3 Yr old pooing in pants not toilet

[Nic91]

Just after any similar experiences and advice/reassurance.
My daughter turned 3 this month. She has been potty trained since 2.5 (wees mainly). No issues going to potty/toilet. She can take herself, knows when, tells me etc, good in unfamiliar places too.
However, ever since potty training, she's always pooed in a pull-up or knickers and this hasn't yet changed. I've tried different methods and incentives and genuinely nothing works.
I'm hoping it is just a 'short' phase as I've heard this is quite common with poos and others have been through this stage.
Only just turned 3 with minimal other accidents and doesn't start school until next September.

Thanks ☺️

Have her ask for a pullup to poo.

Then very slowly in little steps do the following:

Going into the toilet ( the room)to poo the pullup.

Then have her sit on the toilet fully clothed.

Then in just the pullup.

Then you cut a hole in the pullup.

Make it bigger each time

The poo will be falling in the toilet at this point.

Eventually it will just be the waistband which you can reuse until she wants to stop.

Take it very slowly, don't push too much it doesn't matter if it takes a year.

I’ve said this on other threads on this topic as it seems to come up a lot…

Hopefully I can offer some constructive advice having had this issue with my older one.

There is a well known method (variation on the advice above) and it worked for us.

1. When they are confident with wee, take the pull-ups off during the day and have them wear pants.
2. Tell them that when they need a poo they need to come and ask for a pull-up to do it in (rather than just wearing pull-ups all the time).
3. When they poo their pull-up, it has to be done in the bathroom and nowhere else.
4. The pull-up is taken off immediately afterwards, and the poo flushed down the toilet (in their presence).
5. After a week or so of doing this, ask the child to sit on the toilet or potty (with their pull-up on, still) to do their poo.
6. Repeat step 4 afterwards.
7. After a further week or two of this, instead of putting the pull-up on, put the open pull-up into the potty or toilet so that they will poo into it without wearing it. Repeat step 4 afterwards.
8. Eventually the child will get so used to sitting on the toilet to poo that it won’t matter if there is a pull-up underneath or not.
9. Job done!

The above worked for us, but I’ve also heard of the following variations:

If step 7 is too big a transition for the child, try cutting a hole in the back of the pull-up before they put it on so that the child can sit on the toilet still wearing the pull-up but the poo goes through it and into the toilet.

If they can’t get past the step of placing the pull-up into the toilet, do so gradually by cutting pieces off the pull-up bit by bit each time until eventually they only need a little bit of pull-up in the toilet to poo on, which can then eventually be replaced by a wad of toilet tissue.

Good luck! I hope this proves useful.

😊