

My son had to figure out how to do it sitting down as well when he was training. One day he had to go, and kept trying to get up from the potty (it was the small training potty). I kept putting him back on and he was getting really antsy because he needed to go and couldn't do it sitting. Finally, as he was standing over the potty and I kept trying to get him to sit down, he did a partial squat as he couldn't hold it any longer, and voila. It almost surprised him, but once he figured that he could do it, it was no problem. The training potty might be helpful not just for "fear" reasons, but physiologically he could be more in a standing position or squat position. This might work well for those times you've caught him starting and you could bring him the little potty and try it this way.