XP: Suggestions RE: Potty Training (sorry, it's long)

red0427

I posted this on my local board, but I thought I might get a better response here.

So DS#1 (3-years old) has been doing great with potty training this time around. We went through it once before about a year ago or so, he was afraid to poop on the potty (both the kid's potty AND the big potty), he ended up getting really, really constipated and got sick (fevers, sweats, crying, sick to his stomach). We took a break from potty training.

When DH and I were both off for July 4th, and I saw DS looking for a place to hide to poop (which is how I always knew he had to go) I suggested to him that he try to go on the potty. He seemed really excited about it and tried it out, and ended up being successful with both #1 & #2. Since then he's been doing great, rarely having an accident. We even moved him into "big boy undies" even when we were out of the house. He did great every time.

Suddenly since Saturday, he's been really nervous that he's going to have an accident in his undies, to the point that he'll go to the bathroom and sit on the toilet every few minutes or so. We didn't stress about it, just encouraged him to go when he felt like he needed to go. But last night it got even worse. The sitter put him in his pull-up for him to take a nap, and when he woke up, he didn't want to get out of it. He was totally dry, and didn't wet the pull-up the entire time he had it on, so I again encouraged him to wear big boy undies, letting him pick them out. But almost immediately he declared that he had to go potty and ran for the bathroom. After finishing and walking out, he came to me to fix his undies. We got them straightened out, and then he ran right back to the bathroom because he had to go to the potty again. This happened 2 more times, each time with him getting more and more aggitated. The last time he sat on the potty and cried, telling me that his tummy hurt. I encouraged him to sit there and try to go potty, and try to go poop. He just cried harder. I sat on a stool holding him while he sat on the potty crying. I told him how much I loved him and how proud DH and I were of him. I told him it wasn't a big deal if he had an accident in his big boy undies, we'd just take them off, I'd clean him up and we'd do the laundry. He giggled, but he went right back to crying.

I know he's stressed out about this. I've been trying really hard to not put stress on him about this because of what happened the last time. I've been letting him take the lead on this, and so has DH. But this is a big step back for him. He wouldn't stop crying until I promised I'd put a pull-up back on him. His stomach stopped hurting right after we did this. Does anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to push him, but I don't want him to slide backward, especially since he was doing so great! Has anyone gone through this? I'm open to any suggestions.

TIA and sorry this was so long!