My 2yo (not far off 3), had a tummy bug around 4 weeks ago. He had very bad runs with it, like water, which gave him an extremely sore bum. He would get extremely distressed whenever he did a poo, crying, screaming, not letting me clean him up. Had to dunk him in the shower most times just to get it off him and smother it in "magic cream" (sudocrem) after. He would even start shaking once he'd calmed down because he'd been so worked up by it. This was for about 3 days and then it cleared up and his poos went back to normal.
Anyway, since then he's absolutely terrified of pooing bless him. Every time he starts to need one he gets upset and says it will hurt him. I try and reassure him that it won't but he doesn't believe me and gets very upset and tries to hold it. When he does eventually go he gets very distressed.
We were getting somewhat close to being potty trained before this but that has gone completely downhill as he now point blank refuses to sit on it or the toilet no matter what I do or say or even bribe him with. Preffering to go in his nappy when he can't hold it any longer.
I'm reluctant to force the potty or toilet at the moment as I don't want to make it a "bad thing" and think we should just come back to potty training in a little while.
But help, what can I do? I hate seeing him so upset!