3rd day toilet training, worried it's causing constipation. What do I do next?

[crumbletastic]

Ds is 2.10 and this week we are taking toilet training seriously by going the boot camp way. Ds has used the potty and toilet on and off with no problems for about 5 months now but has still used nappies mostly, when going out and nap times. I was sort of hoping the regular potty and toilet use at home would naturally lead to him refusing the nappy with little input from me, but I can now see this was not working.

After an initial tantrum when refusing to wear underpants he had chosen, it looked to be going well. First day there were quite a lot of accidents, yesterday only 1, today 1 so far but before this he would poo at least once a day and he hasn't yet since training started. I know it might be too early to worry about this but his belly does look quite bloated and I know holding it in can lead to constipation and it might get worse.

Last night I was expecting him to go in the nappy overnight which didn't happen. My friend has suggested I put a nappy on him today just until he has pooed but will this cause confusion? He will not eat fruit but will eat raisins so I have given him a few day to attempt to soften his stools. I just don't really know what I should be doing now so any advice greatly appreciated.

If you doing this properly don't put him back in a nappy just so he can poop. You are right, it will just confuse him. My DS was the same when we started potty training, he used to poop every day then when the pants came on, he wouldn't. He used to go in his nappy overnight though sometimes. We never used nappies for going out or naps and he learnt that nappies were only for night time. He soon realised that pants were here to stay and eventually he started pooping in the potty. It took him a few days but he had the idea (from nursery i think) that pooing was bad so I think that's what was putting him off. We used to give him OTT encouragement when he did poo in the potty, he got 2 stickers on his chart (only 1 for a wee) and a biscuit and we clapped and shouted so all the neighbours could hear. All this was 2 months ago and he now poos as regular as before. I think when they get the first one out the way it comes easily for them. If you are worried about him being bunged up raisins might help. Does he like orange juice?

Hi there,
I had this with my daughter. She actually did a couple of poos in her pants, then starting witholding them which is a bit worrying I agree. We realised that she was a bit scared of pooing on the toilet or/and a bit unsure about poos altogether.

So.... having had some friends whose children kept pooing in nappies/witholdig for months I didn't really want to go through that so took a multi-pronged (is that the right word?!) approach. We bought her a poo book "Everybody Poo's" (there are lots of different ones for you to choose from on amazon etc!) to read to her and get her to feel that pooing is normal and then we did bribery- if she did a poo on the potty/toilet (and we moved onto the toilet pretty quick as poos are nicer in the toilet!! -she was one month younger than your son by the way), she got some chocolate. Then I ran out of chocolate and it became ice-cream and this worked like a dream. She was still a bit reticent about pooing, but waving the potential ice-cream as a treat really worked and within a week or two she was sorted and we dropped the bribe just carried on the praise etc. No problems since.

So bribery I reckon!!! and the book, very important!

Thanks for your replies, yes that is just what I thought about not giving in for the nappy as it will make it harder for him in the long run. There was still no poo overnight in the nappy, more raisins for today, and I will try some orange juice too and just keep hoping that he will get the confidence to do it.

I do have some chocs in as treats to give him if successful, but maybe I need to show him them so he knows what is coming and is more likely to give it a go!