Poopy Training!

I have the exact same problem....so I'm tuning in to see what is said!!

S.,
I, like some of these other mother's and yourself went through the same thing with my daughter. She was potty trained to pee pee at 2years old for about 7 months before the poopie thing. She would however sleep really hard(which she still does)and not wake up to go pee. So we still used the pullups at night. She refused to go poopie on the potty, she would cry and say she was scared, not sure why. I would bring her in when I went and show her and tell her it was ok, she is just stubborn. She would go get a pullup herself and put it on and go poop, then come to me with the box of wipes and tell me she needed changed. It drove me absolutely nuts! The rewards didn't work, nothing worked, until she conquered her fear, I guess! Because one day she went poopie and figured out it wasn't so scary and didn't hurt her. So, I guess my solution to you would be, just bear with your son and he will come around, like with anything else. Sometimes they just get something in their little heads and nothing you say or do will convince them different.
Good luck to you and your son!
S.
P.S. I can tell you that they will hold it and can possibly get impacted if you push the issue too hard, my niece had to go to the hospital and they had to physically clean her out. Which was very tramatic for her and us! Plus the Dr. said it can make them physically ill from being impacted, she didn't get sick from it but he said she definately could have.

Wow...I was in your same boat last year with my then 33 month old daughter. My daughter learned to do #1 with hardly any accidents after a couple of weeks but refused to go #2 on the potty. It wasn't until 3 months later...a week before she turned three that she finally went on the potty and about a week after that she continually used the potty to go #2. It was so frustrating because during those three months she would always go in her undewear, she got really upset when I tried to have her sit on the potty. I did a lot of wash and used a lot of bleach. I too thought about putting her back in pull ups, which looking back I think does them more harm then good, but she refused to wear them anyway. Her doctor said it best when she said Think about it, us adults are used to going on a toliet..what if someone told you no you cant go on the toliet anymore, go stand in that corner and go. It's very hard them to change something that they've been used to doing for so long. Thinking about it that way made me a little more understanding of the situation. Looking back those three months have been the most stressful part of being a mother so far! LOL Well her teacher at preschool suggested the treasure chest idea. We took a box and my daughter decorated her treasure chest with markers and stickers. I went to the dollar store and bought 15 different little gifts/candy and wrapped them up and put them in the treasure chest. We told my daughter that whenever she went #2 on the potty she got to get a prize from the treasure chest. We had tried to bribe her saying that we would buy her a toy etc. in the past so I didnt think this would work either but it did. Two days later she went #2 while she was at school and all she could talk about was about how when she got home from school she could get a present from the treause chest, she was so excited ! Her teachers made her feel very special that day and they all sang a potty song and she was covered from head to toe with stickers! I even came home from work that day and gave my daughters a balloon and some more stickers. She felt so special! The following week was 50/50 with going on the potty/underwear but at the end of the week she continued to use the potty to go #2 on a continuous basis. I'm not sure if this will work for your son but it's worth a shot. In the meantime make sure he drinks lots of juice and eats fruit to keep him going. My daughter had the same problem with holding it in and then her tummy hurt which made it even scarier for her to go on the potty. Good luck and let us know how it's going!

Went through exactly what Kathy is describing. My daughter when she was 3 had been potty trained to go #1 in the potty for over 6 months and nights. She'd get home, rush and get a pull-up in order to go #2. It was frustrating that she wouldn't use the regular potty since she kenw she had to go. I finally listened to my friends' advice: Give a her enough prunes or mild laxatives over 2 or 3 days when she will mostly be home (I did it over a 3-day weekend). Hide all the diapers. Increase the amount of laxatives/prunes gradually until something happens. Eventually, he'll have to go. This worked well for my daughter. Good luck and be patient!

I understand your frustration! My son(now 13)was like your son; except he would come to me and say "I need a diaper, I need to go poop." So I would put a diaper on him, he'd go,and I'd change him. It made me crazy,like you I tried rewards, threats, etc and really cheap diapers.Finally I realized it was now a power struggle and he just wasn't ready to completely give up being a baby. So I happily went went along.One day he was out with my husband and needed to go poop.My husband explained that he didn't have a diaper and they really couldn't go home so lets just try and sit on the potty and make a pee-pee, knowing that hopefully once he started peeing he would probably poop. And that is what happened. My son was so proud of himself.

So I guess my advice to you is just to step back; get out of the power struggle and when he is ready to finish this process of going from baby to big boy he will. Explain to him that when he needs to poop you will be happy to put a diaper on him (less expensive than pull-ups), use any potty or toilet and that he can choose.Try to keep it positive. After that -- make no mention of going poop,don't even ask,and see what happens. Once he thinks that you no longer care it becomes a non-issue.

Hope this helps.

Don't have any advice, going through the same thing myself!!! Quite frustrating! It's good to know I am not alone. Love to hear the advice you get....