Potty Training a 2 Year Old to Go #2 - Cave Creek,AZ

Hey E.-

I had to giggle when I saw your post. I have the exact opposite problem. My 20 month old daughter has had pooping in the potty down for about a month now, but could care less about being wet. She will pee in her panites all day long. She will tell me when she has, but she hasn't made that potty connection yet.

My son was afrad to poop in the potty. I bought him underwear with his favorite character (Nemo at the time) and I told him that Nemo didn't like to be dirty, so if he pooped in his Nemo underwear, we would have to throw them away. (I NEVER threw a pair out if he made a good effort to get to the potty before he pooped). He lost one pair and was so upset that it didn't happen again. The only other time he had an accident after that was at a park where there was no potties (my fault really). So I would suggest a travel potty once you get your little girl comfortable.

Good luck with whatever you try. Potty training is such a challenge for all involved.

My oldest daughter potty trained about the same age. She too had the peeing on the potty down pat. But after several weeks of her going poop in her panties I told her that she would have to clean the poop out of her panties herself and wash off her own bottom. I would have her get into the tub, pull off her dirty panties, wash off and then she would empty the contents of the panties in the toilet and then I would have her wash out the poop on the panties in the tub. Yes, I had to clean the tub after but I think she only had one accident after that. She thought it was the most disgusting thing to have to touch her own poop. Good luck!!

Try this one. Does she like to swim? Tell her that her poopy likes to go swimming too and the toilet water is it's swimming pool. Just like you like to go swimming in the kid pool, this is a pool just for poop's. Maybe if you make it have a personality it won't be so hard for her to give it up. I have been told that they feel like there poop is part of them and it is like flushing your finger down the toilet and never seeing it again. So if you try to make it fun for the poop and that the poop is going to go play with his poop friends down the hole, she might not be so afraid to let it go. Just an idea. :) Good luck.

I made a chart for my daughter with lots of rows of 3 blank squares and 1 with an ice cream cone sticker in it. Every time she pooped in the potty, she got to put a sticker in a blank square and when she got 3, she got ice cream. It took a little while, but it worked. Mostly she liked putting stickers on her chart. I got the ice cream stickers so she could see the reward she would get. Also lots of praise--good luck!

My son is the same way. And so was my brother's son. It's like they are afraid to poop on the toilet or to go poop. ??? Not sure why they do that when it comes to #2 but this is very common (i've talked to several moms and my doctor).

All I can say is keep doing what you are doing, she will come around eventually. I know the in-between stage is hard but I think most parents go through it. Bribing, taking things away, etc. don't seem to work; that only makes the situation worse and makes the child even more scared. Having patience and making the situation a positive experience I find gets me farther with my son than getting upset.

Best of luck.

Hi E.,
Your little girl does sound very smart :)

But as a mom of a 4 1/2 y.o. who I'm assuming you potty-trained too, you know smartness doesn't teach a child a skill, and pooing in the potty *is* a skill.

Here's what I did with my son: at the times I knew he usually would "go," he would sit on the potty, every day, until he produced. No song-and-dance, no bribes, just "sit here until the poop comes out."

Yeah, he didn't like it. The first day, he sat there for 40 minutes! But I got a poop. And we didn't finish with a poop-dance, because I *expected* him to poop. He got a smile, a soft "good job" and that's it. The next day, he pooped in 10 minutes; the third day, he pooped in 3 minutes. He would also sit before naps and bedtime.

Remember, you are teaching a skill, which takes practice, not bribes.
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Hi E.,

We started potty training my daughter at 23 months and she was totally accident free when it came to peeing by 25 months. She's had issues with constipation since she was 3 months old so I just told her that when she had to go poop to just go get a diaper. We never pushed the issue but did decide to start hyping it up just before her 3rd birthday. Lo-and-behold...to our amazement she started pooping on the potty the day she turned three and is now pooping 95% on the potty and 5% in a diaper and she just turned 3 on the 2nd of March. We knew that when she was ready, she would do it on her own. She has never pooped in a pair of panties, so my only suggestion to you is to tell her to go get a diaper when she needs to poop and let her go at her own pace. Good luck!

We used skittles. Caught our son in the act of pooping in the pants, plopped him on the toilet, and when the poop fell into the toilet, he got a handful of skittles. Then, every time he used the toilet, he got skittles, and the bigger the poop in the toilet, the more skittles he got (because he tried rabbit-turding on us to maximize the skittles).

It's more concrete to reward after the fact than to promise before hand. Don't know if it'll work for you, but might be worth a try. Most kids make a face or strain or grunt when defecating.