General poop training question..

[Olivers_mommy]

My son just decided to start potty training (he's 2 and a half).. and by "just" I mean literally 2 days ago.. with only two pee accidents during the day even through nap time!  Now, my question is approximately how long does it take for a child to go poop on the potty?  I'm just curious because I don't think he quite "knows" when he has to go.. all of a sudden he'll grunt and say "I pooped!".. he doesn't hide or anything.  So after he goes in his underwear, I take him into the bathroom to see if he needs to go more on the potty.. How long to I let him sit there?  Usually, he tries to sit for a while.. should I make him sit?  He's not at all scared of the potty.. I usually put the poop in the potty and he flushes it and says "Bye, poop!" ..

I definitely don't expect him to go poop on the potty any time soon.. I was just curious about how long it takes for the kids to "get" it.

Thanks!

[Andrewsmom70]

Honestly, there is no real "average timeline" for poop success.  It just sort of happens later than pee training success.

The "need to poop" feeling is different than the "need to pee" feeling and obviously involves different muscles.  I think that a lot of times when kids are training for poop, it's hard to distinguish between the "need to toot" and the "need to poop" feeling.  I know that for my son, even months after he was completely potty trained (day and night, pee and poop) he was sometimes telling me he needed to poop and once he got on the toilet, all he did was toot a few times and didn't need to poop.

As for how long to keep him on the toilet, I'd not keep him on very long (2 to 3 minutes max), especially if he's already pooped in his pants and had finished that already.  If you think it might be time for him to poop or if he starts grunting/squatting/etc you can have him sit 4 or 5 minutes but I wouldn't keep him on there much longer than that.  You can get some books/toys that he only gets when on the toilet to poop and even try blowing bubbles for him to get him to relax and possible forget what he's there for to see if that helps any.