Potty Training - Geneva,IL

The best book for that problem, at least for us, has been the book "It Hurts When I Poop" available at Amazon.com. It explains why it may be scary for them to poop and explains where poop comes from. My 4 year old STILL likes to read this (has been potty trained for a year now). She too would not go poop, then after the book it was not a problem. he book is about $10. Good luck!

C.,
Thank you for the best laugh I've had today! I don't have any suggestions, but I love how you phrased it: "I've pumped him with raisins & water & we have been sitting on a toilet for 2 hours." I hope you see the humor in it too!

Good luck!

It sounds like you are headed in the right direction. I do want to tell you though that from my experience and other moms I know agree, it's much more difficult and takes longer to train boys than girls, so have patience. What worked for me was letting my son go without training pants. When we used pants or pull-ups he usually went in those, but when we let him go bottomless, he had a few accidents and that was it he would head toward the potty. And with summer coming, it's easy to do outdoors.
Another thing we did with all of our kids was everyone (me & my husband too) would announce that they had to go to the bathroom. It got them in the frame of mind to say it out loud and we were able to put them on the potty if they hadn't gone already. Now I just have to get my 6 y.o. son to remember to flush, which he loved to do when he was little as a game. Good Luck!

1.) Raisens have lots of iron and that tends to bulk you up, so I don't know, but that sounds like it would have the opposite effect you are looking for. I used flax seed in a yogurt and a handful of frosted shredded mini wheats. That worked like a charm.

2.) Are you using big boy underwear? If you are using pull-ups he will continue to poop in them and won't go on the potty for a very long time.

3.) If he goes poop in his pants make him clean it up. Help him take the wipes and clean his own bottome and put them in a plastic bag...then help him rinse out his underwear. the whole time comment on how disgusting it is to poop in your pants and how much better it is to go on the potty.

4.) I watched mine for the signs they were going...You don't get much done watching them so closely...and then I held them on the potty while I hug and kiss their face. I tell them it will be fine. When they finally go, I give them two or three chocolate chips. I chear and go wild...high fives and the whole bit.

5.) And though I've never had any of the four kids I trained to refuse to go poop on the potty after I got them through that first fearful situation....I would punish mine if they did that. Once I know they understand what it means to poop (because they go hide to poop or run from me because they have pooped already and they know they did) then I explain to them that they will get punished if they do it again. I guess I'm a mean mommy, but that's the way my mom did it, her friends did it, my grandmothers did it, my aunts did it and so forth. None of my aunts, uncles, cousins, or my siblings was traumatized by it. We all go to the bathroom just fine. Never suffered a single issue because our moms insisted that we go poop on the potty and then tore our little butts up if we defied them (my middle brother got a spanking once or twice for pooping his pants while playing...he's a computer science and math major. He heads a major department for the state. I think he's fine)

Hope some of that helps.

When he's ready he will do it. We did the same thing with our 3 year old. We did a very low pressure approach and he constantly had accidents, never told us when he needed to go, and wouldn't poop on the potty. One day he told us he wanted to wear his big boy pants. He had several accidents for about 2-3 days and then that was it. He started pooping and peeing on his own without us reminding him to go and pretty much stopped having accidents. We also did the rewards (m&m's, sticker chart, toys for pooping, etc.), but nothing worked for pooping until he decided he was ready. Good Luck!

Get daddy in the bathroom. Let dad sit on the potty and have the little guy with him so dd can tell him a story about how daddy drops torpedos in the toilet to win the big boy war (something like that). Have dad give a little grunting and "here it comes" then "splat" and have him show his son what's in the potty. Then YEA! "daddy wins" (clap, clap, clap). Have dad ask son if he has to go yet and make sure to tell daddy so he can see his big boy win the war also. Lots of praise; too much is not enough, every time..

I had this exact problem with my daughter, who is 3 1/2. She just refused to poo on the toilet. I would diaper her at nap and bed time to avoid a mess if she went when she was sleeping and she just waited until the diaper was on. Finally, I had to get rid of the diapers altogether. I told her if she went poo in her underware, she would have to clean it up. She did poo in the underware and she did clean it up. That along with the positive reinforcement did the trick. Now she just wears a pull-up overnight and is proud to go poo on the toilet. Good luck!