We started potty training our daughter a couple of months after her second birthday. She has recently turned four and has mostly almost never been able to recognise when she needs the toilet for a bowel movement; she doesn’t seem to have any sensation awareness or get any warning that it’s about to happen. She also doesn’t tell us after she’s had an accident, but I think this is mainly due to embarrassment/being in denial. She has total understanding about what she ‘should’ do i.e. wees and poos go in the toilet, not in our knickers etc.
She also will rarely self initiate to go to the toilet when she needs a wee, but we are generally able to notice when she needs to go and so tell her to go and sit on the toilet to go for a wee, so we manage to have very few accidents as long as whichever adult is with her (parent/grandparent/nursery key worker) regularly gets her to go to the toilet. I recognise that this is really her complying rather than recognising the sensation of needing a wee and acting on it, but I do think she has more sensation awareness for weeing than with bowel movements as she will often wriggle and dance about when she needs a wee whereas there is no equivalent for when she needs a poo.
The GP’s only suggestion was that she could be constipated but I do not think this is the case - she has very regular bowel movements, at least one a day, and always soft. The GP has advised we give it time, but I feel two years is a long time to be potty training with such limited success.
Has anyone had a similar experience and have any advice please?