Potty Issues - Madison,AL

We went through this with my daughter last year. For her it was an independency issue. I learned that being patient and acting like it wasn't a big deal worked with my daughter. She learned that she couldn't get a rise out of me and started going poop on the potty. HTH.

N., first you didn't say how old your son is? Now as far as your son goes, the best thing to do is to back off and don't ask him if he needs to go. Just reward him when he goes to the potty but when he poops in his pants just clean him up and tell him you love him and it's ok. when he is ready he will go by himself. I have 4 grown kids and a 6 year old. My oldest son who is 27 had the same problem but when I just let it go and didn't make a big deal out of it then he began to not like the poop on him so he started slowly going on his own. I hope this helps, if I can help anymore just let me know. Good Luck

N., I'm sorry that you're going through this, and that I do not have any personal experiences to offer. However, I wanted to quickly say that I've understood that some kids are okay with peeing in the toilet, but are afraid of pooping in the toilet. I am one of five children and my mom said that when a couple of us were potty training, we would balk about sitting on the regular toilet because we were afraid of watching the toilet flush down our poop, something that was once a part of us. She handled the situation by letting us poop on a training potty, then having us take it to the toilet, saying, "Bye, bye poopy!" and flushing it when we were ready. Eventually we became less afraid of the toilet and didn't need this in-between step. I know this sounds completely crazy, but when I researched potty training before starting to train my daughter a couple of years ago, I actually came across several articles that mentioned this problem as being common among kids. I do agree with the others that I would not deal with this very long before taking my son to the doctor. Someone I know had a son that worked himself into a frenzy over going poop on the toilet, they let it go on too long, he became extremely constipated, and then began to even withhold pooping in his diaper because it had become so painful for him. It became a terrible situation that took him months and months to get past, and I really believe that it didn't have to go that way. Good luck!

Have you tried giving him pear juice? Both of my children (11m and 4 y) will poop within an hour or two of drinking it and the poop is normally soft. For some reason pear juice is a natural laxitive for my children and a few of my relatives kids too. Hope this helps.

My lil boy use to cry that it hurt all the time. Try giving him more juice(apple is suppose to be the best). My son doesn't seem to cry anymore. If that don't work I would ask the doctor if there is anything he can take cause it sounds like he might be constipated.

Sometimes this can be tricky but I have seen it alot. Try doing rewards for pooping and setting a pooping schedule. But if the holding gets severe you may need to give him metumicil or miralax (need to get from doctor) sometimes if the child is holding their stool a vicious cycle develops and the stool must be softened so much that the child can not hold it. Stool holding leads to lots of problems so you want to try and stop it before it gets out of hand. You can give metumucil in any drink that your son will take and he will not have cramping or taste the supplement. It is very safe to use but be aware that he will stool within 1 hour after giving it so be ready to place him on the potty.

Talk to your pediatrician about adding a fiber supplement to his diet. My daughter went through this and we ended up seeing a pediatric GI for months, she did have a slight obstruction, but it was because of her stubborn will and abosolute refusal to poop. They did have to put her on Miralax, which is a stool softner because it hurt so bad when she would go that there would be a slight amount of blood on the toilet paper. Definitely don't let it continue, take action now. Take it from someone who knows, it is not an easy battle to win.
Good Luck!

Hi N.. I'm sorry to hear you are going thru this. We are currently having the same issues with our daughter. Well kind of.. We started off just like you and I couldn't figure out why she would not want to poop and then when she would it would be like it "hit" her and she would poop in her panties. After a while the stomach pains began and we ended up taking her to the dr and they did an x-ray which showed severe constipation and she is currently on medication. I would suggest calling the dr and having him checked just to make sure constipation and/or blockage is not the problem. If you have anymore questions feel free to message me. Good Luck. It's rough and I thought there would never be an answer and I thought she just didn't want to poop but there was more to the story. Better be safe than sorry.

HI N.- I went through this with my daughter. It usually only takes one large stool to scare a toddler to stop pooping! I spoke to my daughtes doctor about the situation and he put her on a this powder called Glycolax- it regulated her stool to a normal consistancy- so it would not allow the stool to back up in her and cause it to hurt-also I found out that my daughter had a milk allergy and when we changed to soy milk her stool went to a normal consistancy. this Glycolax is not something you will have to use forever just until they get they potty thing down and trust that it is ok to poop!

T.

How old is your son? Is he wearing pull-ups or underwear? My son kept saying he would poop on the potty wheb he was 3. Shortly after his 3rd bday, I threw away the pull-ups and put him in underwear. I put on the training underwear (it is a little thicker) with the vinyl pants over it for the first few days. When he had accidents, he had to help clean up the mess (which meant helping me dump it in the potty). He had accidents the first 3 days. The fourth day no poop. The fifth day he went in the potty and has done fine ever since. He is 5 now. We also gave him a sucker every time he wentpoop in the potty and a sticker on a chart. When he got 10 stickers, he got to go to the toy store and pick out whatever he wanted. It took him about 2 weeks to get all the stickers because some days he didn't make poop (but no accident). By the time he got all the stickers, we were done potty training. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Hi N.,
My sister had the SAME problem with her son. it was kinda funny because we didn't understand. the first question i would ask is; are you sure he is not constipated??? her doc told her that sometimes boys have a seperation problem; thinking they are letting part of themselves go down when they fush. when she saw that he was trying to poo,
(1*) she would make him sit on the pottie and she would sit by him and hold his hand and he would cry, but then he would feel better once he went.
i always bribed my kids with candy or treats. (i have 4, we just now potty trained my baby)that always worked really well.
(2*) get something that he really likes or wants (candy, new toy etc.) put it by the potty and give it to him if he starts using the potty every day or every other day.
hope that helps.
becky

Our son Jared went through this last year. He would get horribly stopped up and then we'd have to give him an enema. Of course, it hurt when he finally did go so he'd hold his poop again and we'd be back in the same boat. Our doctor prescibed him Glacolax, a powder to put in his juice to help him be regular. His doctor said that when they hold their poop and get blocked up it expands the colon. By taking the Glacolax he was able to get back on track and the doctor said his colon would shrink back to normal size over time. It took alot of time, patience, and daily battles about sitting on the potty, but he finally understood that by going everyday it wouldn't hurt as much. Hope this helps.