We have been potty training my son for 7 months now. He has peeing down pretty much with just a few accidents here and there. But we just can not get him to poop on the potty. He will hide and start to poop in his underware. We run to the potty but he refuses to finish pushing on the potty. We have tried everything that we can think of but nothing works. I will admit that we have lost our patience a lot, but it has been 7 months, i knew that boys would be hard, but was not prepared for this.If any one has any advice please, i will take anything you have.
Just wanted to say you are not alone! I, however have no advice, since we are going on month 10, and have tried everything. :( ...including commando, and I now have stains on my carpet...
We are going to continue having him clean up his own messes, since that's the most common advice that I've heard works for this 'issue'. So far, he doesn't seem to care though.
Good luck!
My son, who is almost five now, did not want to poop in the potty. I just bought him a "special potty book" and only let him read it when he was on the potty. It happened to be his favorite kind of car book and that helped and I encouraged him just to push a little bit after he was relaxed. It took time, but he was so proud after he did it. I had never had this problem with my other two kids and this was quite a dilemma for me also.
Try letting him run around the house commando. My friend tried it, for some reason her little boy wasn't interested in pooping outside of his pull ups, without them on he used the potty. It seemed to work for her. Good Luck!
Hi Cristi - your son is very normal. I can understand how hard it is not to lose your patience but I would recommend backing off on the pressure for a short time. My son had difficulty with this well into his 4s. About 3 1/2 we got so frustrated with dirty underwear, we just started making sitting on the potty part of his bedtime routine (he didnt have a regular time of day he went poop). We sat with him and read books and played toys and taught him how to be patient on the potty.
Hope that helps you!
I love the advice that you just can't force the issue. The more frustrated you get, they do too. Remember! he will get it by the time he goes to college! lol. One trick that worked for us when our son was also 3 1/2 was that we stretched a diaper over the potty, under the seat. Then theres the sense that he's still going in the diaper & my son didn't like the idea of it dropping way down. The containment was somehow important to him. A tip from another Mom whose son is now a teen & now he's telling ME how to do things! Good luck!!
My son (now almost 4) was the same way last summer - we tried to be as positive as we could, and gave him a goal that if he went poop in the potty for a week, he could get a special toy. Unfortunately, that didn't work!
I totally agree with the "commando" method - when I knew he was about to go, I'd just take his pants off and let him run around the house - he'd stop dead in his tracks when the urge hit him, then high-tailed it right to the potty! Once he had done it a few times, if he continued to go in his pants despite knowing it was time to go to the potty, we then started taking away a favorite toy or lovey blanket each time he pooped in his pants (putting the toy in "time out"), and would give it back the next time he pooped in the potty. That did the trick for us! When all of his toys were out of "time out", and he was accident-free for a week, he did get his special toy.
Hi C.,
I just wanted to let you know that I am going through the same thing with my 3 year old little girl. She did great going both in the potty, however over the past few months she has been holding it in and accidently going a little bit in her underwear. She holds it for so long that it then hurts when she finally does go in the potty. THe doctor says that it gets hard up inside her colon and this is why it hurts coming out. We have tried EVERYTHING. It will work for a while and then it starts all over. We even have her on Benefiber and Mirolax, prescribed by her doctor, to help keep it soft so it does not hurt, however she still has it in her head that it will hurt. The best thing is that we be as understanding as possible and let her go when she wants to. If I see her holding it (she crosses her legs and moves her stomach) I will say let's go to the potty. If she says no I tell her we have to put a diaper on. Sometimes I try having her run up and down the hall, which helps it come out easier or drinking water. We just work through it as best we can to try and avoid the screaming and crying. I know it is hard, but I guess patience is the best thing we can do. They will not do it forever.
Good luck and let me know if you find something that works. I will do the same.
We had the same situation... years ago... so there is hope. We had success with the "Everybody poops" book. It was rec. by our doctor at the time and he said to be patient. It will happen. But the book was read at night at first to just talk about it then on the potty. It's worth a try.
He will complete the potty training process when he is physically and emotionally ready. You can't win this battle. The more you make it an issue, the more he will fight you on it, because he has learned that he can push your buttons in this area.
I want to stress that he's a little tiny human being, and his mind + body are not ready to cooperate on this topic. It's not like he's a Harvard grad and messing with you on purpose.
