3 year old will only poo standing up and in a nappy.

[HughesDad98]

Hello, We have been training our son for 3 months now using the toilet,

He will wee all the time in the toilet sitting down not a problem, never has accidents, night times are mainly dry also.

But pooping is a whole different story, he won't poo sitting down on the toilet and he insists on a nappy standing up won't even sit down with a nappy on. He will hold in his poo for days if we dont give him a nappy. We have tried Lactulose and still makes no difference to him wanting to sit down and push it out.

Any advice! Seems like a never ending circle of having to give him a nappy becusee hes holding it in for days causing himself pain!

Thanks!

This is very normal.
And it's also where bribery abd incentives can be really useful.
Have you tried a star chart, stuck right next to the loo?
Choc buttons work well though you may not personally want to use food as reward.
I'm assuming he has a child seat on the loo?
Did you use a potty, if so, did he struggle pooing on that too?
It is a very normal reaction to feeling a loss of control.
I'd not use Lactulose as it could exacerbate that feeling.
Reward and patience...he'll get there!

Tell him that once he does a poo on the loo he will get a card with a voucher to go to the toy shop/ bookshop to chose a gift. Show him this. Say it’s for him whenever he chooses the loo. Then once he does a poo in the loo you can take him out to
choose his present. He could also choose some other small presents for further poos on the loo.

We're in the same situation op. I think it's actually quite common. I don't have any wise words unfortunately as dd1 was a dream to potty train, dd2 will not wear knickers all day but will ask for a nappy back on to do a poo.

My son was like this. He hid behind a door too. To be fair he does have SN and sensory issues which I think were a large part of it because I didn't get him to stop this until he was six. The toilet was fine for wees and he got that very quickly but it took a long time to get past the poo thing. My neighbour is going through this at the moment with her 3 yo and it's so common.

There's an app about a poo. It tells you a story. Worked wonders on my boy.

My oldest son was was exactly the same. He grew out of it. He will be 36 this year. Don’t worry x

Hi @HughesDad98, I appreciate this is an old thread but do you have an update, please? We are going through the same, thank you!