Arrrgghh !! Anybody elses potty training LO using doing a poo on the toilet as a delay tactic for bedtime !!

[puffylovett]

He's been sat on the loo for well over 40 mins now, done about 5 wees but no sign of a poo - but he's insistent he wants one... Grrr !!! He normally does a poo within about 3 secs of being put on the loo to do a poo !!!

What do you do !! I don't want to yank him off if he really wants one, but equally I don't think he does really want one, or surely he would've done it by now

You give him 5 mins max on the loo, warn him that if he hasn't done a poo by then he will have to get off, end of. Use a kitchen timer if necessary, so that he sees the time passing. Say that if he doesn't get off there will be no time for a story, etc.

You are the one in control here. It's actually physically bad for him to sit there for so long, as well as a nuisance delaying bedtime. Once he realizes you mean it, he'll give this line of delay tactics up, and try to think of something else! So what if he has a tantrum. You won't be scarring him for life.

I really sympathise. My dd will insist on a poo even if she has done one an hour earlier and expects me to stand around having discussions about the bathroom tiles or anything else she can think of to spin it out!
What has helped when it gets too long is a 'count to three then off' nappies on to the sqiggleing body and into bed with a promise that when I come up in five minutes she can have a poo if she wants one then.
A few times we had dirty protest poos seconds later to prove a point. The one thing you cannot ignore is a poo in the nappy...how do they suss this so quickly? This passed when she was cleaned up and changed in the bedroom with virtually nil communication and lights off. Quite a feat on my part. It drove me nuts for a little while but the message got through.

They are so damned clever! So hope this is of some help though I know the new phase will be some new incarnation that I had never even thought of.

agree very much with Hildabeast, a friend of mine was very difficult over her daughters potty training calling her dirty girl etc and it lead to truly YEARS of ghastly problems. Perhaps read a story whilst child is on loo and when you've finished short story just without a word just lift off and carry on as normal maybe with "quickly into bed and further (extremely) short story".