Help! DS will wee n potty but not poo...

[amyboo]

DS is 2.4 and is happily dry during the day for wees. He's been using the potty for about a month and we've had him fully in pants for about a week. But, while he's happy to wee in the potty he won't poo in it. Instead he'll do a poo in his pants. I've been telling him every time that he should poo in the potty and he says he understands, but then he'll just poo next time in his pants again.

Does anyone have any advice about how to tackle this problem? He's starting maternelle (like Kindergarten - we're in Belgium) in September and ideally he needs to be fully potty trained by then. The school have said it's OK if he's not, but I'm concerned their patience will wear thin if he keeps pooing in his pants!

Help and advice gratefully received!

Bump. Sorry I have no help, DD will happily poo in potty but weeing is a different issue. We did use bribery though...

My dd wouldn't poo in her potty. I think it's quite common. She used to take her self of into a corner and hide when she pooed in nappies. So I used to put the potty behind the bathroom door where my long dressing gown was hung up. She then started to poo in the potty whilst hiding her self with the dressing gown.

It's a bit grim pooing in a potty, I wouldn't like it! Maybe try the toilet instead, with one of those toddler toilet seat, a booster-step so he can reach and interesting hand-soap (dc like the Palmolive underwater scene one) for splashing about in the sink afterwards.

We had this!

Is he taking himself off to a corner to do it. Memorably DD once disappeared under a hanging display of clothing in a department store and came out having pooed in her pants.

We solved it on holiday by having her running around pant-free (sometimes in a skirt/dress) for a couple of days. She held it in for a while, but eventually she pooed on the toilet. Problem solved. She never did it in her pants again.

Also, some kids hate the potty. DD never once did a poo on the potty. I don't think she liked it sitting there and having to be washed out. She found a toilet seat on a real toilet much easier, and it's rather more pleasant for you too! Have you tried that.

Try not to worry about it, easier said than done I know but he'll get there in his own time.

My friend's DD was exactly the same, would ask for a nappy when she wanted to poo.

My friend was advised to refuse and tell her she needed to use the toilet.

She held it in for so long she was crying in pain.

Making it into a big deal made it so much worse. She's fine now, so will your son be.

Just be patient and don't let it turn into something he stresses about.

Look at the big picture, no school age child purposely soils themselves. They all learned at different paces but the end result is the same.

He'll be fine, honestly.

Ah, glad to see we're not alone in having this problem! He doesn't go into a corner to do it, so isn't wanting to hide. We do have a toilet seat thing and a step, as he used to like sitting on the toilet when we first started potty training. I hadn't thought about trying that for poos, so maybe I'll try and encourage him to sit on it this afternoon... The problem I also find is trying to see when he might need a poo. It's much easier for wees, as he tends to wiggle around and play with his willy when he needs a wee. Guess I'm going to have to try and spot the poos signals too!