Seeking Potty Training Advice - Glenn Dale, MD

Well I will tell you, you are not alone on this one. Many of the little ones now days are taking longer to get "potty-trained". My 3 year old grandaughter still will not tell us, but at the babysitters will go on the potty. However its only becasue the sitter schedules her to sit on the potty. But at home, or with family, she cries the whole time on the potty and wont tell us. We have tried treats in a glass vase in the bathroom (jelly beans etc) for a reward. This worked great for my kids...but she was not interested...but you might find that a great 'trick".

Hi P.! When my son had trouble with pooping in the potty, he started holding it in and getting very uncomfortable, etc. What worked for us was to totally take that pressure off--when it seemed like he needed to poop, I'd ask him whether he'd like to poop in a diaper or the potty, and for a few weeks, he always picked the diaper. I'd put it on him, he'd poop, and I was changing him, I'd calmly reinforce that it was his poop and his body, and when he was ready to poop in the potty, I'd help him. I also calmly let him know that it's a lot less messy to poop in the potty because the poop doesn't get smushed all over your bottom! Anyway, after a few weeks, he was interested in trying on the potty again, and everything's been fine since. Good luck!

I'm not sure what you'd use for a little girl, but I purchased a small basket full of little matchbox cars and told him he could pick one every time he pooped on the potty. This seemed to work very very well. I also started giving him raisins and "candy fruit" (wrapped prunes) to help him with constipation from holding his poop in. My little boy will be 3 next month.

My daughter was more like 4 1/2 before she got the hang of it. She's 5 now and does not have daytime accidents. She even wakes most nights to relieve herself. Every once in a while, we have an accident. Be patient.

P.,

I had the same problem w/ my daughter, now almost 4. She peed on the potty at an early age, but the pooping thing took forever. I had to change her into a diaper everytime she needed to poop and we ended up w/ all sorts of constipation issues b/c I was trying to force her to go on the potty. I had to back off for a couple of weeks and then we set a special day on the calendar that we did a little countdown to (I did a 7 day countdown). I also bought video called "potty power" and watched it every day for 7 days. Once we got to our special 'poop on the potty day' we said ok, no more diapers and we made it a really big exciting thing to finally sit on the potty for pooping. It still took a good amount of sitting and tears (she was just afraid to do it), but once she finally did, we had lots of praise and a special treat!!

Good luck, it's not easy!
L.

My son is going through a rough time in the potty, too. He always does well with me, but even with my husband he tends to have accidents. My son, who just turned three in April, is very adamant that he is not a baby anymore, he's a big kid. It's a big deal to him, so when he has an accident, I simply ask him if he's a baby or a big kid. He will always tell us that he is big kid, and will not have an accident for the rest of the day. We also let him have a fruit cup or a popsicle when he's done.

Also, my mom told me that she bribed me with big girl panties when I was potty training, and that I didn't have an accident because I was afraid I would make the princesses on my panties cry by getting pee or poop on them. My sister did the same for her daughter with the same results.

Good luck!

At that point in my training of my daughter i had switched to using the reg. toilet full time. I attempting to train with a potty and my daughter wouldn't use it hardly I had put her in a daycare while i was training and they were actually against potty chairs or covers for the toilet. So i stopped using them thinking i wanted to make it easier for both places and when i did. All my troubles stopped. I figured it out. I had no more trouble it seemed with in a week she was trained. I think she was uncomfortable. She was doing the same as us yet we didn't give her the same tools as us she wondered why she used a cover or a potty chair when we didn't. Amazingly enough children even that young can hold themselves up on a reg. potty. Falling in only happens onces a blue moon and never happened to my daughter i think people don't do it because they hear the story about children falling in. But it just doesn't happy but once in a blue moon they learn from it and it doesn't happen again. Good luck

First, she needs to be motivated. I took my son to Target and let him pick out a really nice truck (I think about $20). The next morning he sat on the potty every five minutes for two hours until he earned his poopy prize. Also, our potty has handles on the side and he liked to hold on to them and lean forward (so his belly was on his lap). I think it's a new sensation to sit and poop and they need to work on some physical changes. I've also read to make sure their feet touch the floor. Also, I gave my son some juice that day when he was earning his prize so that his stool was loose and came out easily. I give him a yogurt every day which is a habit I started when he was potty training to keep him regular.
Good luck!

We've never used a mini-potty, only a seat that fits on top of a regular potty. My oldest did fine with that (the youngest isn't yet two, so we have potty training ahead of us again.)

One thing we did, that sounds really silly, was to make a big deal out of flushing a poop - I told her that the poop was happy to go to a 'poopy party' with all it's friends and we clapped and said 'yay!

I know it sounds (and feels a bit) ridiculous to do this, but I picked up the tip from another parenting board and I will tell you, it worked wonders!

My daughter was *never* afraid of going to the potty - some kids get apprehensive about where everything is going, etc.

Good luck!