potty training Help

[Neveragain]

I have a 2.8 year old boy who I am desperately trying to potty train I started on monday and so far has been dry for 2 days but he will not do a poo on the potty or toilet only in his big boy pants, how can I reasure him it is ok to poo on the potty without resorting to blackmail.

It took 15 months after she was dry before my dd would poo anywhere other than in a nappy. She was terrified to use the toilet or the potty, and putting pressure on her to do it just made matters worse.

It helped us to remember that potty training for wee and potty training for poo are two separate issues, and he could well be ready for the one and not the other.

Bribery bribery and more bribery. Can't recommend sticker charts enough. We had HUGE problems with poo. Ds was quite late to potty train anyway (nearly 3), but took forever with poo.

We turned a corner with a sticker chart - started with 3 boxes for stickers and he knew when they were full he would get an engine. We struggled along, occasionally getting a sticker, and then when there was only 1 box left to fill I actually bought the engine and told him it was in the house, which seemed to be incentive enough to do his poo.

So then he had worked out how to do them, and seemed to be able to conjure a poo up every evening at bedtime, and this made him more regular. We still had poo in pull ups at night for a while, but this has gradually waned, and now he's absolutely fine.

Lots of the books say that children usually get clean before they are dry, but there are SO many threads on here about children who just don't get how to poo for ages. It feels soul destroying I know, but he'll get there!

Thanks for your advice, but what I dont know is how do I get him to try for the first time, it seems that everytime he is about to go he panics and says no poo and then five minutes later he goes in his pants, I have tried the sticker route but then we have a battle as he then wants all the sticker at once.

i was quite lucky cos my dd toilet trained wee and poo at the same time. she only took a week for wee, she was dead keen to use the toilet for wee, so that was easy. poo took a couple of days longer, basically cos hse was scared of doing a poo in the toilet. if she told me she needed a poo she would get frightened and cry. so i would just reassure her and tell her she could have a nappy on to do her poo, and she did this for a couple of days, until one day she was doing a wee in the toilet and out plopped a poo, it actually made her laugh, i think with relief.

but what im trying to say is, she did ask for a nappy for a poo when i offered it to her, and after she had done the poo she told me it felt horrible "get it off mummy" so she had become so used to pants she hated the poo in her nappy

why not let him have a nappy on to poo in, then the nappy comes off immediately and the pants back on? it will reassure your son and cause less mess for you until he is ready. im sure he will let you know when he is ready! i think frightened feelings are common with poo, just let him know its ok and fine and mummy does poos too

i hope you have success soon x

Neveragain - am in the same position as you, but have pretty much gone with the nailpolish approach. My dd has had no accidents with wee and am hoping that in time the poos will fall in place (the right place of course!).

it is nice to know that I am not the only one out there with this problem, can you tell me what the nailpolish approach is please.

My dd 2.8yr old has been potty training for about 2-3 weeks now, and if i dare say it, i think we've done it. However poos she will only do at my house, bearing in mind she stays two or three nights a week at my mum's as i work shifts this could be a problem. At home, i've bought some squirty soap and said "one squirt for a wee and two (one on each hand) for a poo!! she also gets to press the air freshner which she can only reach from her toilet step seat thing if she does a poo. It certainly works at home, so at least she goes every other day if she's held it at my mum's. We've also increased fruit and bran to stop her getting constipated if she does start to hold it in as this can become a problem. We tried the potty, but she prefers the toilet with seat and step contraption.
Sorry to waffle hope it gives some ideas.