https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:39:32 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2571532 Tue, 21 Jun 2016 16:43:38 +0000 Mrs Green Grass 2571532@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The absolute only thing that works for us is keeping thugs light and using lots of excitement plus rewards. We looks for signs that he needs to go and then rush to the potty. He earns stickers to work up to prizes and always something small when he does go. When he was consistently pooping right after, I tried to have us stay in or near the bathroom and play naked so I could "catch him" and sit him down. We were only successfully when it was about ready to come. No amount of sit time has ever worked.</p> <p>(Potty training for 10 months, we are now at about 75% in the potty. He's 4 in October.) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2571372 Tue, 21 Jun 2016 12:41:45 +0000 plantains 2571372@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: for a long time I tried to avoid Miralax because I was hell-bent on a natural solution and fixing it through diet but my daughter can smell flaxseed a mile away! I try to pump her full of craisins and broccoli too but I just feel like it isn't worth her being constipated again so I continue with Miralax for now. I read all @mrbee posts on poop and that made me feel much better about it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2571371 Tue, 21 Jun 2016 12:41:27 +0000 kiddosc 2571371@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We tried it all. 8 LOOOONG months of bribes, rewards, consequences, underwear, pull-ups, catching him in the act, songs, videos. Nothing worked, so we just let the issue drop. We put him in pullups to avoid ruining more underwear and just asked him if he wanted to try pooping on the potty every time he had to go ( it was obvious, he'd go hide). One day he woke up, told us he was a big enough to poop on the potty now and never looked back. We've never had a poop accident since. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2571361 Tue, 21 Jun 2016 12:33:16 +0000 looch 2571361@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@plantains: On the miralax, I am trying not to depend on it, but my son's eating habits are complicated and I can't just add in more vegetables or hide flax seed. I am glad to read someone else uses it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2571320 Tue, 21 Jun 2016 11:43:08 +0000 Charm54 2571320@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Honestly, for us is just took time. No amount of incentive, begging, pleading worked. It was a couple months of hits and misses at least. I threw out more underwear than I care to remember :shudder:.</p> <p>One day something clicked and she hasn't had an accident in months. 🙏🏻 I never thought we would get there though, because it was an incredibly frustrating period of time!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2571304 Tue, 21 Jun 2016 11:12:43 +0000 littlehunny 2571304@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>One of my boys was having issues with poops in his pants too and it wasn't until he had to help clean out his undies in the toilet, help take the dirty laundry downstairs to the laundry room, get new clothes, and put them on that it stopped happening.<br /> I guess he finally realized it was just less work to go on the potty. :silly:<br /> We tried treats, sticker charts, prizes, and fancy underpants, but none of that worked for us either. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2570562 Mon, 20 Jun 2016 11:13:06 +0000 sorrycharlie 2570562@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We had the same issue. I think I posted here about it too. It was insane! And I cloth diaper, so I'm not afraid of washing poopy underwear, lol. </p> <p>I think what finally worked was a combination of things. She was finally ready (I know, no one wants to hear that lol) and the reward chart. She ONLY got a sticker for pooping. In the beginning, every poop got a prize. We went to the store together and she chose a 7-pack of these magic clip dolls. I set them up right where she could see and be tortured by them - above the kitchen sink on the window sill. The first day she literally pooped 4 times because she wanted all of those dolls.</p> <p>She definitely had set backs and as she got the hang of it I stretched out the rewards..3 stickers got a reward, then 5. Then a full chart. Then we kind of just ignored it and she forgot about the chart. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2570548 Mon, 20 Jun 2016 11:05:54 +0000 2PeasinaPod 2570548@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I know that this is not a popular opinion, and it may or may not work, but we did tough love. I would not let him get up from the potty until he pooped on it when I knew he had to go. I probably traumatized my poor kid, but after a 45 minute standoff one day, he finally went. There was one more standoff that lasted a half hour before he went, but both times, I made an enormous deal out of him pooping on the potty and how proud of him I was, and we haven't had an issue since. </p> <p>I should add that LO was 3 years and 3 months when this happened...pee was almost exactly like you - we had a few first accidents and he night trained at the same time as day training. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2570536 Mon, 20 Jun 2016 10:48:36 +0000 plantains 2570536@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My DD pooped in a pull up for months. She refused the potty for ages. In the end we bought he a book about pooping called 'It Hurts When I Poop' and that seemed to help, then we took away the pull ups and after withholding for a day or two, she finally went and has been going ever since. We still give her Miralax every day to keep her poop soft. