Anna is 2.5 yrs old, my next youngest is 14, so it's been a while since I potty trained someone. She goes tinkle on the potty, no problem. She knows I want her "poop in the potty". So she poops in her pants, takes them off and puts the poop in the potty. Sometimes with her hands, sometimes turning her undies inside out and pouring it in like I do. The messes have been, well you can imagine. I am pretty sure that she thinks she is doing what I want her to do, after all... "poop goes in the potty". Then she starts clapping and cheering like she gets from me when she tinkles.
I have let her come in with me and see how I do it, she claps and cheers and carrys on as if I have done something special but she still has no clue that she should try to do that too. Any ideas how to convince her that she needs to sit down and poop on the potty rather than putting the poop in there after the fact?
I sit my child on the potty and make exaggerated pushing expressions. We giggle about it and make these exaggerated pushing sounds and facial expressions together. We sit there for a while until she is bored and then I'll take her back in a few hours. Sometimes we get the timing right and she will actually go, and then I make the big deal out of it. Good luck!
The more I hear about potty problems and experience them in my own house the more I feel like we are pressuring our kids too much to figure out using the toilet right away. It took my son about 2 years after he was potty trained to poop in the potty on a consistent basis and even now he still has accidents (he is 5). It was so frustrating to be cleaning up his poop all the time that I would get really mad and punish him. It probably added to his anxiety about pooping in the potty. If I had to do it over again I would have relaxed and just reinforced that poop goes in the potty.
If you feel comfortable, let your daughter see you poop directly into the potty. It is hard to punish her when she thinks she is obeying you.
Gook luck and have patience, they figure it out eventually.
I think every kid goes through this. I have heard that it is a little scary for them to poop in the potty because of the fact that something visible is leaving their body and they are having to flush it away for ever! It took my daughter about a month to get the hang of it....I have also heard placing a stool under their feet can help them so they aren't struggling. What we did was make a sticker chart for her potty training, and I only used those colored star stickers when she went pee. I bought 'special' stickers (a favorite character at the time) and when she went poop she got to pick a beautiful princess sticker to put on her chart. She loved this and thought it was so cool because those stickers really stand out against the plain stars! Good Luck!! Your little one will get it soon!!
I think she just isn't ready yet. My daughter was 4 before she could reliably go poop and pee in the potty all the time. We started pressuring her early (about 2 - 2.5 years old) and it took forever for her to do it. My son is now 2.5 and we haven't pressured him at all and he has nearly trained himself although he isn't completely trained yet he is close. Just give her time and it will come along.
sit her on the potty about 15 mintues after she eats. we read books and sing songs and play while on the potty and eventually ti will jsut happen
Hi A.,
Sounds like you have got some great advice. I have one more suggestion; if you have a carpet-free area, or a private outside area if you live here in southern Arizona (I assume you do), you can do some pants- and diaper-free time, say in the afternoons when it's warmer. Then the poop doesn't have an intermediary place to go, and your daughter may realise that the easiest solution is to go straight on the potty, rather than in her pants and then transfer the poop. Perhaps pants are still too much like a diaper. Obviously the potty has to be outside if she's outside, or in the same room if she's inside. My son's only 18 months so I haven't tried this myself, but it's what our Mum did when she was bringing us up in northern Queensland.
