Ugh. I am in potty-training hell right now. My almost FOUR year old will NOT poop in the potty. I need to buckle down and just get rid of the Pull-Ups and stick him in thick training pants. He knows he's not supposed to poop in the Pull-Ups so he poops a little tiny turd about fifty times a day. I actually yelled at him today, "IF YOU'RE GOING TO POOP IN THE PULL-UP, JUST POOP IT ALL OUT AND STOP WASTING SO MANY!!!"
And yesterday, I decided that I needed to buy him a new potty chair since I mistakenly chucked the last one when he was oh-so-close to being fully trained. (I was sick of it). Anyways, my hope was maybe he would poop in it since he won't use the toilet for pooping. Now Hammy (the two year old) wants to use the potty chair. And I'm really debating hard on whether I should discourage Hammy until after the twins are born-- or buckle down and train both Bun and Ham right now. That's probably the smarter option. I can only imagine my energy level dropping more after I have twins.
Please leave your potty-training advice in the comment box. I am very open to ideas right now.
17 comments:
Gosh Nikki, I'm having the exact same problem w/my four year old son. He potty's in the toilet just fine, but he does a daily poopy in his underwear and it's killing me. One of the first times he did it, I mean the first times in underwear, we were at my older son's school volunteering. We were in the faculty lounge and guess what rolled out from his pant leg? You guessed it. I managed to get it before anyone saw what I had, but yikes!!! That's disgusting and I'm so tired of changing a child his age in poopy pants. If you figure something out, let me know. I will tell you too.
After potty training nine very individual kids, I know that each child seems to have their own rules for potty training! I've always felt that pull ups are simply expensive diapers. I's skip that in-between route and move on to to training underwear. As always, a positive response always works better than a negative one. Encourage a regular poop time (is his a morning, afternoon or evening? and then encourage he sit on his potty chair until the task is done, then remember to praise and encourage. Accidents will happen...I suspect the tiny bits are because he knows he'll be in trouble and he's afraid. Time to try a new tactic. And, hey if Hammie's ready to at least try, by all means GO FOR IT!!! Good luck...remember lots of patience and love, don't get too stressed about the whole thing - give yourself a break.
I've been following your blog for a while, not sure how I found it, but here's my advice ---
I would start trying to train the little ones and when the 4 year old sees they are doing it then he probably will want to poop on the potty too... honestly, I would ignore him not pooping in the potty - no pressure or anything and I bet he will do it when he's ready which probably will be sooner rather than later.
My son loves his baby bjorn potty chair BTW. Good luck!!!
one more thing! maybe you should increase his fiber for a while... the fiber one muffin mixes are great
Sam issues here. I've tried it all. reward systems, chucking the dipes, etc... But I just got a suggestion the other day that I think I'm going to try. Getting a bunch of little toys from the dollar tree and putting in a prize basket. Then making a star chart. Then if they poop in teh potty they get a prize right then and for potty after 3 stars (or whatever motivation you think they need). The catch? Do it for ALL the kids. hen they see the big kids getting prizes all teh time because you already know they can go in the potty, the younger ones may start going so they can get them too. Not sure how long you let it go on, and how broke you'd go though. I only have two little ones. lol
Oh, I was going to mention that not just dollar store prizes are the cheapest. party city has party packs of like 10 prizes in a $5 bag or so.
Hmm...then again it doesn't help with your toy issue. lol Adding to the pile...
Load him up on fiber and when you know he needs to go, take him outside and have him run around the yard. Then we stops to do the 'I'm about to go' walk, have him sit on the potty. We call it 'puppy training' because it's basically how you housebreak a puppy. :) Feed them, run them around and they go.
Also, give up on the PullUps. Put him in regular undies and tell him he will be cleaning up ALL messes. He's old enough AND he's fully washable. You shouldn't be the one that has to deal with the mess! I found that once they have to take off poopy drawers and wash themselves w/wet wipes and then wipe down the whole bathroom w/paper towels and white vinegar, they try MUCH harder to get it in the potty. :)
Oh I feel your pain Nikki. Little Girl has had the same problem and it is so infuriating she five and I still catch her bearing down to go on occasion and have to remind her. I think it stopped on its own. Maybe I stopped stressing about it so much. We did a sticker chart that was mostly so I could see she wasn't going in her pants EVERY day. I just had to keep reminding myself that there aren't many 18 year olds that have potty issues.