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2570464 Mon, 20 Jun 2016 09:11:48 +0000 Shantuck 2570464@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My 3 year old son would request a pull-up when he had to poop. No issues using the potty to pee but for whatever reason pooping in the potty scared him. We decided to play tough with him and continually deny his request for a pull-up so he continued to hold it in and hadn't pooped for days. My husband then went to the drug store, bought a suppository, used it and they sat on the potty. About 2 minutes later, everything came out and that apparently gave my son the confidence he needed. We then threw a poo-poo party for him (cake, number 2 balloon, sang "happy poo-poo to you"). He loved it and that was the end of our battle. Obviously, our situation was different because my son wasn't pooping in his underwear and we had a "pull-up" habit to break but I'm sharing in case any aspect of our story is helpful. Good luck! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2570438 Mon, 20 Jun 2016 08:46:24 +0000 Mrs. Yoyo 2570438@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>^ Ditto. We had at least 2-3 months of this before he finally decided it wasn't so bad. And yeah, I think I basically just had to back off and let him feel like it was his decision. Easier said than done, but he clearly wanted to control the situation and battling against that was futile. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2570437 Mon, 20 Jun 2016 08:45:47 +0000 edelweiss 2570437@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>that is so frustrating. our LO went through something like that for a month or so and it was really, really tiring. the routine of "mommy i pooped my pants" and the changing/cleaning up and talking to him got very old. it sounds like you guys have done everything possible. i agree with @Ginabean3: that for better or worse, this may be one of those things that you just have to wait out until he feels ready. on one hand, that means you are free from trying to find that unicorn solution, but on the other hand that means you still have to deal with it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2570428 Mon, 20 Jun 2016 08:35:20 +0000 Ginabean3 2570428@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This was my daughter exactly. Totally pee trained but literally did not give a sh*t about poop. And she wasn't scared of the potty or of the flush or of it coming out. She just refused. I know you don't want to hear this but what it took was just one day she decided it wasn't so bad to poop in the potty and she started doing it. We never did anything different (still kept her completely in underwear at home and at preschool...same rewards....same positive reinforcement). I suspect it's when I just gave up and stopped caring that she decided it was time to poop in the potty. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/my-kid-just-will-not-poop-on-the-potty#post-2570416 Mon, 20 Jun 2016 08:26:40 +0000 littlebug 2570416@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I know there are like 100 posts on here about this, so I apologize for starting yet another one. But I am really not sure what to do here. D (3yo) has been potty trained for about 2 or 3 months. He has hardly ever had any pee accidents, night trained almost before he day trained, and it's generally gone really well. Except for pooping. In the 3 months he's been potty trained, he has pooped on the potty probably 4 times. It's come to the point now where I can tell he needs to poop, I sit him down, and he freaks the eff out. I let him get up and 10 minutes later he's pooped in his pants. He's holding it in, going days between poops, and then his belly hurts and it's hard and it hurts to poop. He has little to no remorse (not the right word, but you know what I mean) about pooping in his pants - he'll do it and then just walk over to one of us and say "I need new underwear," smetimes with a hint of a smile on his face. It's incredibly frustrating.</p> <p>We've tried giving him prunes and juice to soften his poops so it won't hurt so much. We've tried having him put his feet up high so it's almost like he's squatting. We've tried rubbing his back while he's sitting on the potty. We've tried treats, prizes, reward charts. We've told him that he shouldn't poop in his pants because such-and-such character (on his underwear) doesn't want to get pooped on. We've even tried negative reinforcement - if he poops in his pants he doesn't get to watch tv that night. NOTHING has worked. He's in daycare and does it there, too. His teacher just says he'll get it and they're working on it. My BIL has a pool and D still has to wear a swim diaper in the pool. I actually thought maybe that would sway him but he doesn't care. At this point he just thinks a swim diaper is part of the deal.</p> <p>When we ask him why he won't poop on the potty, he says he doesn't want to. When we ask him why he doesn't want to he says he doesn't like it, but he can't tell us why. Oh, we've tried him on his little potty (the only place we've had success) and the big boy potty (which is usually where he pees now). The few times he's gone, he's been SO PROUD of himself! </p> <p>Any ideas or tricks I'm missing? It's incredibly frustrating and I feel like we're constantly on high alert for THE SMELL. </p>