Mixed PT: #1 working fine; #2 has to be in a diaper. Advice?

[abstonka]

My DD, at 31 months, has been potty trained on #1 for several months now--around 5. However, she has only pooped in the potty three times total, and all of those times were little bits rather than full blown cases (and 2 cases were at grandma's).

So, my question for you is what should I do? Is there anything I can do or will she just decide one day that she wants to poop in the potty rather than a diaper or a pull-up? I have tried waiting her out, but she will not go.

She also frequently holds her pee (4 - 6 hours) until she is forced to to to the potty. Usually she will announce "wanna go potty", but sometimes she holds it for hours.

TIA for your help.

[mommy2sam]

My son is 28 months and had been exactly where your DD is for about 8 months. He wore a diaper for nap and bedtime, because we figured he couldn't be expected to stay dry while sleeping at such a young age but was otherwise ready to PT.

He would wait until nap or bedtime and use his diaper for poop, although he had (a couple times) pooped in the potty...I think by accident, LOL! We noticed that a couple times when we were on car trips and he missed his nap, he wouldn't poop at that time of day and would a few hours later *ask* us to pull over so he could poop at a rest area. This was new for him, as he didn't usually ask to go!

So, one day last month I took him potty (#1) before nap, and just said to him, "Today for nap you're going to wear underpants instead of a diaper. So if you have poop that's ready to come out, let it out now or save it until you wake up." He looked at me, looked at the potty, and said, "Poop is coming now." Guess he just needed an ultimatum! Now he's been going strong pooping in the potty for almost a month and I'm so glad to be done cleaning up poopy diapers!

Hope this helps - sorry for the novel. :)

[katmei]

I had the same problem too. What I used was the naked technique and let him run around without anything on his lower half for several days. He was old enough (2 1/2) that he knew he didn't want to go on the floor, so it helped him connect the fact that when he needs to go he has to get to the potty.

The first day I did this I watched him really closely so I could catch him doing any accidents (and we spent a lot of time outside). He eventually started pooping and I was able to grab him and throw him on his potty so he could finish (so part of the poop hit the grass but part did end up in the toilet which was his first time ever!).

The second day he held it in all day until finally right before bed he went. I think he just had to go so bad that it came out... Daddy sat with him and pushed on his tummy to help him too.

The third day he went to daycare and wore his shorts/underwear and had a big accident (that his teacher understandably wasn't thrilled about). But that was the last BM accident we've had, so I think he's finally got it (fingers crossed).

So that was a good method that helped him get over the fear of going poop on the potty. The other thing we did was tons of bribery... like when he poops he gets to do things he normally doesn't get. He gets a brownie, gets to pick a special toy from our potty prize basket, and gets to watch a DVD. I think giving him toys is especially helpful because he plays with them and talks about how he got it for going poop on the potty, so it reinforces it and reminds him that he needs to use the potty. For the toys I just went out and bought a set of little hot wheels so it was really cheap but works for him since he's into cars and trucks.

Hope that helps... good luck!!!