Potty training woes..

[umiaisha]

DS is 3. We went nappy cold turkey on Saturday but all is not going as smoothly as I had hoped! Would appreciate any advice on any of the following..

1. He can hold for hours and hours and has not yet asked us to use the potty, but does come and tell us if he has wet himself. I have been sitting him on it at regular intervals but he can be sitting on it for half hour + (quite happily) before he does a wee.
   
2. He hasn't done a poo since Monday (which was on the potty!) - what is the best thing to do? Have been giving him extra fruit, popcorn etc but with no avail..
   
3. The last two mornings he has woken up with a totally dry nappy on. Is it possible his bladder is somehow night trained?!
   

At the risk of sounding like a drama queen this has got to be the most stressful part of motherhood to date. I have serious cabin fever from not being able to go out too far/too long as at this stage know he wouldn't be able to 'perform' when we are out! Practically,this can't continue much longer!!!

[PirateJones]

sounds like he knows what to do and can hold it. Maybe he's scared?

Try opening out a nappy on the potty and letting him pee onto it.
then when he has the hang of that make a hole in the nappy so the pee goes into the potty, and after that take the nappy away.

He hasn't done a poo since Monday (which was on the potty!) - what is the best thing to do? Have been giving him extra fruit, popcorn etc but with no avail..

Let him have a nappy to poo.

[Fifyfomum]

Hi a bit of moral support here, I am having to sit my boy (3.8) on the potty for around 1hr at a time before he will actually wee. It scares him and he gets really upset about it but we are encouraging him through it and I hope he is getting better!

No cold turkey though, too scared for that! Maybe after the weekend when he has been doing a couple of wees a day on the potty for a week or so.

[umiaisha]

Piratejones - great idea about the nappy in the potty. Was contemplating putting a nappy on him to poo, but wasn't sure if he would get confused? Also as he has done nothing in a nappy all week not sure it would work??

Fifyfomum - thanks for the support - great to hear that there are others in the same boat. Good luck with it - there will be massive celebrations in this house when it is all over, things were so much easier with DD!

[PirateJones]

^ great idea about the nappy in the potty. Was contemplating putting a nappy on him to poo, but wasn't sure if he would get confused? Also as he has done nothing in a nappy all week not sure it would work??^

Very common for boys to use a nappy for pooing right up to school age. It shouldn't be anymore confusing than kids who need nappies for bedtime.
if he hasn’t been for a while you might need to use a mild laxative to get things started..... or a lot of grapes.

[indigo18]

Seriously- common for boys to be pooing in nappies to school age?? I find this quite awful. Introduce the potty, then toilet as soon as they can sit - just for a few moments at bathtime and after breakfast to begin with- once they become comfortable pooing in a nappy and set in their ways it becomes much harder.

[PirateJones]

It's common for boys to have the problem up to school age.a simple search of this very site would show how many kids have the problem.

[PirateJones]

www.mumsnet.com/info/search?query=only+poo+in+nappy

[indigo18]

This part of the site gets comparatively little traffic and since folk are only likely to start a thread of admit to a similar problem if their child is reluctant to potty train, I don't think that you can claim it is a common problem.
I would not think it a good idea to permit a child of nearly school age, with no special need, to continue to soil themselves on a daily basis. Leaving it late to train so that pooing in a nappy becomes the norm is the likely cause.

[PirateJones]

I don't think that you can claim it is a common problem.

1. the search is for the whole site
   
   
2. it's a common PROBLEM, i didn't say it was the norm or ideal. it happens the world over, and it's normally boys www.google.co.uk/#q=only+poop+in+nappy
   
   
3. It’s much better to have them going everyday, than to have the withholding and becoming constipated, as it can lead to an impacted bowel.
   I’ve been there (to the point that he's sitting on the toilet in a nappy), you can't force a child to poop against his will. this is the advice of a doctor. it takes longer for some kids to get it.