Last March (of 2009) my son started showing interest in the potty, so we got him a potty chair and he would pee in it. At that time he was 2 years and 3 months old, and he will now be 3 in January. He did wonderful for about 3 weeks, still pooping in a diaper, but that was fine. Then all of a sudden, he would run and hide in another room when he had to poop. He would cross his legs and clench his butt, and would hold in the poop. Then he refused to even pee on the potty. He got so backed up and constipated that we took him to multiple docs and even had a Barium Enema done to make sure that he hadn't ruptured anything. They put him on Miralax, and said he would eventually outgrow it. He's been on Miralax for over 8 months now, and unless I give him enough to make his poop runny, he will still hold it in. We have resorted to chasing after him and separating his legs so that he cannot hold it in and has to poop. It is miserable. I don't know what to do, and I cannot seem to find anyone that has any advice for us. Do you have any suggestions, or have you ever heard of this before? He will be 3 soon, and I would love it if we could potty train him, or even if he would just poop in his diaper on his own. Anything has to be better than this! Help, please!!
Have you ever tried giving him any privacy when he needs to poop?
How about moving the potty chair to wherever he is hiding to poop to see if he will at least sit on the potty in his hiding spot?
It's not just one place that he runs to though... he will go anywhere that he thinks he can "hide" and not be made to poop. Wherever he thinks he can "get away with it". But no, I haven't tried putting the potty anywhere, actually. He says he doesn't want to use it. =-(
Have you tried making him wash out the poopy underwear with your assistance?
Have you tried putting him into a cold/lukewarm shower to clean him up once he poops on himself and tell him that it's going to happen every single time he does it and then follow thru- making it miserable- get in, get clean and get out? Or are you afraid that might make him start holding it again?
Have you thought to try poop jail as described in the top post in this forum? If you need help finding it, let me know.
My oldest son (13 now) went through that same thing. It got so bad that an Gatroenterologist has told us that he was so backed up that he would have to have the lower part of his colon removed. I couldn't see putting my child through that for the rest of his life. His other suggestion was enemas. We had to end up giving him 8 enemas in 3 days and it did clear the blockage. I'm not trying to scare you buy any means. He did adventually out grow it but he had to start kindergated a year late until we knew we could get it under control. He told us that he wanted to start doing it himself because he didn't like to get "butt medicine" as he called it. So don't get discouraged, it will take time and patience, but I know your little boy will get the hang of it. I really hope that this helps. From a mom that has been trough the same ordeal. Best of luck to you Mom!!
Dawn
Thank you for your response, in a weird way it helps to at least know that someone else has gone through this. I have to come up with something to remedy it, however, as I refuse to put him in school a year late. I guess I'll check out the "poop jail" that andrewsmommy suggested. Just about anything right now is worth a try.
Quoting Woodstock43031:
My oldest son (13 now) went through that same thing. It got so bad that an Gatroenterologist has told us that he was so backed up that he would have to have the lower part of his colon removed. I couldn't see putting my child through that for the rest of his life. His other suggestion was enemas. We had to end up giving him 8 enemas in 3 days and it did clear the blockage. I'm not trying to scare you buy any means. He did adventually out grow it but he had to start kindergated a year late until we knew we could get it under control. He told us that he wanted to start doing it himself because he didn't like to get "butt medicine" as he called it. So don't get discouraged, it will take time and patience, but I know your little boy will get the hang of it. I really hope that this helps. From a mom that has been trough the same ordeal. Best of luck to you Mom!!
I use to do this as a toddler too. And now I have major bathroom issues. My mom would give me mineral liquid stuff and I had to have suppositories. I hated those things. Now my daughter is having the same issues I had and i will try everything I can to keep her from becoming like how I did..good luck to you!
my daughter is 3 years old. we started potty training when she was 2. we never used a potty seat, she wanted to go straight to the big potty. about 6 months ago we started having problems with her pooping. she would run to a corner or another room to do it. she also holds in her poop. we have tried everything to get her to poop and she doesn't wanna do it. we did miralax and benefiber and also had an enema type thing done because she was so backed up that she was sick.
so even though her doctor advised against it, he suggested a little bit of x-lax. so my mom showed me what to do. you take one of the x-lax squares (because it looks and tastes kinda like chocolate they won't refuse it), cut it into 3rds and give your child one of the 3rds. do this once every week and a half. it'll help soften things up and make them really wanna go. try this for about a month. but you wanna increase his fiber intake, make sure he eats some leafy greens atleast once a day and try to give him a grapefruit atleast 3 times a week (usually about lunch time because then the body has time to digest it). sprinkle a little bit of sugar on it to sweeten it a bit though. or even get him to eat corn once a day. plus......... if you take him for an after dinner walk (about 10-20 minutes) it'll help get things going. all of that stuff should help getting him to poop. it helped for my daughter. hopefully it will help for your son. good luck!
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potty training before pre-school
- grantsmom12
on Nov. 13, 2009 at 5:19 PM