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Really late potty trainer

1 reply

BrigidB · 10/11/2006 16:54

My DS1 was very, very late in potty training. We tried on and off since he was two but he only finally cracked it about four months ago when he was three and a half. However, he while he's fine with wees, in four months he's only pooed on the toilet twice. The rest of the time he does it in his pants. He always says sorry and says he'll do it on the toilet next time but never does. He never gives any clues as to when he needs to go - no facial expressions or hopping around - and doesn't go at the same time every day so it's difficult to anticipate. We're now trying good old bribery with a sticker chart. If he gets ten stickers, he gets a toy that he really, really wants. I've gone so far as to actually buy the toy and it's sitting in the bathroom as an incentive but even that hasn't worked so far. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is he just lazy or could there be a medical reason why he doesn't know he needs to poo?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
crinklechunk · 10/11/2006 17:15

My ds was 3 in August and started pre school in September. Nearly every day he came home in clean trousers because he had pooed in his pants. I was really concerned but the staff seemed to take it in their stride. It has taken a couple of months but he seems to have cracked it now. I think he didn't recognise what was happening until it was too late and then was embarassed so he would deny he had done anything.
He feels more secure on the potty than the toilet and has started saying 'poos go in pottys and toilets not in pants'!
Having said that he still sometimes mistakes wanting a poo for needing to wee.
Everybody told me that they learn to control their bowels before their bladders (which was true of my two girls) but this obviously wasn't true of ds.
We used 'potty sweets' giving him a sweetie if he got to the potty in time (he no longer asks for them so we haven't done him any long term harm!)
I think lots of praise when he manages it but if he doesn't just deal without comment. My OH once got frustrated and shouted at ds, he hadn't finished what he was doing and held on to it because he was upset so we had a repeat performance 10 minutes later!

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