wont poop in the potty

mommadan

hello.  my 3 year old is toilet trained except she won't poop.  she does fantastic with peepee.  she only has bowel movements once daily, usually in the evening, and actually sometimes goes 2-3 days without.  she struggles at times and i suspect that is why she doesnt want to do it in the bathroom, like she doesnt want to stay in there for a while, yet doesnt want company while she pushes. because of the fact she struggles, we have been letting her just go in a diaper, then we change her.  but this cant go on forever.  help please....

roxy_jj

I don't have too much advice, we had the same struggle with DS.  He was pee trained really quickly, but poop took a long time.  He gets really constipated which made him not want to go on the potty.  I would put a pull-up on him at night and he would wait until he had the pull-up on to go.  Increasing his fiber intake helped some.  For some reason, when DS eats pears things really start moving.  We also give him a daily fiber gummy.  It took a lot longer than I would have liked, but he did eventually start going poop on the potty.  Good luck!  I know how frustrating this can be. 

NavyPilotWife

Increase her fiber intake, fruit, prunes, fiber gummies...  If that doesn't help, talk to her pedi about putting her on miralax.  DD1 went on miralax after we started potty training because she made herself so constipated.  After a few days on miralax, she had no choice but to poop.  She had a few accidents that first day (I was upstairs putting DD2 bed, DH was deployed), but after that she was better about going in the potty.

mommadan

thanks ladies.  she doesnt struggle to the point of needing miralax (although we have used it in the past when it was needed)  i am more concerned with getting her to go in the toilet.  i guess all in good time.  Thanks again

srashell

We had this problem and a half a teaspoon of Miralax did the trick.  We used it until he got used to going on the potty.  It just made it easier for him to go.  We also have Even Firefighters Go to the Potty.  DS reads that when he needs to poop.

katie_cj

My DS would not go poop in the potty. What helped is that I caught him right before he was about to poop in his pullup before bedtime and rushed him to the potty. He pooped right away, then we all made a VERY big deal about it. High fives, stickers, the whole works.

It took a few times, but now he pretty consistently poops in the potty before bedtime. 

KatieandMark06

When my DD first got potty trained she did the exact same thing. I would say nicely , "Natalie you are supposed to poop in the potty your a big girl now"   It took a while but eventually she just stopped being afraid to poop in the potty. 

TMWarren85

DD was fantastic when it came to #1, but #2 was another story. It took about a month after she mastered #1 and I figured out it was because she was constipated, so she would hide in the corner to strain through a BM. I didn't give her any additives, but I stopped giving her milk at night and increased her fruit intake and within a few days it seemed to soften up. Once she didn't have to struggle through a BM she was fine. It took us a while to figure it out because DD's normal daily #2 time was while she was at daycare.

MsMonica's1st

I am the potty poopy training expert......NOT!!!

 

I did read though that having them sprinkle glitter in the toilet may help.  It's supposedly a security thing and what glitter is suppose to do I have no idea.  

BUT 

I tried it ONCE with my daughter and low and behold we have had poopy in the toilet for the last 4 days with no accidents......and even the "mom I need to poop."  although I do sit on the tub and read books with her.  So that may be the reason as well.

 It does get frustrating, but good luck!  In due time it'll all fall into place 

mrs. remy

DS1 started peeing on the potty when he was 2 but was not regularly pooping on the potty until he hit 3.5. it felt like it would never happen, but once he did, he was really good about it. It was very frustrating. we would be having full on conversations with him and he would say "mommy, I wanna poop in a diaper now" and we would have to put him in a diaper because he was too scared to sit on the potty. we tried stickers, M&Ms, all kinds of rewards and praise and in the end we just had to wait until he was mentally ready to do it.

domesticallyunhinged

We had this same problem with our 3 year old. He would use the potty to pee, tell us when he needed to go, but he'd hold off the entire day until we had changed him into an overnight and put him down for bed before hiding in his room for a BM. Every. Single. Night. It was incredibly frustrating. We really struggled with it and what to do.

What did end up working for us was a combination of things.

1.) I kept a very close eye on him, so when it seemed like he may go, I could rush him into the bathroom and on to the potty. Even if he had just started to go. If you can move quick enough.

2.) Increasing both water and our best known helpers for digestion for him. Pears, prunes, oatmeal, shredded wheat. I did this when I had the most availability to keep an eye on him. That way you're sort of setting up a fairly regular time if it works.

3.) 2 jars for what we call marbles. I put his name on it with stickers, purchased 2 different colors of plastic "gem" from the dollar store, store those in a larger jar, all in the bathroom. When he pees in the potty he gets to pick out 1 green marble to add to his jar, when he poops in the potty he gets 2 orange marbles for the jar. I originally had planned a reward system to go with the marbles but ended up not needing it because he was just thrilled enough with the marbles. Also, when we first started before he was willing to just yell to let us know that he had to go, we used a bell in the bathroom that he could ring to let us know. He really loved the novelty.. but a little too much. Lots of false starts.