My dd just won't pooh....has this happened to anyone else and what do i do?

[mullion]

She is 3 in March and has been potty trained since she turned 2. She has no accidents and totally gets it but she will not pooh. Insists she won't "let him out" and so withholds for days at a time. She is not constipated (when she does poo it is totally normal and unless she has hung on for more than 3 days not painful to produce) but the withholding is painful for her (and very frustrating for us) and makes her very upset. We have tried everything - from not making a big deal of it to offering rewards (choc buttons if you sit on the loo for a while...) and so on. I think the whole thing started not long after she was potty trained when she was constipated for a few days and did have painful poos. But that was a goo 8 months ago. No idea what to do next... Any ideas anyone? Thanks very much.

My DD regularly withholds, especially if she's had a tummy bug, or a period of upset. She had a period of lots of accidents because of it.
She still finds it all very stressful, and I'm trying just to be laid back about it all. We've gone back to using the potty (the trip upstairs to the loo was way too much effort for her amongst all the poo anxiety!)
I sing songs and read stories to distract her. I've also talked about the poo a lot - 'what does it look like?' 'shall we wave bye bye to the poo?' etc etc. It sounds gross but it helps here... also have potty/loo songs to make the whole thing fun.
If all else fails, I feed her 'special pudding' made of stewed apples, prunes and apricots. Very difficult to hold that in!

Thanks very much. special loo songs sounds like a good idea - we'll make one up! we feed her baked beans when it all gets too much - that works but your special pudding might be a better bet. I'll try that too. Its all very distressing for her and it has been going on so long i'll try anything. The doctor jsut says she'll grow out of it.. but its taking a long time!

It's difficult not to get stressed about it I know. DD was fine too, and had been potty trained 6 months when she started withholding.
The pudding really works - I stew apples, pears, chopped prunes, dates and apricots with some apple juice (doesn't need sugar). She loves it. Sometimes serve with custard but she'll eat it without.
Our potty song is to the tune of the Indina Jones theme tune

There is a book someone on here recommended... here it is on Amazon I haven't bought it, as above strategies seem to be working ok for us.