Poop training

[dream135]

Long story short- DS (3.5 years old) has been pee trained for 8 months but not poop. I've stopped using pull-ups and use underwear. But he continues to poop in the underwear - and poop is so hard so it's easy to clean (sorry TMI).
This has been going on for a few months - but his new montessori school starts in 3 weeks and he NEEDS to be completely potty trained.

Any ideas what I can do? He's now on 2 tsp miralax twice a day (not so hard anymore). Should I just put pull ups for a week and see if that helps?

He doesn't tell me when he's pooped in his underwear. I've tried rewards.

Help!!

[melwe]

Have no advice, but I can tell you I'm in the exact same position with DS. Am interested in any responses!

[mikala]

Have you ever tried no underpants, just shorts or pants commando? There's some potential for mess but it removes the close, maybe secure feeling of underpants. The potty training method I used for my kids started them out without underpants for s few weeks.

[petesgirl]

DS's ped said that if poop is too hard, it makes potty training really difficult. Actually my nephew is entering kinder this year but they arent sure what to do because he absolutely wont poop on the potty because he got constipated pretty bad when potty training. So definitely stay on the stool softener.
I think i would watch him like a hawk this week (seriously, dont plan on getting anything done!) And rush him to the toilet at the first sign of needing to have a bowel movement, like if he stops playing, squats, grunts, etc. Just get him to the toilet asap so he does it there everytime.

[dream135]

Have you ever tried no underpants, just shorts or pants commando? There's some potential for mess but it removes the close, maybe secure feeling of underpants. The potty training method I used for my kids started them out without underpants for s few weeks.

Did that today - and cleaned up a mess! But we did make progress - since he started calling for me when he started to go. In the past, he would be ok walking around with dirty underpants.
I'm going to continue with no underpants and keep him off the couch and carpet.


Thanks for all the tips ladies!

[PZMommy]

Both of my boys have never pooped at school. When they first were pee trained, they took several more months to go poop on the toilet. They have always waited until evening time to poop, so we didn't have to worry about pooping at school. Even now when they are fully trained, they just go at night time, and never at school.

[elephantmeg]

we ended up way upping the prize ante. Like a matchbox car for every poop. And then after 10 cars or so one every 3 times and gradually got longer

[mmsmom]

Try completely naked on bottom when you are at home. For my DS he had one poop accident at school then realized he never wanted that to happen again bc it took too much time away from play for him to get cleaned up. That was 6 years ago & the last accident he had. For DD I upped the Miralax dosage, put her in a dress w/ no underwear & thankfully she didn't want to poop on floor so we finally had success in the potty. Lots of praise & rewards & a trip to the toy store and she went in potty from then on.

[belovedgandp]

We'd require DS2 to sit on the toilet for a few minutes about 30 minutes after breakfast and again after dinner. We'd give him a favorite book/magazine and set the timer.

I also did the hawk watching thing.

When there was an accident we both went to the bathroom and repeated and repeated and repeated "where does poop go? In the toilet." as we cleaned up. It was a battle cry for several months.

[petesgirl]

I just remembered something else I did when DS had his first poop accident in undies (hasn't had one since...); I threw away the pair of undies. I was seriously too grossed out to rinse them out so I just threw them away and he watched. We picked out lightning mcqueen and dusty crophopper undies to start PTing in and I told him that pooping in his undies ruined them and that if he kept doing it all his cool undies would be thrown away and he would be stuck with plain white. I'm really not sure if that made any difference but I just remembered the incident. DH was annoyed at me later that I threw them away, but I was super grossed out in the moment.