DD has regressed. No more poos in potty or toilet! Please help!

[beatie]

OK ~ we trained dd a month ago and she was quick to get the hang of it. She is now 30 months old. She had the odd accident but that was to be expected.

This past week she has done all her poos in her pants. She is NOT constipated. All the websites and books I read point to her using it as a power tool against me and my DH. It's quite possible she is doing it for attention. I am pregnant and not the nest mummy in the world at the moment. I have been especially tired this past week. We've also started to talk about 'our' new baby more with DD, plus, we're in the midst of moving house and the past two weeks have been stressful for me and DH.

So, I'm pretty sure of the reason for her relapse but none of the so-called experts give any advice on how to fix the problem. What would you do?

(I'm putting this here as well as the Potty/nappy forum)

No you are not the nest Mummy in the world. But you are the best Mummy in the world

You're exactly right, very normal and what with all the things going on in your little girls life, not a surprise.

The best thing to do is keep totally calm, when she does a poo in her knickers, lead her to the bathroom silently and clean her up tell her she should have done it in the toilet, all the time keep the most bored expression on your face possible, and straight back to whatever you were doing before.
This way she has no attention, so she soon will be bored of it also.
Remember they like any attention sometimes whether its good or bad.

You may notice she picks her moments when to do it, this is possibly when you are not able to give her the attention she wants.

It will come to an end, just keep your cool

When you say "in the midst of moving house", what stage are you at? How much does she know about it all? Have you told her in words of one syllable that she is coming with you to the new house? (Seriously, it's astonishing what can run through their little minds and worry them to bits.)

We're still waiting for a completion date so we're at the stage where we're stressing about it but DD doesn't know that we're moving house. I guess she's just picking up on our stress and pre-occupation with the house sale and purchase.

Thanks for the advice.

I would bet that she does know that you will be moving! DD1 was 2¼ when I conceived DD2 and I didn't tell her for ages, but she knew - she had picked it up from my conversations with DH and friends.

Try sitting down with her and explaining exactly what's going to happen - get her a book about it if you can. (There's a Shirley Hughes one called Moving Molly which is good - it might be a bit old for her but you could try it.) It won't do anything for your stress but it should help hers. Good luck

Thanks JanH - you're probably right.