My little girl is 2.5 years old and has starting using the potty quite a bit. She is able to tell us when she has to go and will go pee. However, she has not pooped in the potty yet, she just goes in her underpants and then tells me (most of the time). How do you get a child to start pooping on the potty? She has had constipation problems so I know #2 is a big issue for her, that is why I don't want to push it.
I just don't want her to be pooping in her pants forever!
Sara - My daughter is the same age and has constipation issues as well. I can tell when she is pooping by the face she makes ad the position of her body. When I would start to see the signs, I would grab her real quickly and put her on the potty. After a few weeks of this she has picked up on when she needs to go and will tell me and me make a mad dash to the potty.
We are potty training as well. She will poop on the potty if I catch her in the act. Otherwise she doesnt care if she poops her panties. It has to be there desicion and there idea. It will come just have to be patient, I know it sucks cleaning it all up, but before you know it she will be trained.
First let me just say that this is very very common. My daughter did the same until she was 3 ½.
There are various tracks you can take on this. One is that when she poops in a diaper/panties, that she watches you take it to the toilet and flush it. This way she begins to realize that it is all going to the same place – regardless of if she does it in diaper/panties.
Another tack is a reward system. Set up a “potty chart” and if she goes 1 week without having an accident in her diaper/panties she gets a prize. Go ahead a purchase the prize so that she can see it. It may give her an incentive.
A friend of mine a great success with that book “Everybody Goes Poo.”
I have heard that there is a physiological issue going on here. That some kids don’t like to go poop on the toilet because they kinda feel like they are flushing part of themselves down. I am not sure if this is true or not.
For us though it was that my husband and I didn’t realize that we were sending mixed signals about the potty. He tends to cave and not realize it. It wasn’t until I sent him out to buy pull-ups one day and he realized how much money we spending on diapers that things changed. He came home without the diapers and explained to our daughter that it was time that she started using the potty for everything and that there were no more diapers that she finally started going poop on the toilet. It only took about a 2 days for the message to really get through to her that Daddy meant business.
Hang in there. She will get it when she is ready.
I had the same problem with my 3 year old recently. She was finally able to pee on the potty whenever she needed to, but didn't want to poop...she had alot of constipation issues as well, and I think that was the problem. I would talk to your dr about it. My doctor helped us clear up her constipation issues and now she goes with no problem. I think that it hurt her so much she was holding it in till she couldn't anymore and then just went in her pants. Now she tells me whenever she has to go no matter what it is!
She is probably a little selfconcious about going #2 on the potty because it doesn't feel the same as pooping in a diaper or underwear. My pediatrician advised me to sit by my son and read a story or sing a song while he sits there (my son is also 2.5). Do you go in the bathroom with her when she uses the potty? I think if you distracted her and she was able to sit there a little longer she might get the urge to go #2. Good luck in potty training!
hi. my son is 3 as ofoct. he JUST learned how to poop in the toilet. theres more hope for u cuz you have a girl. just habg in there. i used to pressure my son a lot and it backfired. one day i heard the toilet flush and the sink running.. eventually they figure it out on there own. take care
i just went through this with my daughter. She didn't successfully poop on the potty exclusively until 3.5, so you may have to be more patient. Even after peeing for months, she would ask for a pull up to poop. Our breakthrough came when we just left my daughter alone in the bathroom to poop in privacy. Since she was a toddler she always went into another room or special place in the house to poop in her diaper, so having us stand in the bathroom with her was unnervung for her. One night I just left her there and she didn't follow me out. When I came back a few minutes later to check on her she had gone all by herself. We haven't had one accident since that day. My advice I guess is to try to recreate the environment that she feels comfortable pooping in. Bring the potty to her special place if she has one or give just let her sit there alone for a while. Good Luck! She'll get it eventually. Everyone does!
I agree - this is pretty common. Every kid I know (okay, except one) had this same issue. Positive rewards work well. Start off witha sticker chart. That worked for us for a while, and when it stopped we moved on to a reward of either one hershey's chocolate kiss or mommy giving her a "kissie-face." Which was basically me, making a big deal about going poop on the potty and kissing her all over her face while she wildly giggled. The "kissie-face" reward was actually the biggest success.
Good luck!
I just went through this with my little girl, so I really understand. My daughter seemed scared to go on the potty and I just let her know that she could go in a pull up if she wanted to, and I never got upset or let her know just how worried or frustrated I was. (i cleaned up a lot of poop!!) (and threw out a lot of underpants!)
I know a lot of kids that ended up having serious constapation issues.
It took my daughter about 2 months to get over this, and now she is happily pooping on the potty now.
So I guess, my advice is be as patient as you can, and always appear patient to your daughter. Let her know that she can always poop in the potty or in a pull up but not in her underpants.
If I can help any more, let me know! ____@____.com
She is only 2 1/2. Give her time and it will come
