How do you get a 3 year old to go number 2 in the potty. He pees fine. He likes wearing big boy underwear, but he runs and hides when he has to have a BM. And if I put him on the potty, he'll stop and hold it in. He refuses to have a BM in the potty.
Some children are afraid of letting of their BMs into the toilet. It is a part of them and it is scary to let it go. Also boys, especially boys who stand to urinate, are afraid of sitting on the toilet. Scared of the unknown. There are several books on going BM on the toilet (Everyone Poops). It is cartoon illustrated and silly.
Good Luck
Manda,
This is normal behavior for his age,
My son does the same thing,
I try the egg timer,
give him a sip of coffee, or oatmeal,in the morning to try and stimulate his BM then set the egg timer,
Watch the potty video
and 20 minutes later sit him on the potty,
and if he won't go, set it for 20 minutes after that
and walk away, give him something in his hands to relax,
like a book or toy car, but give him privacy,
eventually he will go,
do this every 20 minutes til he makes it in the potty,
And if you can, NO Pants, cause you can see him clench his butt cheeks,
The weather is good now so, offering to take him to the park afterwards would be a great bribe,
Good luck
M
I have two suggestions. The first one perhaps involves your other half. You indicated that he loves your son like his own so why not enlist him to help? Perhaps he will relate more to a "male figure". I don't know what type of relationship you have in your household but before my daughter was toilet trained she would barge in on my husband, sit down and actually hold a conversation with him.. Now this is not for all but I think us being pretty free in showing her how to go initiated her interest. We also kept reminding her everybody goes pee-pee and pooh-pooh.. So then would tell us how Nonna goes pee-pee and poo-poo too, so does poppa, etc. and went right down the line of family members. I think enforcing it to her helped her to understand that this is a normal.
The other option is a bit more boot camp shall I say:
It will be messy and pretty yucky for you, your son and your other half and a takes a stiff upper lip......BUT.....if he refuses to go poo on the toilet let him soils himself and don't clean him up right away. He will get the picture pretty fast.. Toddlers had being in wet or soiled pants.
I went boot camp with my daughter yesterday (no diapers)! Of course this was a two week process of using the toilet and having dry diapers though the entire day and night. But I bit the bullet and took all her diapers away yesterday. She soiled herself on Sunday really bad (that was when we changed over to undies but was still using a diaper at night) well I think having her wear her jeans soiled, smelly and wet was not a nice experience for her and she learned very quickly.
Good luck I am sure you will be success. Just make sure to have more "staying power" than your son. You need to wear him out and not the other way around. Don't cave in..
Hi A.,
I think you just have to be patient. Kids "hold on" to their BM for a lot of reasons. He may just not be ready.
I guarantee you that he will train in good time. They all do. :)
Try not to worry about it too much.
Good luck,
P.
