Poo'ing on the toilet, Any advice?

[Nicjay]

Hi, my ds1 is 3 and although he his potty trained during the day, he will not poo on the toilet, i have tried everything from totally refusing to put a nappy on, to sticker rewards, so far nothing has worked. If i refuse to put a nappy on, he will just hold it in until he goes to bed, or sometime he doesnt poo for days. then he becomes very constipated as you would expect, even when he does go for a poo in his nappy it is only a very small amount and very smelly (tmi, sorry)

DON'T make a big deal of it - as you have found this leads to withholding the poo and dreadful problems can ensue. Just completely take the pressure off and wait a while until you feel he is over this phase, then try again. My ds was like this for quite a while, and it is no big deal really to have them go in a nappy, is it?

I would wait until he has forgotten his fear and then offer a HUGE bribe for a poo in the potty / toilet.

Hi, have real sympathy with you as one of my closest friends had the same problem with her DS, this is what she did.

Leave it for 2 weeks, to give you both time to relax.

Ask him to let you know when he wants a poo and you will put a nappy on for him so that he can have a poo. This might be better if you are in for a couple of days, but if you are out you can always take him somewhere private to do it. Really praise him for letting you know that he needed a poo.

Once he has had a couple of days of telling you he needs a poo, talk to him again. Explain that you will put a nappy on when he needs a poo but he needs to sit on the potty while he does the poo (with the nappy on) and again loads of praise and maybe a treat.

After a couple of days of doing this, or more if he needs more confidence, slacken the nappy a little.

When he is ok with this, slacken the nappy a bit more each time until eventually you are just putting the nappy in the potty so that he sits on the potty and does the poo.

Sounds like a bit of a long process but it took my friends DS a couple of weeks with this method to go from having poos in bed or secret poos behind the settee (nice) to using the toilet.

Hope it works for you.