As for the little guy, let him. I let my 2 1/2 year old set his own pace cause he was asking to go, even though I was dreading a fight with two at once. He pretty much trained himself and has been the easiest by far.
I'm lovin' all the advice people are giving. I'd let Ham go for it, mainly because it's easier when they want to and also because it will be much easier to run around in just undies or pull on elastic shorts than all the winter wear. With my last one, we ran out of diapers and were kind of forced to go cold turkey. He was pretty much trained in a weekend.
My baby girl forcing my hand is just killing me because I think she's too young, and I'm not really ready to let my baby grow up. I'm going along with it though (even though I'll be at girl's camp next week) because she's so gung ho for it. Might as well take advantage of the opportunity to quit buying diapers.
Feeling your pain--and glad it's not mine! One of my triplets flatly refused to potty train. In fact, he so completely refused that we considered whether or not he would be trained in time for kindergarten. I finally said, OK--whatever... A couple of months later he decided it wasn't cool anymore. Kindergarten went off without a hitch--and only one accident between the three!
I don't remember what we did to get Ben to quit pooping in his pull-ups, which he only wore at bedtime and naptime (he would wait for those times to do his business because he knew better than to do it in his underwear.) He was probably 3 3/4 years old before he finally started, though! I think really, I just had to wait until he decided to do it on his own, just like peeing in the potty. He is a "determined" child. :-)
I let Trouble run around naked. Turned off the TV and took away anything else that focused him too much. He's a very focused kid (count my blessings) so he'd get so involved in what he was doing he wouldn't get up to go. So what I did do was put a basket of his favorite books next to the potty. He'd sit forever and read. With Ham, it is also a personality thing too. Will he regress after the twins are born? Or will he feel like the big kid and do well? Good Luck!!
PS. Also my friend tried the "everyone gets treats" idea and hated it. I don't remember why. We did the sticker chart...nope. In the end we gave up rewards (too many junk toys and sugar) stripped down, and let him go at his own pace. Within a week he was almost done except a few accidents. It seemed like if he wasn't wearing any pants he felt like he wasn't wearing a diaper and knew it all had to go somewhere!! Believe me, I'm not expert...just reporting it as I know :-)
my advice is get the smaller potty. some kids (and grown ups!) can't poop in a toilet with their feet hanging. it's against our nature/sensory feelings to poop without our feet firmly planted on the ground. once he gets comfortable on his little potty again (and knows you wont be mad at him) maybe he will start pooping there again.
you can also try using a foot stool - but rarely can you find one tall enough to actually let little feet reach all of the way comfortably in a almost squat position.
I was having flashbacks reading that. Not good ones. I need to delete them. I feel your pain. I loathe potty training. I would rather cut out my eye. I'm with Nay on this one. She is pretty smart ya know.
I just had a great laugh reading everyone's comments....hahahahhahah. I love all the advice and I'm sure these parents are more experienced than I am.....but I like to chat and Jase is gone...so I will chat in your comments. EAch kid is different..I think you told me that. Some easy...some VERY HARD! The cleaning up their own mess...worked great with Rykel, she took forever to train. I've never had a problem with poop though...so that's new to me. I'm always up for treats though..but I usually eat them instead of the kids. Compliments worked the best for Shae...when I stopped praising..he stopped getting it in the toilet. But he's much better now. Good luck.
We had the same problem with our son. Our pediatrician recommended a step wise approach that worked for us. First, let him poop in the Pull-up, but he has to wear regular underwear and change into the Pull-up himself when he needs to poop. Next, he can poop in the Pull-up but only in the bathroom. Next, in the bathroom sitting on the potty in the Pull-up. Final step, cut a hole in the Pull-up. Worked for us in about a month (one day after cutting the hole).
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