2 year old pooping in the bath?!

[GruffalosToes]

Sorry for the post about poop and hope you've finished your dinner! My DS has just turned 2 (not yet potty trained) and he used to regularly poo once a day in the afternoon just around the time we got home from whatever activity we had done. Pretty regular, no problems. Recently though, I noticed his poo time has got later and later, until the last couple of weeks when he has actually pood in the bath.

Nothing is new with his eating habits or anything and he eats plenty of fruit and vegetables and no processed food, plus drinks water - but as I said, there haven't been any sudden changes with his diet.

The bath itself isn't really the problem but the fact that his need to poo has got later and later and now it's coinciding with bath time!

Has anyone else had this with their toddler? Is there a way I can encourage him to need to poo earlier in the day?

I'm assuming you supervise your child in the bath. So can't you tell he's about to poo and lift him out of the bath to sit him on the loo, with a stern 'NO' we don't poo in the bath.

Pop him on the potty before bath time?

When my toddler starting doing this it was caused by mild constipation. I’d increase water and fruit and fruit juice and see if that helps. Also check the Bristol stool chart to see if you think he might be constipated.

Hmmm I'm not sure that would be quite right. I'm not keen on shaming him, especially on the issue of pooing, and before we have potty trained - I don't think that will help that process. He's not being naughty.

Thank you, I'll give that a go!

I agree you don’t want to shame him, but I would kindly and calmly tell him to tell you when he needs a poo and start to sit him on the potty before he gets in the bath. It’s likely he won’t poo on the potty initially but he might start to tell you he needs to use the potty once he’s in the bath. The warm water is what makes them go in the bath as it relaxes the muscles.

We had this too at the same age as he was holding in his poos until bath time. He decided he didn’t like the feeling of pooing and it took a bath for him to do it as the warm water basically didn’t give him a choice when he actually really needed to go and he was still upset at that. We started lactulose each morning and potty time before bath and it made it harder for him to hold in.

I'd put him on the potty before the bath as you know he's likely to need one then.

Ideally I'd like to do potty training properly (so including the wees) and over a short sharp period (oh crap method). I'm worried if I suddenly introduce a potty tomorrow but only for poo time it might confuse potty training? I was going to start potty training in July when I have some time off.

We introduced the potty well before potty training. Pretty sure it helped rather than hindered and I’m really not sure why it’s not standard. Others may say different though. But it worked for us.

Interesting, thanks. I've been reading up
on the Oh Crap method and she's very firm about not introducing potty until you fully start the training. I know lots of people do though.

Please please do NOT do this. This will link pooing with being told off which will make potty training harder!!

Buy a potty and have him sit on it before he goes into the bath, for as long as he is happy to (don't make him if he would rather not). Then if you see he is about to go, lift him out and pop him on, being very positive and saying ooh well done you need a poo, out it in the potty etc.

Oh for goodness sake. Quote fail! I meant do not tell your child NO in response to pooing! 🙈

Yes I agree @withsexypantsandasausagedog I would never tell him off for this - bless him! We need to keep a very relaxed vibe around toilet training.