Disimpacting with stool withholding toddler

[Quantumtypea]

Hi! I'm new here, and quite desperate. My 2.5 y.o. was completely toilet trained for a few months, until he started withholding stool about 4-6 weeks ago, I think because of one painful experience. He would only go every 5-6 days for the last month, so we have started on the disimpacting regime to clean out the backlog. But he won't sit on the potty/toilet! He keeps trying to hold it (making faces, contorting his little body). Now he has a little poo coming out every 5-10 minutes for the entire day! It's exhausing for everyone. We're on Day 5 now, and there has not been any big poo. Only a trickle all day long. What can I expect going forward? Will there ever be big poo? (his last big poo was 11 days ago) Will he have a blow out at some point when he cannot hold it any more? Or is it going to be like this for foreseeable future? Thanks for any thoughts! If anyone has dealt with stool withholding, I'd love to hear stories. Thanks!

[sosie16]

I feel your pain. We are on day 13 of disimpaction with a 4.5yo withholder. Things that have helped us: the book 'it hurts when I poop', a reward chart with stickers for every sit on the toilet (rewards for a full day of stickers, and a big reward at the end of the week). Blowing up balloons on the toilet (Eric told me that blowing helps poo makes its way, so toy trumpets/candles/balloons etc). Games/books for toilet-time only. Also drink ALOT of liquid - we found we had a lot less poo come out on days with less drinks. I don't think the runny poos started properly until day 6, we've now had 7 days of diarrhea and only think we are coming to an end now. It's been LONG but perseverance is pretty paramount I think!