Help. I thought the wee was harder to potty train than the poo? Why does he wee fine, but the poo has never made it to a potty?

[mustrunmore]

Its not that he's trying to get there and doesn't make it in time. He'll say he doesn't need to go seconds before he does a poo, no warning, no noises or facial expressions. He says he cant tell its coming. This only day 5 of potty training, but he'd virtually mastered wees by day 2. Its very frustrating, as he hasnt done a single poo in the right place yet. I really thought it was going to be the wees that were harder. Help!! He's 2.7 btw.

I was always told that poos generally came first ... but I don't know anyone whose child was clean before they were dry. They're two completely separate functions and they aren't necessarily ready to be clean simply because they're ready to be dry.

Does he generally poo at a predictable time? Dd did - she was dry at almost 3 but had a nappy for a poo for a long while after that. If he's pretty predictable, perhaps you could put him on the potty or the loo at those times?

Well, he's usually morning, but its varied by 4 hours or so. Tried to get him to sit on the potty, but he wont for very long, and if I cant pinpoint a time, we could be there for hours! I dont really want to put him back in a nappy... mixed message and all that.

No, I see what you mean and I wouldn't want to put him back in a nappy, either.

All you can do is keep cleaning him up without comment - other than saying something reassuring like "Never mind, perhaps you'll manage in the potty next time" and wait until he learns to recognise the sensation of either pooing or needing a poo. It will take up all your patience though! We treated knickers pretty much as disposable at this stage - get stacks of really cheap ones that you won't mind throwing straight in the bin, it's more pleasant than having to launder them!

With dd, she soon realised when she needed a poo - but absolutely refused point blank to do it in the toilet, and we've only just cracked it ... and she's 5 now! But at least she was able to ask for a nappy when she needed one. Hopefully he'll get there soon!

I think you have been misinformed. Both my kids were far more uptight about poos than wees. I potty trained my DD in May when she was just 2. Now 2 months later she is brilliant with wees but still a bit unhappy about poos although improving. She was holding back a lot and then either doing them in her nappy first thing or doing them in her pants while napping. This is happening less so now.

Our ds was exactly the same. Wees happened within a few days, but poos took much longer, i.e. about two weeks to get any sort of pattern, and MONTHS to be really reliable. Tbh I think it was because with wees, ds could go once, when convenient, and not have to worry about it for another hour or so. With poos, he needed to go when he needed to go IYKWIM, and then couldn't be bothered to stop whatever interesting thing he was doing to go and use the potty/loo. It was much easier doing it in his pants, and letting someone clean it up later. He never seemed to mind sitting in dirty pants either.

Eventually he cracked it when at nursery/school, due to peer pressure I think.

I' ve given him the benefit of the doubt up till today, as he looked a bit sorrowful after he'd done it. But today he grinned as he was saying 'thats my poo' (on the carpet). Hmmm.

Have been training my DS (2.8) for a month and still having lots of accidents (wee and poo). He seems to have regressed a bit in the last week so I am trying to keep my cool.

The poo was going in the potty for about 2 weeks, then started going into the pants for a week, then back to the potty and then yesterday he poo'd in his pants in the park and didn't seem to care one bit that he had an accident!!!

I know what you mean about the grinning thing. "Very" annoying. You get to a point where they know what to do but I think like to p* you off. At least that's my case anyway. I am just keeping my mouth closed, cleaning it up and hopefully we will get back on the right track again.

You've not been going long so try not to worry too much.

I've only potty trained a girl so far (ds' turn next month!) and the pooing was definitely a problem, even though she pooed at predictable times.

I always thought weeing was easier too.

I'm having problems with wees and poos. Tbh I don't mind cleaning up the poo. It's pretty much contained in the pants and normally only occurs once a day for DS.

It's the wees that are driving me crazy this week. My washing machine is on all day long, I am having to use about 3/4 sets of clothes each day and have had to stock up on more pants.