Going potty over poo! Help!

[Dinamit]

Hi, I am in desperate need of advice from any mums who've been through similar.

DS 3 years old, and completely independent doing wees in potty, washing hands etc afterwards. Also dry at night for a while now.

However, he keeps pooping in his pants! We left it for a while, with no pressure. Then we bought toys to reward him. Once he pooed on the potty and got so much praise with a toy reward. He was visibly proud as he could tell we were so happy and proud of him. But that was a one off!

I am at my wits end now! I can't hack cleaning up to 4 soiled pants a day - I am quite literally fed up of poo.

I don't understand what the issue is; he doesn't say anything - perhaps he doesn't know.

Any advice?

I don't know how long we can carry on like this...

[trixie123]

love the idea of flipping the poo into the potty so you can show them what the reward / reaction would be. Might try that. We are only on day 4 of training and wees are ok at home, but not out and no poos yet except in pants. Bizarrely it has also coincided with DS getting up 2 hours later than normal on the last two mornings! The whole handwashing thing - at the moment we are just focusing on the potty, not all the surrounding bits like washing, wiping etc. Is it best to that from the start or introduce it gradually? The potty is in not in the bathroom at the moment as he likes to watch TV while waiting for it to come

[AllOverIt]

We've made the call to go back to pull ups. I was cleaning 3 poos a day, plus she's spent the last two weeks flooding herself again. We're all at the end o our tether. Going to start again in a couple of weeks. Gives us a break

[Diane456]

Thanks for the idea of putting the poo in the potty - I'm going to give it a try!

[ticklebucket]

My almost 3 year old son won't poo until we put his bedtime nappy on. He has cracked weeing and is often dry througout the night but doesn't like pooing in the potty sitting down. We've tried quiet poo areas, distractions, bribery, reward charts, no pressure, positivity and praise but we haven't made much progress. We can't work out if its a standing up thing or a need for the nappy or both. I suppose all we can do is keep at it. we are encouraging him to practice pooing in his nappy sitting down and keeping up the encouragement. I have talked to friends and read articles and it seems the answer alas is patience!

[ticklebucket]

Of course I realise I'm only dealing with the occassional poo accident not a daily one. So patience is easier in our situation at least at the moment.

[frazzled09]

We are dealing with the same, but with some glimmer of hope recently. He's been pooing his pants every day (once or more) but in this last week he's done a couple in the potty - only when no-one else is around and he's been in control of deciding when to go and being alone though.
So I thought that privacy and control were the key.... but today and yesterday he's done them in the bath. URGH I am afraid I lost the plot today and whilst I didn't shout AT him, there was some stomping, crying and general bad example-setting from me. All the while explaining to him that i wasn't cross with him, just tired from a long day at work and then having to clean the bath and toys etc. Doesn't excuse my reaction though and now I feel guilty.

It is hard to remain calm and patient at times. But the staff at his nursery assure me it is entirely normal for the poo phase to take a while and that he'll get there soon.