Apr
16
I can’t Get My Child To Poop In The Potty
April 16, 2007 |
I have been working on potty training my 3 year 9 month old since the beginning of the year. He will pee with very little accidents….but he poops in his underwear or waits until night time with his pull up. I have tried just about everything. I am losing my mind. Everyone says when he is ready but!!!!!!!!!!! These are not accidents. Sometimes he will do it 3 or 4 times a day. Please Help.
Great question. This actually a much more common problem than you may think. Most of us are under the impression that once we get your child to pee in the potty we are pretty much on the home stretch when it comes to toilet training.
Unfortunately that isn’t so. Having a bowl movement in the potty or toilet is another important step. One that is much harder for some kids to master than peeing in the potty.
There can be several reasons for your son’s reluctance to poop in the potty. He may be scared of the idea of his poop falling in the potty. This can be exaggerated by the fact that many kids consider their poop as part of their body.
If this initial fear is making him “hold it”, he will also get constipated which will make using the potty for #2 a painful experience.
Now that we have an idea of why your child may not want to poop, lets talk about how you can get him used to the idea of pooping in the potty.
As with potty training in general, it is important that you be patient and don’t make him feel “bad” about not using the potty yet. Instead, use a gradual approach to get him used to the idea. Continue to talk about how big boys poop in the potty. Continue to let him go in his pull-up, but insist that he poop in the bathroom.
Once he gets comfortable with the idea that that’s the room where we poop, ask him to sit on the potty, still wearing his pullup. When he is done, dump the poop in the toilet while he is watching and let him flush it. This will help reinforce the idea that poop is supposed to go in the toilet.
Continue to ask him if he is ready to give pooping on the potty without his pull-up a try. Don’t push him, but continue to gently remind him that that’s the ultimate goal. Before you know it he’ll be pooping in the potty like a big boy.
Susanne Myers
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Thank you for the tip! I’m going to try this with my 2 1/2 year old daughter, as we are experiencing the exact same problem, with the exception that when she has a BM, she tells me that she is going to go poop and then goes to a corner to do it in her diaper. I’m going to try your idea of taking her to the bathroom to poop and flush it. I had not thought of that idea and was at my wit’s end. Thank you so much!!!! I’m going to start working on it the very next time she has to go.
Katy