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Help! DS is 4 and will only poo in a nappy.

4 replies

aragon · 08/03/2007 13:44

Hi,

Anyone else had this? My ds was 4 in December and had been dry during the day (but not at night) since the age of 3.
He will only poo in a nappy though and we can't seem to make any headway with this. I have tried asking him very gently why he doesn't want to sit on the toilet and he says that it is because the poo is too hard. However, when I change him the poo is very soft and not at all constipated.

We have tried rewarding him for sitting on the loo in a nappy but even this is becoming problematic as he now shuts us out of the bathroom while in there so I've no idea if he's sitting on the loo.

I am fairly relaxed as I think that ds will do it all in his own time - I can't imagine that at the age of 16 he'll be saying "I've got a tummy ache and I need a nappy on"!
My hubby though is worrying about it and is advocating throwing the nappies out and having a stand off by saying "No more nappies - use the loo like every other human being"
I am reluctant to do this though as my cousin's son (now 16) suffers from encoporesis (pooing small amounts involuntarily into his underwear) which it is thought occurred because he was holding on too long as a small child due to not wanting to sit on the loo. This has ruined his ability to feel the sensations telling him his bowel is full. I do not want this for my ds.

Anyone else been there with this? How did you/or are you coping with it?

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Hassled · 08/03/2007 13:51

My friend went through this with her DS1 when he was 3.5 to 4 - he would hold on for ridiculous lengths until he got a nappy. It stopped when she resorted to straight forward bribery (Smarties ) and after months of worrying about it the whole issue just stopped. Shameless bribery does sometimes work!
Other than bribes, possibly just having no nappies in the house (and being able to show him there are none) would work but it does sound harsh. Apparently lots of kids find poo quite scary - if there was any way to talk about it more, to make it seem more trivial and unimportant, that might help. Poo jokes? There must be some! Good luck.

aragon · 08/03/2007 21:10

Bump for the evening crowd!

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tilmeg · 09/03/2007 07:04

My DD is 3.5 and it is the same here. We only poo in a nappy but will happily use the loo to pee. I have tried sticker charts, bribery, mild criticism, trying to make it fun, putting a nappy in the potty (that worked for a couple of days) and even on one occassion pleading. I have given up. My DS is two and ready to be potty trained so I am hoping she will get it right and he will want to be the same as her. As you say you dont see many 16 yr olds in nappies but it is becoming a slight problem as he is about to start full days at school and they will only take them if they are clean. If anyone has any other suggestions to help I would be very happy

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Overrun · 09/03/2007 15:12

Bumping for you, no advice I am afraid

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