Another Potty Training Question No Poop Yet Today. Day 2 - Orwigsburg,PA

I would have him sit to pee until he is fully trained. If he is sitting to pee the poop will likely come at the same time. When he is fully trained, and on a regular schedule again then he can stand to pee.

Have him sit to pee. The dynamics of standing to pee and knowing when to sit to poop are too much to expect him to grasp yet. He's used to pooping in a diaper or pullup, why and how would he know to sit and poop?

It's day 2, the "average" time it takes to fully potty train a child is 3-6 months. Some kids grasp it all in less than a week, some fight it for months to over a year.

Relax, your attitude and expectations of potty training project onto him. If you have been taking him to the bathroom for awhile and letting him see you use the potty, he'll get it very soon. If not, start now, you need to model the behavior you expect.

Continue to give him the foods he typically eats and lots of water to move things along. Sit him on the potty and read to him to keep him engaged while he sits. If he isn't feeling pressured to perform his body will be relaxed and he won't think of holding his poop, it will happen naturally. If he is stressed it can lead to major holding and encopresis, you truly don't want that.

Has he seen anyone else poop? My dd was scared to poop on the potty until I showed her myself doing it and it was fine. I hated doing it, because I'm a very private bathroom person, but for some reason she needed to see that it would be ok.

It feels very strange for him. sitting down over a hole, bare bottomed. Usually he his a diaper to catch it as it falls out. This feels very unusual to him..

Is he on a potty chair or on the adult potty with a potty seat? I have found it is more difficult to have a small child perched on an adult toilet without the potty seat attachment.

If on the seat, place a step stool or something that his feet can be placed. The pressure of passing waste,,sometimes needs the pressure from the feet and legs.

I agree give him books to look at so he can relax..

Tell him not to worry, he is not going to fall in..

One more thing I forgot.. Have him go potty, with dad. That will also help.. Dad can talk him through what is happening..

Try giving him Sunsweet dark chocolate covered prunes. Kids think they're candy and they move things along. They are cut into small bits and they look like little pieces of chocolate.

I'd have him sit on the potty with a book or something else he finds relaxing. Children have to learn how to relax their bowels. One idea which Ina May Gaskin suggested for childbirth works well for this: she calls it 'sphincter law', being that if the body is tense, the sphincter muscles will be tense too. Her suggestion is for the birthing mother to use techniques which loosen the lower jaw and relax the body. This also works for defecation. You could try having him blow bubbles while on the potty (I know, potentially messy) -- the action of the blowing could put a counter-pressure on the bowels and help them release.

I'd also be sure NOT to engage him in a power struggle or promise him something if he 'produces'. Just tell him "time to try the potty" and take him in. Read him a story, try the bubbles, having him blow raspberries (another sphincter law technique) and be very patient. It's pretty common for first-time potty users not to want to poop there.. it's a whole new thing. It may take him a few days, so keep him hydrated and serve foods which help elimination, like fresh/frozen blueberries, brown rice and whole grains/good fiber foods. (This is not the time for dried fruit, which pulls water from the stomach and colon as it re-hydrates.)

(I agree with having him sit to pee and ensuring he feels secure on the toilet. My son didn't like a typical potty seat; we used a Boon potty bench, which was low and gave lots of support because the seat is so wide.)

I have 4 boys and 1 girl, ages 26 to 8. I always had my boys sit to pee to save me with the mess, but that's me, lol. I found though too that if they're sitting to pee they'll be in the right position to poop as well. And I love those accidental poops in the toilet, lol! Be sure to make sure he's eating "poop friendly" foods like apples, applesauce, any fruits, heavy on the veggies (raw or cooked), lower the meats and grains, oatmeal is good too. I liked a pack of instant oatmeal with raisins or apples and cinnamon flavor. If the poop is softer it'll be harder to hold back. Just encourage him to do some big poopies and joke about it.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

My son would hold for 2-3 days in the beginning. Made it really tough when he did have to go.

We fed him lots of fluids and tried to give him foods that would help make it harder to hold. We tried prune juice but he didn't like it, so we mixed in some baby food prunes with some purple applesauce and gave him that. We also found the highest fiber snack cracker that we could find that he might like. Also, some of the baby food pouches (like the applesauce in a pouch) have a decent amount of fiber per serving. Plus they are fruit and vegetables and my kids loved them (even at 3).

But, we still had a battle of wills (or a little bit of fear) so we just backed off on the poop in the potty and let him go in the pull-up to start off with. But he would have to ask for the pull-up when he had to go. He couldn't wear it all day. If he didn't go in say 10 minutes, the pull-up came off. Initially, we let him be in any room with the pull-up, but once he mastered going on demand in the pull-up, we made him stay in the bathroom, in the pull-up, with a book or toy. After that, we tried the toilet, and he took to it. But if it hadn't, we were going to let him sit on the toilet in the pull-up as the next step.

Some people don't like to go back to the pull-ups, but I figured he was still learning how to control when to go because he didn't get the pull-up all the time. Worked for us and was less stressful and less painful for him since he didn't hold it as much. It did mean we had to deal with a diaper for a little longer, but in the end it was worth it.

We also did a bigger deal reward for poop in the potty and had a end-game prize once he went poop in the toilet X times in a row so we could stop all the little rewards. We were careful not to equate it to days in a row in case he skipped a day, which isn't that unusual for him.

BTW, he did stand to pee. It wasn't something that we pushed for...he just wanted to do it and we really haven't had an issue with him not sitting when he has to pee and poop at the same time.

My son is 3 as well and we just trained him to do both pooping took the longest. We made two charts one for pee and one for pooping and got his favorite character stickers. Which was cars and angry birds. But with the poops we had a grab bag for $1 toys. So we cheered and did stickers for the pee then we cheered and put a sticker and he got a toy from the grab bag for pooping. He is 100% potty and poopy trained and had a book to put his old charts in to show people what he accomplished. No more grab bag no more stickers because he is a certified Big Boy! We also give no more drinks after 7 so he can wear his underwear to bed....so far no accidents! We only used pull ups for the training phase at bedtimes and outings but gradually switched to only underwear. Hope this helps! Also just talk to him about pooping or if he uses a pull up and has an accident take him and the pull up to the toilet and put it in there. And tell him his poppies go there too not in what he wears. It's a patient process I tell you but it works, so do potty videos on you tube. At the end make it exciting and smile and cheer loudly.