My daughter who is 27 months old is basically day trained for #1. She is really good at telling us when she needs to go and then we'll take her or follow her into the bathroom. And she'll sit on the potty chair and go pretty much right away. We reward with skittles. She's been doing this for about 10 days now with 1-2 accidents/day. She loves going pee-pee in the potty chair and it is actually enjoyable for me as a parent seeing her do so well.
The problem is this: she won't go poop in the potty chair but will go in her panties or on the floor. It is disgusting and I'm sick of cleaning up poo everywhere! I feel like a mom of a newborn with all of the laundry I am doing. I'll have her sit on the potty chair when I am expecting her to go #2 and she'll sit there for 5 minutes or so. We talk about "go poopoo in the potty." and are happy and excited. Well, 5 minutes later there is poo in her panties. Agh!
Is this just a time issue, like will she eventually "get it" and go poop in the potty? What else can I do to encourage her to go poop - and not in her pants!
Thanks!
M.
My daughter potty trained in a day (her doing, not mine), but wasn't poop trained for about 3 more months. You might switch back to pull-ups if she's still pooping so often outside of the potty, just to make your life easier. She really is young to be training at all, so the fact that she's potty trained is great!
I have to say we're dealing with this as well with my almost 4 year old son (he'll be 4 next month). He's had #1 pretty much down for about the past 6 months with an occasional accident during the day, but he can sleep through the night in big boy underpants and hasn't had an accident yet. Poop, however, is a completely different story. He will not poop in the potty. He poops in his underpants all the time. It's so frustrating! My daughter was potty trained before the age of 3 and never had issues with pooping in the potty. I try to put my son on the potty when I think he needs to go, but he won't go. A very short time later (5 minutes to an hour), however, he poops in his underwear. I was contemplating asking about this here on mamasource as well, so I'm glad you posed the question. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's responses and hopefully can get some good suggestions. :-)
UPDATE - I took my kids to the doctor this past week to get their annual physicals. I asked the doctor about the problems we are having with getting my 4 year old to go poop in the potty. He suggested it is a "deep seeded psychological issue" that some kids have and to not try to force it. He said if you try to force it, sometimes the kids try to hold it in and then it gets impacted and you have to take them to the doctor to "dig it out," as he put it (sorry to be so graphic). He said it's probably just better to let him poop in his pants and eventually he will start going in the potty. He warned me there are some kids who still do this in kindergarten, but that we could address it further if it's still a problem over the next several months. My son is a November baby so he won't be starting kindergarten until he is almost 6 so we have a while left to get him fully trained before school, thank goodness! Obviously, I hope he's trained well before then, but I'm going to try to let go of this struggle for now and let nature take it's course while encouraging him along the way. :-)
Kids see poop as a part of their bodies and most fight doing it in the toilet. My older brother apparently liked a corner of the dining room when he doodled in his pants.
My mother was able to get my daughter to go in the toilet by telling her to wave bye bye as it was flushed. You might want to try one of those adaptors for the big potty, it makes the "seat" smaller so it fits the child. Might make her feel even more grown-up than the potty chair and an added incentive for #2 in the potty.
Other than that you just have to grin and bear it. Also, maybe a different reward system. If she doesn't poop her pants for a week, a trip to the Dollar Store for a treat.
Yes she'll get it eventually. My son has been completely potty trained for #1 for about a month or so, refuses to go poop in the potty.Everyone I've talked to said pooping in the potty comes last. Just give it some time she is still new to the whole potty thing, I guess you just have to let them take it one step at a time.
still VERY young may need to keep working on it until closer to 3
I potty trained my daughter at 29 months and it only took 3 days to get her day and night pee potty trained. It took another 2 months to get her pooping in the potty. I think it just scared her and no matter what I tried she was not going to do it until she was ready. I never put her in pull ups or a diaper so I cleaned many dirty panties. It is hard, but hang in there she will get it soon. I finally decided to buy my daughter Go Diego Go underwear (she loved him). I explained to her that Diego would be very sad if she pooped on him and from that day on she went poop by herself. It might be worth a try if she has a favorite character.
