3yr old wont poo on the potty/toilet

[JoTemp42]

I am sure this has happened to many of you so some advice would be really appreciated.

My 3yr old will not poo on the toilet. She has the peeing down to a tee, letting us know she needs to go etc. and has had very few accidents in the last 4-5 months of her practicing. She is even dry throughout the night. However, she will not do a poo, preferring to poo in her knickers every time.

When we ask her why she doesn’t poo on the toilet, she just says that she doesn’t know. It is getting really frustrating for myself and dad as we are at our wits end. We are supposed to be going abroad on holiday in July, but I feel like I can’t go if she is going to be continually soiling her knickers all the time.

I know that it will probably come, but did anyone have any tips on how we can help with this? Any techniques or reward systems that we could try that we haven’t already?

Many thanks in advance, from a very mentally exhausted mother and father 🫣

We had this. Every time we saw the ‘poo face’ we’d grab the potty or say ‘quickly go to the toilet’ promising that if they went on the toilet they could have a new little item they loved. They were only £1 each so we figured it was worth the cost.
We’d then do lots of congratulatory ’good girl to poo on the toilet’, high 5’s, claps etc and a ‘well done, now you get a new x’. It was hit and miss for a while but we persevered and they got there in the end.

Thank you. We will definitely give that a try 🤞🏻

@JoTemp42 I am in the same boat with my son. We’ve been training since early July for wees and he’s dry day and night so doesn’t wear a nappy. But for poos he soils his pants or goes on the floor.

I am completely with you in solidarity as I am exhausted and overwhelmed and find myself upset most nights once he’s in bed as don’t know how to solve this!

We had the same problem! If you have an iPhone download the "poo goes back to pooland" app it's an interactive story and it worked really well for us 😊 good luck!! X

@thejollytrolleydolly unfortunately I’ve tried that and it’s had no real impact on my sons progress! It’s nice to know this is quite a common hurdle as can feel quite lonely

Hang in there. It's been a long slog but in the last couple of weeks it has just clicked for her. We just started to give high fives and massive amount of praise when she did go on the toilet and it seems to have stuck🤞🏻so happy as she starts nursery at school in September.

They do get there I promise! xx

Poo goes to pooland app. Very silly but has worked on at least 4 children I know

Had I known about it I definitely would have tried it 👌🏻

@JoTemp42 that is amazing news for your daughter I am so pleased! In total how long did it take?

Did it literally just click? Or did you do anything different? We’ve tried rewards, bribes, praise and nothing seems to be moving things forward so we’ve taken the pressure off this week!

It did just literally click. She did it a couple of times and when she realised that the clean up was so much easier and just began going by herself.

I would say it took a long 8-9 months in total (sounds bad but that was from the start of all the potty training). But as always, they come through when you least expect it.

Really just keep persevering and he will get there xx

@Ljordan13