Toddler won't poo in the toilet!

[Ashana]

I started potty training my 2.11 month old on Friday and over the weekend he has completely grasped it. He will happily go for a wee whenever I take him and will even ask to go if he feels the need. I feel really proud of him.

My only problem is that since Friday he hasn't had a poo. He usually has a poo once a day but since Friday there has been nothing! A few times today I could tell he wanted to poo but when I sat him on the potty he held it in and just wouldn't let go. At one point I even shouted at him and now I feel so bad.

I really don't want to put him off going to the toilet and don't know what to do. I've tried to bribe him and all sorts but nothing seems to work. I even offered to put a nappy on him just so he could poo in it but I think now he's even scared to go in the nappy!

Any help would be appreciated please.

My son didn't poo in the toilet or potty until he was nearly 4. He would pee in it and was toilet trained at 2.5 but always wanted a nappy on to do a poo. It was so frustrating but he had other issues with constipation and holding it in (was on medication) so I just wanted him to poo - didn't care where he did it! He got so upset and crying every time.

He just turned a corner one day (we were in the supermarket and he had to go so used a toilet - bribed him with a lego set). And that was that!

Sounds like your DS is scared so take the pressure off and don't make a big issue out of it. But if he is refusing to go and is constipated then nip it in the bud right away before it becomes a psychological problem. We got Movicol sachets of powder than made him poo regularly so that he wasn't constipated and he could start to trust that it wouldn't hurt him. Took 2 years though!

Have you tried this app? Sort of worked for us in that once they had the iPad to look at this, they'd use all the usual stuff on the iPad too and stay there for ages. Now, when either of my boys needs a poo they shout out "can I have the iPad. I'm going for a poo"!! Embarrassing when guests are over, but does the job

My ds learned to poo in the potty easily but toilet pooing took a bit longer to achieve

I’ve got a special seat to put on it so he’s secure, a set of steps for him to get to himself and a sticker everytime he went to the toilet on the toilet, if he had a poo, he got a sweet! Eventually he filled his toilet reward chart and was allowed to go and pick a toy.

Now we haven’t had a problem and he’s been trained for a good few months

At home my ds is fine but when we are out he would rather poo in his pants rather than use a strange toilet. He knew there was a poo coming once so i threw him on the toilet and tickled him, it relaxed him enough that it just dropped out.
While training though we did leave him on his potty with favourite tv or reading books and chatting to him tended to relax him

It was such a relief to come on MN and see how common this was when we had this with DS1. We still (he’s 6) enforce doing a poo before his bathvevery night and he’s only now got to the stage where I trust him if he says ‘I did a poo at school’. And now we have the same with DS2....so I feel your pain.

I read a lot of stories whilst DS sat there. And gave a lot of bribes.

My son was like this. I resorted to allowing him to stand and holding tne potty under him and allow him to poo into it standing up. After a few weeks of doing this he started sitting down. Putting a nappy over tne potty as already suggested works for lots of children aswell keep going he will get it eventually but every child is different so what works for one won't for another.