Getting Almost 3 Year Old to Poop on Potty

My daughter is close to the same age, 3 in April, and is doing the same thing. She picked up on potty training easily, her decision when she started pulling her wet diapers off, I switched to cloth training pants and reg undies, only a few accidents. However, the poop is more difficult, she has gone to the potty on her own for poop so I know she gets the feeling, she usually hids under a table or behind something to do her business and is then kinda embarrassed when I want to take her to clean her up. I just don't make a big deal about it and make sure that the few times she does poop in the potty to praise her! It just takes time. Also, my daughter gets constipated sometimes and won't poop at all a day, which is prob part of the problem. I try to make sure she eats fruits & veggies and foods w/ fiber to help make things easier... and I give her a fiber gummy on days that she hasn't gone poopy. Just relax about it and she'll get the hang of it!

My older children both accomplished pooping on the potty a while after mastering peeing, so I think that part is normal. When you ask her if she needs to go potty so often does she always go at that time or does she sometimes say no? The reason I ask is that if she is going every few hours because you ask her to then she is not having to get the message from her body that she needs to go, she's getting the message from you before her body is ready to go. Maybe extend the time that you wait before asking her if she needs to go to give her body a chance to signal the need first.

One last suggestion my neighbor has a 3 year old boy who is fully potty trained but he thinks "do you need to go potty?" means peeing and "do you need to go poo poo?" is pooping. Therefore if his mother says to him now "do you need to go potty?" he'll say no if he needs to poop because it doesn't mean the same thing to him. Instead of asking her if she needs to go potty every few hours when it's her usual time of day to poop try asking her if she needs to go poo poo instead, she may not understand that they go together.

Good luck,
K.

Im in the same boat my daughter is 2 she will be 3 in august , she does go on the potty but have accidents in between, have you tried watching her to learn what she does when she is going to poop? mine quats and have the strangest look on her face and we hurry to the pot before she poops. Its like running a marathon. Everything is "I gotta pee pee" never poop. Just keep working with her and asking and she will tell you sooner not later. Good Luck!!

In order to get my son to poop on the potty, I had to have him run around with only a shirt on because he wouldn't poop without underwear on. It took almost all day that day, but he did finally poop on the toilet

This is a hot debate, but have you tried treats. Worked on both my kids and it only becomes an issue if you arent strong enough to say no when the time comes. My daughter is 20 months and is peeing for stickers and pooping for 3 small chocolate chips. I already am skipping the stickers half the time when she pees, but stress the chocolate chips for the pooping since she is having a little more difficulty with that. I trained my son the same way and he was fully potty trained (That means pulling down his pants on his own, doing his business, dressing himself and flushing and washing hands) by the time he was 2 1/2. (It took me appx two weeks to train him) Forget the nighttime for now. She needs to focus on the day. Also, I would tell her, for health reasons, she must wear a diaper until she can poop in the potty. If she hates the diaper that much, if will help her. Secondly, ask her if she wants the potty in a different place to poop. My son wanted it in his closet to start. As soon as he was comfortable I put it back int he bathrroom for pooping and he was good to go. Most of all, her potty training needs to be the #1 focus for you above all else, work, house work, preparing meals...everything. You must devote yourself fully to the potty training with her and she'll have it down in not ime. Good luck.

Well, I am going through basically the same thing but my son is a bit older. I was with his psychologist yesterday and he suggested something a bit drastic and we will start it this weekend. It seems that it will be the only thing that will probably get him potty trained. It seems that we will have to let him run around without a diaper on at all, and of course there will probably be accidents which I am thoroughly prepared for, the key apparently to get him to not want to make a mess is to get him to clean it up. Of course I will be right there guiding him on how to do it. This will not be easy but it is something that I am willing to do in order to get him potty trained. We have had other delay issues with him and of course this is the biggest one and he is 4 1/2 so this is a big issue. So I feel for you.

I wish you the best of luck.

S.