2.7 year old traumatised by doing poo in potty or toilet

[greaselightning]

We've been potty/toilet training for 10 days now and my DS is terrified to do a poo. When he was in nappies he did a poo every day pretty much and sometimes 2 or 3 but now that he's out of nappies he's only pooing every 3 days or so. This morning he starting shouting that he needed to do a poo but when I put him on the potty he just screamed and jumped off. I tried to gently persuade him to sit but he was distraught so I took him to the toilet and sat him on his trainer seat, again he started to poo then freaked out and jumped off saying he was finished, then he proceeded to poo all over the bathroom floor. I cleaned him up and put on fresh pants and jeans, only to find that 5 minutes later he did a poo in his pants. I put him on the toilet again but he said he didn't have any more poo to do and wanted off, so clean pants and trousers again...but 10 minutes later he pooed in his pants again. He continued to do this and has done 5 poos in pants this morning. I asked him if he wants to wear big boy pants (like his brother and like his friends) but he said no, he wants to wear a nappy. We use chocolate buttons as rewards for doing wee's in the potty or toilet but he's obviously too worried about poos to care about chocolate. Also, he's still having wee accidents and doesn't ask to go to the potty or toilet, we are still having to put him on every hour. We tried leaving it up to him to tell us but he had loads of accidents. Basically I'm wondering if we should give up and put him in nappies, then try again in a couple of months? He's 2.7 years old. Does anyone have any advice please.

[cardamomginger]

A friend had a similar problem. She tried lining the potty with a nappy and getting him to poo in that. She had some success with that. Good luck!

[MummyPigsFatTummy]

Our DD was ok with wees from about the same age (2.7) but, like your DS, refused to poo in a potty or toilet. She used to ask for a nappy and we would put one on, she would poo, and then we would clean her and put her back in pants. She did this for a few months and we put no pressure on her, although we did occasionally suggest trying the potty/toilet and would talk about how big girls poo in the potty etc (with a matter of fact "so you will too one day" kind of approach). One day she just decided to poo in the potty herself. We gave her masses of praise and she hasn't looked back.

So, if you think he could be fine with wees if he wasn't also worrying about poos, it seems a shame to go back to nappies all the time.

Mind you, I like the lining the potty idea too.