Are You Pooping??

Yes, another poop post. Isn’t that what parenthood is all about anyways?

If I said potty training came easy, I would be a giant liar. It has become a day-in and day-out battle with my three year old. If you go back to February of this year, you would have seen my two year old magically potty trained in the matter of a week with the help of Elmo.

I should have known that it was way too good to be true. Within the matter of a month, he started to regress. I am still not certain why, and neither is anyone we know. It was almost like he woke up one Tuesday morning and said to himself… “Wow, I think I am going to start shitting my pants again” and proceeded to do so.

Initially I wasn’t too worried. I know boys are harder to potty train, and when I read another mom’s story of her three and a half year old, and their battle to potty train… I felt slightly better.

I figured I would leave the subject alone, instead of pressuring him… I was worried the more I brought it up, the further it would push him away from being interested in the potty.

Then Christmas started to approach, and I hatched a genius plan. At least something I thought would knock ‘em out of the park. Santa would bring Camden big boy underwear like all the other three year olds! It had to work… right?

Santa brought a plethora of big boy underwear. Car’s, Thomas the Tank Engine… you name it… it was there. And his eyes lit up as bright as our Christmas tree was that morning. Out of everything he got, including the over priced robot dinosaur which is still in the box (Yeah, bright idea Mom!) the underwear made the biggest splash. He wanted them on… so we sat down and had a chat, then gave our big boy undies a try.

One accident on day one. That was it… He got it.
He got the concept of the potty, the underwear and being uncomfortably wet when he had an accident.

It was like a choir of angels was singing at me.

As the days went on, the accidents increased, and we went back to a pull up. I simply explained that underwear are not like diapers, and he couldn’t go potty inside them. A couple days went by in the pull ups, and he was interested in the underwear again. No pee accidents all day… and then yesterday morning while Ben was napping, I took a whole 5 minutes to myself to go to the bathroom.

I heard his little feet pitter-patter by the bathroom, and into his bedroom. No big deal… that is where we put our toys away so it was not like he was doing anything wrong.

I came out of the bathroom a couple minutes later and he was still in there… which was not something all that common.

“Camden… what are you doing?”

“Nothing…”

“Camden… are you pooping?”

“Yes Mommy… Don’t come in here!”

DAMNIT! He was hiding, and pooping in his underwear!

Why? Why? Why?!?!!?!

Hiding because he was ashamed, and he knew what he was doing was wrong, but he was still doing it. He didn’t come to me and say.. “Mommy, I have to poop” or “Mommy, I have to use the potty” he just hid and went… Why?

I must say I am hitting my wall of patience with the subject of potty training in general. He get’s it but goes to hide and have accidents.

I know a lot of my readers have gone through potty training before, so any advice would be helpful. I am THIS close to buying my son a fish like Diego to bribe him into potty training… I just hope it would work as well as it did for Gina!

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9 comments

tags: help, poop, potty training, underwear
category: Uncategorized

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1

By: Angela

Just let it go. He’s not ready. Get the pull ups off of him and let him run naked for the day. My 2 1/2 year old will go on the toilet with no accidents if he’s not wearing diapers/undies…but put anything on him and he’ll go in them. My older son potty trained at 3 1/2 years old. Had no interest in going on the potty and then one day he just started going on the toilet…no bribe, no treats, no promises…just decided he was ready and that was the end of that.

2

By: Ashley

i feel your pain! My daughter pees on the potty no problem and has pooped on the potty and big toilet quite a few times but out of nowhere decided that she doesn’t want to poop on the potty and has been holding it for long periods of time and then poops her pants when she just can’t hold it anymore. I’m getting so frustrated because she knows that she has to go and will tell me she has to go but when i try to sit her on the potty or toilet she just will not sit there!!!!

3

By: jrmiss86

I feel your pain. my son, now 6, was 4 1/2 before he was trained. In the end he just woke up one day and finally seemed to get it. What worked wonders with him was to not let him wear anything from the waist down. It seemed to make him realize what was happening. Plus it saved on laundry. Once he didn’t have any accidents for a few days he was allowed to wear underwear again.

My daughter, who is almost 4 and very strong willed. She like your son gets the concept but doesn’t seem to care in the least bit. With her we have just had to let it go. It has become a major battle and one I just can’t win. This is one thing she can control. I have no control over it at all. I keep hoping that one day she will just get tired of it. My grandmother keeps telling me that they don’t go to kindergarten in diapers.

One thing somebody told me and I will pass along to you, was to not go back to the pull ups, except for sleeping. It makes for a lot of laundry, but in the end is worth it. We also buy cheep underwear and if it is a really bad accident I just throw it away, and not feel guilty about it.

