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Potty training

Is your child ready for potty training at nursery? Here's the place for all your toilet training questions.

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Original poster

Potty training 2.5 year old - withholding poo

9 replies

Grasshopper90 · 04/05/2022 08:21

DD is 2.5 and has a history of stool withholding (on and off since about 18 months). It really peaked around her 2nd birthday and she’s been on two sachets of movicol per day ever since.

We recently started potty training as she was showing an interest and not wanting to wear a nappy. She’s doing really well wees, and early on did a couple of poos on the potty. However this last week poos seemed to have become scary again, and she’s saving them up for nappies (we’re still using nappies for nighttime and out and about) or withholding.

We have been using stickers as rewards (extra for poos) maybe this is putting extra pressure on?

We probably need to ditch nappies altogether? It’s just we live in a flat with no garden and also have a baby, so really not keen to stay in for days on end.

It was such a horrible time when she was in the thick of stool withholding before I dread it coming back.

Really not sure what to do?

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chilliplant634 · 04/05/2022 08:24

I'm in the same situation with my daughter who is almost 3! I really don't know what to do either. She doesn't like nappies anymore, but witholds poo unless she is wearing one. I just keep an eye on her and if I think she wants to poo I give her a nappy. But I think I will start doing regular after meal potty/toilet sits to try and get her in the habit and keep up with the movicol to make sure poo is soft.

jamsandwich1 · 04/05/2022 08:28

No advice just to say you’re not alone! DS was terrified of pooing whilst potty training and wouldn’t go in a nappy once we’d started either. We kept going with the movicol, really increased it so he had no choice but to poo (would usually go by accident when he had a wee) and then tapered it back down when he settled. It took a couple of months but he’s fine now!

Original poster

Grasshopper90 · 04/05/2022 12:41

Thank you both for your replies. Sorry to hear you’ve been/are going through similar, it’s so tricky isn’t it?

@chilliplant634 the regular sits sound like a good idea, I think I’ll try that… maybe with the aid of a screen 😉

@jamsandwich1 glad to hear you’ve got it sorted. I think it will probably be a number of weeks before we crack it too

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MamaStew · 25/08/2022 19:43

Hi Grasshopper90
How are things now? We are going through same as you were back in May. My 2.8 year old has been potty training for 2 weeks. Seems to have nailed wees and started well with poos but now the reality has kicked in & she's getting so upset when needing a poo.

Please tell me any tips you have.
We are on 1 sachet of movicol as a matinence dose as we have history of witholding too!!

Hope you see this xxx

chilliplant634 · 26/08/2022 07:00

An update on my daughter who is now 3. Tackling the constipation has helped and is more willing and tries to poo on the toilet. She is still prone to constipation and so have to keep her on a daily dose of movicol. She also has a very small amount of senna and that keeps her regular. I notice when she is regular she has no problem in using the toilet for both wees and poos. When she is getting backed up she tends to withold more. With my daughter they seem to be related.

chilliplant634 · 26/08/2022 07:03

Also the scheduled potty sits help. She sits on the toilet for "poo time" After coming home from nursery for 15-20 mminutes. Often she will poo in this time.

MamaStew · 26/08/2022 07:57

Thanks @chilliplant634 i was worried my message may have not been seen so thankyou so much for replying.

I'm glad to hear things are better for you and guess the constant monitoring /encouraging doesn't go away does it.

That's great that will sit on the potty after nursery though. That's the dream over here. My little one will sit for a wee but I'm sure it'll just take time for the poos.

How did you encourage her to sit for longer periods of time? We've tried a few things unsuccessfully xxx

chilliplant634 · 26/08/2022 19:30

Well I'm ashamed to say it but I let her use the tablet when she sits for poo and I set a timer for 15 minutes. Then I have to prize the tablet out of her hands :/

chilliplant634 · 26/08/2022 19:32

I think just try and work on the constipation first and then the rest will follow on. I thought the advice from Dr Steve hodges from www.bedwettingandaccidents.com was really useful for both my children in terms of potty training and getting them dry at night. He is an American paediatric urologist who specialises in constipation/bedwetting and toileting issues in kids.

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