14mo pooing in the bath (sigh)

[ohdearwhatamess]

Ds2 is pooing in the bath every single time he has a bath (I think we're up to 10 poo events now). I've tried adjusting his bath time, but it makes no difference.

Any words of wisdom (other than 'it is a phase, it will pass') or top tips would be appreciated. Would it be very wrong to just not bath him for the next few months.

shower?

is he pooing in his nappy? Maybe he's a little bit constipated and being warm and relaxed just gets things moving?

Ok, it happens. My son did it. I bought a potty. Everytime he looked like he was going to poo in the bath, i put him on the potty. Eventually he stopped pooing in the bath. He didn't poo in the potty either but he was early potty training in the end. The first time... I suspect its a sensation thing - it is just easier to poo when you are relaxed. Is he enjoying his bath?

how quickly does it happen? Can you sit him on a potty of warm water before the bath to get it over with?

Lots of questions!

Yes, he's still pooing in his nappy. On a couple of occasions he's pooed half an hour or so beforehand so I (naively) think 'ooh, we'll have a nice poo free bath tonight', and then we don't. Poos 2 or 3 times a day. On days when he doesn't have a bath (tend to bath once every 2 or 3 nights) he doesn't poo at bath time at all.

He loves his bath, and shares it with ds1 (who gets hysterical when ds2 poos).

Pooing tends to be after a few minutes rather than straight away.

I guess one alternative is to shower ds2 then run a bath for ds1 (he won't do showers).

washable swim nappy for most of the bath then a quick rinse down at teh end?

A faff, but no worse than dealing with two pooey toddlers and a pooey bath, I would have thought.

Then when the problem tails off you can stop using.

DS1 did that too - but we learnt to recognise his poo dance and quickly whisk him off on to the loo/potty to poo. We figured out that the really warm baths relaxed his digestive system so he wanted to poo - so if you make the bath abit colder it might help cut down on the bathtime poos. Since reducing the bath temperature we've had far fewer poo incidents.

this post made me laugh, have to say! I have a 2yo who has done this a handful of times now (now and again since he was about 14mo) and agree, it's the warm water that must relax them, where they feel the urge to just let it out.
DH is always saying to friends 'guess what I did tonight, yep, that's right - fishing for turds!'.

Swim nappy is a great idea. Will try that.