Help! Toddler Poo!

Is he getting any type of punishment for playing with his poo like time outs? I would maybe lay off the potty training and go back to diapers. You might also try to duct tape his diaper so he can't take it off. Seriously - I read that in one my books. Good luck!

My friend had this samr problem. She bought jammies that were a little big and put them on her son backwards. This way he couldn't get his diaper off because he couldn't get his jammies off. Hope this helps...good luck!

My son did this, and at the same time your son is. My son would mostly do it though when it was time to take a nap or bed time. He would wipe it all over himself, the walls, his crib, and whatever else he could get his hands on. After the third time, my husband and I had enough. We decided to take some steps to stop it. We got him a big boy bed, which helped him to realize he could get up to go potty. We also encouraged potty training. It is still very early, but our son caught on to peeing in the potty, but poo-ing has not been mastered yet and can stress him out and make everything that much worse. We also did the playdoh idea, and let him play with the playdoh everyday for a week.
Oh my son also got in trouble the last time he did it. He was old enough to understand that he made mommy very sad, and made him sad.
So although once we did all this stuff, he stopped playing his poo, I can't really tell you which one worked. But at least you have a few ideas!
Good luck!

can you predict when he is going to go. It's usually after eating a meal. Perhaps you can stay with him for 1/2 hour after eating his breakfast or dinner (or whenever you have observed he tends to poop the most consistently) and then you can catch him going and bring out the potty. We just got a book by Karen Katz called "Potty For Me!"

It's time to put him in onesies all the time. (You know the shirts that snap in the crotch)

I have a flip n flush that attaches to a toilet. It goes up for adults and down for kids. And get a stool. This way he learns to go potty in a toilet which is everywhere he will go when he leaves his home. Take him every half hour. Do not ask if he has to go potty but, "It is time to try and go potty." Period. Praise when he goes and don't make a big deal if he goes in his diaper or on the floor.
He is in control of what comes out of his body and where so please have patience and give him lots of encouragement and praise.
F.

Oh No! This is really tough to deal with (and clean up).

My MIL dealt with this with her children by making a big bowl of chocolate pudding and letting them play with it in the bathtub to get it out the system. She swears by it.

You might want to move over to pullup diapers if you haven't already. They don't have tabs and it might keep him from taking off the diaper for a couple of seconds.

Dear Shandon,
I too went through this with my youngest son, my gosh what a mess he could make, just awfull. I finally did the only thing that seemed to work, I duct tapped the diaper fastenings closed so he could no longer play with the poo.
Then I got him some play doo, which is similar and he had a blast creating and playing with the play doo. It is a much better alternative then play poo. Once he figured out how much better the play doo was then the play poo, he stoped doing this. That and not being able to get the diaper off. He would come tell me when he was ready to pee and finally got the idea that the poo goes in the toilet not on the walls. Good luck.

Dear Shandon,
My precious little cherub daughter went through a phase of being ummm, let's call it creative with her poop. Both in her crib and in the bathtub. I immediately freaked about the mess and having it on my precious baby so I went to work straight away getting her cleaned up and cleaning everything else. I told her NO!, YUCK!, DIRTY! Mommy is NOT happy! I tried everything. Then one day when she did it, I was so fed up, I got on the phone and called my mom. My daughter could see that I was on the phone basically ignoring the situation. She started fussing and I said, "You must like things this way, so you can just stay in there with your poop." After a few minutes, she was crying and having a fit and I just let her. Then she was yelling, "Momma! YUCKY!" My mom was hearing the whole thing and I was talking about the weather and pretending to ignore my daughter. I left her in there with her mess for about 10 minutes instead of rushing to clean it all up, and she never did it again. In fact, she didn't even want poop in her diaper anymore. She wanted to flush it bye-bye in the toilet.
It may sound harsh, but I was at my wit's end with it. I knew I had another big mess to clean so I took a deep breath and called my mom before starting the whole sanitizing ritual. 10 minutes is a long time...maybe she thought I would never clean it that time, I don't know. but it worked. At least for her.
My son never did that one single time. From the time he was brand new, he couldn't stand being wet or dirty so he was very easy to potty train.
All kids are different. I hope you'll find what works!

This happened with my son and daughter both, and the doctor's advice was: 1. Don't leave them alone long enough to give them an opportunity and 2. When it is bedtime, secure the diaper and clothes...zip-up p.j.s on backwards, overalls, even duct tape around the top of the diaper. Even if you are potty training, a secure diaper at night/ naptime seems necessary!!
Good luck!