I know this subject has been visited a lot but I thought I'd ask a quick question rather than search through all the old threads.
Basically my ds is almost 3 and I started potty/toilet training him at 2 1/2. Things went really well very quickly, it didn't take long for him to be out of nappies and we only had a few accidents. Most of the time he was doing a wee in the toilet and a poo in the potty, although a few times he was even happy to sit on the toilet to do a poo. Every time he wanted to go, he would say "poo poo in the potty mummy", and he would go and get the potty himself and sit on it. Well I don't know what's happened, but the last few weeks he has just started pooing in his pants rather than doing it in the potty. If I consciously sit him on the potty and make him stay there, eventually he will do one, but if I don't put him on the potty he has recently just decided to do it in his pants instead. He did it again tonight, and the potty was only a couple of feet away from where he was sitting. I've tried praising him for doing it in the potty, and I've also tried being firm with him about doing it in his pants, because it's gotten to the point now where I've told him so many times that I'd like him to do it in the potty or the toilet (it's so frustrating...). It's just getting to me because he started out knowing exactly what to do, and now he's gone backwards.
Dh suggested rewarding him with something when he does a poo in the potty, but I'd really like to know why ds has regressed since doing so well in the beginning. No matter how much I talk to him about not doing it in his pants, he still persists even though he knows I'm not happy with it.
Does anyone know why this might be happening, or the best way to handle it? I don't know if he's just being lazy or if something has put him off using the potty. I don't want to make a 'thing' of it, but at the same time I don't want him to think it's ok to do it in his pants. Sorry this is long - appreciate your input with this.