Withholding, Refusing to sit on potty or toilet.

[tipietoes]

My 4 year old son was only toilet trained for around 3 weeks then had a painful poo and now for the last 3 1/2 months has been withholding . this has caused impaction. He started 1 sachet of Movical but is now increased to 4 a day. He refuses to sit on potty or toilet . We had started to put pads in his pants but with the increase he has had to go back into pull ups. He also puts up a fight when he needs changing (he does not seem bothered that he is dirty). Children at his pre school and in play areas have began to comment, he has zero concentration skills because he cant keep still and with the constant moving about and has had some nasty bumps and falls. He is under a community paediatrician for behaviour (having ADHD assessment in October) we have seen a continence nurse and he is under Speech and language. He has great understanding and can be very controlling which I think is what's happening here. Any help , support, advice would be really welcomed. I'm really struggling and now his pre school are thinking of sending him home if he will not get changed. He starts school in September I really am worried. Thank you.

[Luella19]

I'm sorry to hear the situation you are in. You are not alone as you will see from this forum.

Some people have tried using pull-ups for pooing and then slowly slowly moving child into toilet in pull up to poo, then sat on potty/toilet to poo in pull up, then cut a hole in pull up so poo falls out into potty/toilet.

There is a great book 'The ins and outs of poop' which I found a very beneficial read.

[Georgina1475]

Try only changing him in the bathroom and have the potty in there too. Try and get him to sit in the pull up if he will. Blowing bubbles as a distraction or tissue to see who can get it higher as blowing allows the bottom to relax. I read to my son while he got used to sitting and played games to distract him. It's hard but keep trying as it's getting into a routine of sitting at first and then the pooping will eventually come. We saw many specialist and it came down to that he wasn't body aware or mature enough to understand. He now at 8 has got into a good routine and doesn't withhold anymore but it was a long process. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself to get this sorted before school starts and if it continues get the school to put a care plan in place so that they understand the issue. Pre school should be in your side and be more understanding of his/ your needs and they can help with the transition into school. Can preschool get him to try to sit on the loo during the day?