Potty training

We started potty training a couple of weeks ago and it has been great with barely any accidents and I think we’ve cracked it.

However, I need some tips on pooing on the potty. She’s always been bad at pooing anyway but she’s only gone twice in the two weeks she’s potty training. She clearly needs to go and I’ve tried reading to her whilst she’s sitting on there, taken the potty in the living room to watch TV and try and even put her nappy on earlier in the evening to try and get her to poo in that but nothing.

Any tips?

[Pasaeoco01]

Hi there, we have also recently achieved dry pants with doing a wee but no joy doing a poo in the toilet yet.

My hardest job is getting him to sit on the toilet for long enough to even try.

With my older son I bought a book which seemed to help in ‘letting go’. Personally I didn’t think the book was that great but he liked it.

Unfortunately he began withholding and not going which would lead to him becoming constipated several times which of course just made the whole thing worse. We eventually resorted to a reward bag with small treats/toys (you have to find what makes her really tick/motivated) and that really did work the best for us.

I’m watching here with interest though for any tips for my youngest son who is far more stubborn and savvy!!!

[Hidden in reply to Pasaeoco01]

Thank you. Gosh so hard isn’t it?! I had heard poos are a nightmare to achieve but it’s so stressful. She goes through phases anyway of getting constipated and I really don’t want to get to that stage but it’s heading that way. I tried to temp her with chocolate earlier but even that didn’t work. She looks like she’s either trying to hold it in or pushing but doesn’t manage it. I’ll have to have more of a think of what to temp her with xx

[Pasaeoco01 in reply to Hidden]

I think for my older son the anticipation of not knowing exactly was in the ‘spotty bag’ was enough of a motivator but that was obvs specific time him.

My younger son is totally different. He knows that poos like to go in the toilet for a ‘poo party’ but ideally not in his pants first!!!

Sometimes when he’s having a wee he looks like he’s trying to go snd then says I’ve finished mummy and hurried off the toilet!

Some kids like to ‘hide’ whilst they go. Would she stay sitting on the potty if you left her for a moment maybe?

It’s so hard, I think it’s trying to find that thing that makes them tick and then bingo!!

Fingers crossed we’ll get there soon. Def keep us posted as I might need your tips!!x

[Hidden in reply to Pasaeoco01]

I’m definitely gonna give that a go. I have to hunt round and see what I can entice her with 🤣.

Luckily she hasn’t actually pooed in her underwear yet but at this moment in time I would prefer she did.

I don’t think she would stay and sit on her potty alone but as she just gets straight off but I’ll give it a go when i next see her trying.

I’m probably over thinking it but I just don’t want it to get so bad as before where she’s crying it pain because it’s so painful. I’ll try some of her movicol over the weekend as well (I’ll probably end up with it going the other way then 🤣).

Thank you for the ideas though. I’ll let you know how I’m getting on 😬 xx

[Lou9]

Hello 👋🏻 I started potty training my little girl over the Easter Break. The wees came first and I would say only in the last 3 weeks has she started to poo in the potty. I found myself being on ‘poop watch’ and no matter what I did she wouldn’t do a poo on the potty - reading books, putting her favourite tv show on, etc. What eventually worked for us was, and this is so random, if I know she needs I take her outside and get her to bounce on her trampoline or play actively in the garden and she would start to need to go!! I would then carry her onto the potty and say ‘poo poos go in here, etc’. This happened for weeks - initially we were too late in getting her to the potty but I would just empty it into the potty and we would go and flush it down the toilet, then she started managing to do half in the potty, eventually she would start doing a bit of a toilet dance and saying ‘poo poo potty’ and we would run and she did it! Once she mastered it once she quickly got the hang of it. Don’t get me wrong, we still have the occasional bad days or I miss her cue! But this time a few months ago I thought we’d NEVER get a 💩 in the potty, hang in there!! Xx

[Hidden in reply to Lou9]

Oh blimey sounds like a job in itself 🙈. I was expecting poo to be a nightmare but not this hard. It’s not that she’s scared I don’t think it’s more the patience of sitting on the potty. I’m just getting stressed that she’s gonna get constipated as she is prone to it. I may have to give her some of her movicol this weekend and see what happens.

Annoyingly we don’t have a garden as that sounds like a good idea. She’s had two on the potty and she’s so proud of herself and we make a big fuss it just seems when she’s getting ready by the time we get to the potty the urge has gone and has no patience to sit on the potty and wait. Hope she goes soon as really worrying about her getting blocked up xx

[Pasaeoco01 in reply to Hidden]

Just a thought have you given her things like fresh OJ etc... to try and move things along a bit? If she is constipated that’ll be making it trickier for her. My GP gave my son some senokot which makes him go the next day without fail but I think we needed a prescription for it. Might be worth asking GP for something gentle to keep it moving?x

[Hidden in reply to Pasaeoco01]

We have movicol so I’m trying it this weekend so nursery don’t have to deal with any accidents 😂 x

[Hidden in reply to Pasaeoco01]

We’ve had movement! Thank god. Think it was just luck as was running the bath and she was with me and could tell she was holding it in so just stuck her on the potty and read a story. Don’t think this is solved yet though so will need to keep working on it. Nursery also mentioned it and I asked for advice and they’ll look into it for me too xx

[Pasaeoco01 in reply to Hidden]

Ah that’s great news. It’s such a relief when they go. I think if you can get lucky where they go on the potty a couple of times and realise it’s actually ok you can build on it then. Fingers crossed for you x

[Hidden in reply to Pasaeoco01]

Thanks. I hoping if I keep giving movicol maybe we can try and encourage it near bath time so it’s the same time everyday but we’ll see. I’ll probably be stressing this time next week again 🤣 xx

[Hidden]

Update on this. Randomly last Friday she went off to the potty and just did a poo and now day 5 and she’s done one (3 yesterday) everyday 🎉. We did buy a reward chart a couple of weekends ago but this is for behaviour, poo, eating dinner so not specific but maybe that pushed her to doing it.

Thanks for all the advice though x

[Snowpatch]

HI my daughter is 29 months and she won't keep dry during the day, she as done at night time since 18 months and goes to b8g toilet for a poop, but I'm running out of ideas on how else to keep her dry

[Redstar1 in reply to Snowpatch]

Hi, just wondered if you had had success with your daughter? I’ve exact same prob with my son! Dry during night and poohs in toilet but just can’t keep him dry during day, he just seems to not realise he needs to go? X