Poo in pants - when to quit?

[Tobebythesea]

DD, 2.10. We started potty training 2 months ago and wees are 90% cracked but she’s never done a poo on the potty or toilet. Every day she poos in her pants once or twice a day and I’ve reached the end of my patience as in the last week I’ve started to shout at her and I know that doesn’t help anyone but I’ve had enough. Stickers, chocolate, poo goes to pooland....nothing helps. Do I just give up and go back to nappies? If I put her in pull ups she just wees as she knows the difference between them and pants. It feels like we’re going backwards and I feel like a failure. WHY isn’t she getting it?

[tappitytaptap]

We are having this too, DS 2.10, wees cracked relatively easily but still doing poos in pants. The problem we have is lack of (immediate) signs. He'll do a few trumps and say he needs the toilet, fine, but then not actually poo - that will come a few hours later and we can't always tell in time to rush him to the loo. He does sometimes poo on the toilet but I feel like thats just luck! I know its a relatively common problem but am finding it frustrating. His bladder control is excellent but how do we crack pooing?! How's it going for you OP?

[BlueUggs]

We resorted to goldfish! You pop on the potty, you get a tank of goldfish. 😂😂😂😂
Worked for us!!

[HappyAndYouKnowItGlugTheWine]

We've got Pirate Pete so will try and get him to sit and read it with me. We spent a good 15mins today on the Poo Goes Home To Pooland app on the iPad and he seemed quite into that... but we've still had 2 poos in trousers this morning

[Tobebythesea]

Have you tried a book? I’ve heard Pirate Pete is good for boys?

[HappyAndYouKnowItGlugTheWine]

We've had only one success with a poo in potty. He had no pants or trousers on so was naked on his bottom half and I think without the security or whatever of his trousers to catch the poo he had no choice but to go on the potty. He hopped about and delayed for a while before he finally did it but then he went upstairs on his own and did it - he was so excited I really thought we'd turn a corner but the next day when he had joggers back on for nursery he did every poo in his trousers again. Gonna lock ourselves away this weekend and have him bottomless most of the time to see if we can get more poos in the potty this way and possibly create more of a habit in his mind that poops in potty are nothing to worry about - wish me luck! Will let you know how it goes!

[OneMoreForExtra]

Oh god just seen both posts a bout pull-ups not helping... so true for us but I've done it now ...

[OneMoreForExtra]

I know your pain. DD was sorted on wees with no accidents by 2.2. Never managed the poos, and after 3 months of trashed pants I put her back in pull-ups, telling her I was saving her big girl pants until she wanted to poo on the potty/loo. She's gradually regresed and now at 2.6 she refuses to even sit on the loo or potty, wees in her pull-ups and hides to poo. She can tell me exactly whar the deal is: when I do my poo on the loo I can wear my big girl pants and have a Percy Pig - she even knows the bribe - but it makes no difference. My latest acquisition is Liam goes poo on the toilet - supposed to teach them to recognise the body signals - but I'm not optimistic. The health visitor's advice is to leave it completely for a few months. I'm trying not to let DD see my frustration...

[Tobebythesea]

On the day I wrote that post we went back to using pull ups and as predicted she started weeing in them as well. She moved up to Preschool at Nursery as well at this time with the 3 and 4 year olds. After a fortnight in pull ups we spoke to a Health Visitor and her nursery workers and we agreed that pull ups had not helped at all with wees or poos so we stopped and went cold turkey.

That day she had 3 accidents (2 wees,1 poo) so it really highlighted the regression effect. Wees were better from the next day, still pooed though and I started reading the Princess Polly book again as we hadn’t read it in a while. Two days later on a Saturday morning she simply sat on the potty and did a poo. We made a MASSIVE fuss and gave her a chocolate coin. That weekend she did 5 more poos on the potty and hasn’t had an accident since.

So in my experience pull ups didn’t help, they hindered it. And a book helped as well as chocolate. Just after Christmas we also got a larger potty as her knees were near her face on the old one. Preschool and seeing older children go to the toilet might also have helped.

[ILoveDolly]

Persevere! I know it is really disheartening, but you are doing the right things, my most difficult child needed bribing with choc buttons but even she got it in the end. The only thing you must not do is quit and go back into nappies.

[Ahardmanisgoodtofind]

My daughter is the same, dry day and night for over a year now(she's 3). The only things that have worked for us is having her naked from the waist down (on knickerless if in skirt/nighty) when we are at home, or sitting her on the potty/toilet and really distracting her, either letting her watch her favourite show or making her really laugh when we find little mess in her knickers/know she hasn't been for day or two. She seems to be finally getting it and we've only had one accident in a few weeks. X

[HappyAndYouKnowItGlugTheWine]

We're having this similar issue. Has it got any better for you OP?