Potty Training Question

Meghan&Rich

Garrett has been potty trained for about 2 months now, however, he will not go #2 on the toilet.  He won't have any accidents, but he will hold it in until we put a diaper on him.  Every night he cries and says he needs to go, but won't go in the bathroom.  We did try to hold out on using a diaper, but he just ends up going while sleeping and then had some consitpation issues.  We've done reward charts and all of the usual stuff, but it doesn't seem to phase him.  Any suggestions?  Has anyone else been through this - how long did it last until they were comfortable using the toilet for this?  Thanks!

lala5507

Both of my girls did this.  They were both potty trained at 2 but both of them were around 3 1/2 when they finally pooped in the potty not in the bedtime pull up.   We tried EVERYTHING.  Rewards, bribes...nothing worked.  I found that if I tried to force it, things just got worse (really constipated).  You can give him some miralax to try to keep things from getting too hard. 

With my oldest, she was staying dry at night and nap so we took they pull ups away all together and she did just fine using the potty.  My youngest still uses pull ups at night but she's been pooping in the potty for a couple of months now.  I'm thinking it my be partly development/willingness to do it.  I know it sucks, but you might just have to ride it out.  We've had to do suppositories before because we tried forcing the issue and it ended in a weeks worth of poop being held in.  It's just not worth it.  

MrsAmers

What worked for Heather was to put a diaper under the ring of the potty a few times, that way she was sitting on the potty to poop, but the material was going in the diaper. After a couple times of doing that she was willing to go without the diaper there and we never looked back.

On the other hand, Todd had consistent accidents for over a year and a half after switching to underwear. We couldn't find any "currency" to fix the issue, but he eventually grew out of it.

lishie

I'm suffering through this with you as well right now Meghan. Michael is 100% pee trained, but he has issues with #2 on the potty.

I have no advice, but I feel your pain. We wanted to send him to summer camp with Jackson this summer, but right now I'm doubting that will happen. I'm praying all will be resolved by the time school starts in August, because he needs to start then.

AmandaJLewis

I remember EJ was afraid to go on the potty, I tried to talk about it more.  Mommy puts her poops in the potty, see? That is where they belong... etc.  Then if she had an accident I would put her poo in the potty and have her watch.  Low stress, but gentle reminders that was where the poo goes.  It seemed to click once when she put her baby on the little potty when she was using the big one. And she told me baby was afraid. So I talked to baby about how everyone poos in the potty and she didn't have to be afraid and to relax and let them out!

it only lasted a few weeks past potty training her, so it wasn't so bad. But it did take a while for her to be patient enough to wait for it- or know when she needed to go.

waltsgirl102503

Noah was like this as well.  I made up a song and we'd cheer when he'd actually go.  At one point, he got SO constipated that we had to give him a suppository.  He had to sit on the toilet after that started to work.  And it was a while that he had to sit there.  After that, he started using the toilet.  I'm not sure if it made him realize that it was really okay or if he didn't want to have to go through the trauma of having a suppository again.   I'm sorry you're dealing with this, it's no fun.

Meghan&Rich

Thanks so much everyone!  I figured I would just have to ride it out, but it's nice to know I'm not alone.  We haven't tried putting a diaper on the toilet, or having him watch us empty his diaper in the toilet, so I'm going to try that. (although he invades our privacy enough to think he would already be comfortable with the idea of doing his business on the potty!  LOL)  I'll just focus on the bright side that at least he's not going in his pants! 

amyjoy18

We got very comfortable with sharing poop.  After we went we'd let DD take a peak.  Also when she pooped in her diaper at nap time, instead of just wrapping it up and throwing it away I would dump it int he potty and we'd sing, "poop goes in the potty!"

But I think what really worked (as much as I hate to admit it) is DH started saying that he was "going to drop some kids off at the pool"  and then DD wanted to try "dropping kids off at the pool" too.