Hi all...and I appreciate any ideas on how to break this bad habit my daughter has. My daughter's name is Emberlyn. She will be turning 4 in February. Anyways my problem is her potty habits. She is almost fully potty trained. During the day she goes potty when ever she needs to, but she holds her pooh untill she gets a pullup on at night. She wont pooh all day, but lets it all go once she gets tucked in bed. I cant get her to do it on a toilet!! I even make sure she potties before she goes to bed! I would like to get her out of pull ups and completely into " big girl panties" because once she goes pooh, she wakes up completely dry! Help!
Hi S.!
My sister's son did the same thing. He'd actually go and put a diaper on himself to go pooh in. Her pediatrician told her just to leave him in it for fifteen minutes. She told him, "I'm sorry, but Mommy is busy right now. I'll help you when I can." She changed him in fifteen minutes, and he never went potty in a diaper again.
I'm a mother, grandmother, and gr.grandmother, and I have a pretty good idea of what you're talking about.
I found that eliminating solid food too close to bedtime is one way. Her bowels are on a wrong schedule. I noticed that in the time slot babies were born that it affected their sleeping schedule. If born early morning, it was very hard to get them to sleep at night, but when born at night, I noticed that they slept better at night. A lot could depend on how much she nursed at night, that could affect her bowels, and her needing to eliminate at night.
Try feeding her an early supper. say no later then 5:00pm. and not allowing her to eat passed then. There is a good chance that she will go before bedtime. also encourage her to go pooh in the toilet like a "big girl" does, and I think that if she wears pretty panties, as some have mentioned, will encourage her to change her habits, also making her clean herself, is an added incentive, because she'll realize how distastful it is, and isn't likely to want to repeat the experience. I think that, that was an excellent suggestion that some mothers had.
I don't believe in the bribe system, because it fosters some very bad habits as they get older.They will start to believe that you have to bribe them into being good, and that's a bad pattern to get into. Hope this helps. My husband is a Disabled serviceman, and my heart goes out to you at this time, and many thanks to him for serving our country willingly, as my husband did. V.
S.,
You might be able to make a picture schedule of the nightly routine including one of her on the potty. The next picture could be you reading her a book or a tickle time or something that she would really look forward to. This has helped in many ways with my son. Good Luck!
Hi, My daughter is 3 and I have the exact same problem. Sorry I don't have much advice for you - but I am very interested to see the responses.
My daughter did last week go poop twice in the potty - with no prompting from me at all. I was so excited as I thought maybe we had broken through that barrier, but alas no, she continues to hold it until her nighttime diaper.
I just wanted you to know that I do understand your frustration and if I figure out anything that works I will let you know!
Have you tried a reward system if she goes pooh in the potty? I know that my daughter was afraid to go pooh in the potty forever! I tried putting stickers on a calendar for everyday that she went potty in the potty and I also tried candy. It sounds mean but you could put panties on her one night and let her go in them and sleep in it and because she will not like the feeling, she might not do it ever again.
I would put her in big girl panties at night. Since she already understands & obviously doesn't like the wet panties, she is going to not want the dirty ones either. Some children are just a little scared about the whole letting the pooh go into the toilet & get flushed away. It sounds like just a quick fix by panties all the time.
I would think that it is a comfort thing for her. I would inform her that the pull-ups are gone and that there are only panties at night. If she releases in the big girl underwear, have her clean herself. It isn't pleasant for them and usually helps nip the problem quickly. I would use this method in conjunction with sitting her on the toliet before bedtime and reminding her that tonight there will be no pullup. Good luck!
Hi! It maybe just a phase...or a developmental thing! I honestly don't know. I do know that some children "get" the whole big girl/boy pants thing long before they graduate!! LOL
I am sure it can be frustrating, for sure. Sorry, I have no real answers. But, may I send a HUGE THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO YOUR/OUR COUNTRY AND A BIG BRAVO FOR BEING A GREAT MOM! I know I am speaking for myself and my husband and family when we say "thanks"! And please pass it on to your entire squadron!
p.s. very cute name for your daughter!
I had a couple of children with the same issue. I think they were scared of going in the toilet. One thing would help was putting them in the tub and play in the water and it would relax them and then they would go and they got over the fear.
have you tryed rewards they worked wonders with the two little girls i potty trained you uselike a candy or snack or maybe even tell them if they stay clean and dry all day and night that you'll take them to a park or buy the new toy they've been wanting
S.,
We had almost the same problem with our youngest son. What we did was revert back to actual diapers at night. He would go to bed with a pull up and pooh in it. When he woke up we told him the that night he was going to be in a diaper and not big boy pull ups. Then if he woke without pooh in his diaper he was rewarded with wearing pull ups to bed again. That was working pretty well but he still would pooh in bed about once or twice a week. We finally decided to have him start cleaning himself in the morning when he had poohed the night before. (of course we would have to reclean him and the tub) This REALLY helped. After having to clean himself a few times (which he DID NOT like) he started poohing in the potty. Even in the middle of the night when he had to go he would come wake one of us up to sit with him in the bathroom while he went. I tell you, loosing 10-15 minutes of sleep a couple nights a week was SO much better then the 30 minutes to clean everything up the next day. He was sleeping in cotton underwear, that he got to pick out, in less than a month. We told him once he would quit going to the bathroom in his pull up/diaper he could go to the store and pick out his own underwear. That part worked SO well with both of our boys!! There were a couple of overnight accidents in the cotton underpants. However, we still had him clean up himself and his underpants. Then we would use the stained underpants for bedtime as to not have them all stained. Hope it helps.
Hi S.,
My advice would be to not use any kind of diaper or pull up anymore, I did that with my daughter, I told her " Mom forgot to buy diapers so a nice princess panty will have to do, please don't get it dirty or you will have to use an ugly one" It worked! She didn't want a beautiful panty dirty and in a case of an accident, she will use a plain white panty or one with a caracter that she did not like.
I know that one of those accidents at night is a nightmare! But it won't happen more than once or twice, she did not like the feeling of being dirty and would start crying, that told me to run to the bathroom fast!
At 4 she understands, if there ar eno diapers then, ther eis nothing you or her can do.
You can reward her if she does good too. But usually the pretty panty was enough.
Best of luck!
Mariana Abadie
www.MyKidsFirst.com