Hope it helps. I am always jealous of the mothers who talk about their 2 year old suddenly deciding one day to use the potty. They make it sound so easy, and we have struggled with it for so long.

4

By: Diana

We started with my son when he was 21/2…he did’t get it till 41/2. We go up CT in the summer and spend time with my parents. First they told me once you start with undies stay with them or he wont get it. He just think you will change back. Then next time he went in his pants my parents gave him a talking to. They are papa and grandma, lot different then mom and dad. We talk him blue in face and wont do anything. But since they said don’t do that, he never did again. That was Aug. 09.

5

By: Emily

Ugh, potty training!
When I potty-trained my daughter this past fall, I had her run around naked for pretty much a couple weeks straight until we got the hang of it. I asked her at least hourly if she needed to go potty, and often brought her even if she said no, just to “try”. After she got the hang of it, we switched to undies, even for naps. She still wears a diaper at night, but that’s it.
She’s gone thru 2 or 3 regressions since then, but each time I just suck it up and deal w/the extra laundry. She’s stubborn, but I’m even more stubborn and I refuse to go back to daytime diapers. If we do, I know she’ll be right back to them, because in the morning if we don’t change her into undies promptly, she’ll just pee in her diaper. I see it as a slippery slope–and I’ve tried really hard to stay consistent. It seems to have worked–each time she started having accidents again, I stayed strong and after a few days she was back to being accident-free.
Another thing–for a while, my daughter resisted pooping on the potty. She’d wait until we put her in a diaper for bedtime, then poop–or poop first thing in the morning in her nighttime diaper. What finally worked was distraction. I could tell when she needed to poop, so I’d bring her to the potty and sit her down. Then we’d sing songs, read books, etc. until she was completely distracted, and then she would poop on the potty w/o it being a battle.

This is only what worked for me with my daughter though. I’m sure my next daughter’s potty training will be completely different, as she’s got a completely different personality. Every child is different, and there’s no “right” way to potty train. Just keep encouraging it, stick with it, and he’ll stick with it eventually. Frustrating though to keep cleaning up all those accidents–I know!

6

By: Doreen Lombardo Twitter: @deecampisi

It’s common for kids to hide and go poopy in their pants even though they know better. I didn’t have diffuculty training mine, both were trained very young. However, what seemed to work for me was taking them at certain inervals and having them “try.” I didn’t wait for them to tell me, I just took them. I had them sit and relax and I’d give them one of their books to look at to keep them occupied. We’d discuss the book, generally it was one I’d read to them so often, they had it memorized.

So, my suggestion is to set the timer on your phone and take him potty every half hour or so. It worked with both of mine.
Doreen Lombardo´s last [type] ..Its All In The Water

7

By: Danielle

Already tried that Doreen, we were in the bathroom every 20-25 minutes… Sometimes going, and sometimes not going. Still pooping in his underwear.

8

By: mrsapplejuice

Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! This is all so painful to read! I almost liked hearing the glory stories from parents of kids who trained in 3 days and never went back. But then again, I’m so happy to read this post and comments and know I’m not alone.

I’m curently on day 2 (of attempt number 2. I gave up attempt 1 last summer) of potty training. This time I’m attempting the three day technique, and I’m pretty sure my 2.5 year old is holding it until she’s distracted and it just comes out–on a chair or the floor or wherever–and we can’t get to the potty in time for any of it to make it in the potty! She’ll only poop once and pee once or twice, and that’s it until her 2:00 nap. I swear that’s not normal. SHE IS HOLDING IT! Stubborn little thing. She so wants to be a big girl, and she has a vague idea of how the potty thing works, as she’s been asking to watch me go since she could talk, but she just won’t do it. Argh.

She pooped in the potty this morning, but only because on a fluke I managed to guess ahead of time that she had to go and I plopped her on the potty and then handed her her half eaten bowl of cereal, which I guess distracted her enough to let the poop out. At first I was so disgusted by the whole potty training thing, but now I can just tell a battle is going to start over it if I can’t figure out how to get her to relax and just go. Ideas?? Help!

9

By: Andy

I wouldn’t worry about this at all. Our son was 3-1/2 before he stopped doing it on his undies and diapers.

I think everyone tries WAY to hard to get EVERY child to do this sooner then someone else’s child. Every child is different.. as well as the environment and situation he/she may be under.

Our son never even used a potty, he did worse with one then without one!

Kinds LOVE, and feel much better when they do not have pressure put on them. Show them over and over again what they need to be doing, rather then getting mad in anyway. We also used the “this is what big boys wear” and that actually works out quite well – not going lie.

Keep trying over and over again. Remember it’s not a race, soon they will do it when they are ready on their own.. and when that time comes, don’t think you have less to do either! They love playing with toilet paper when you take an eye off of them for even a second. -Good Luck!

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