Saturday, May 3, 2008

Why don't potty-training boarding schools exist?

Okay, so maybe this will gross some people out, but I can't figure out why my 3 year old absolutely refuses to poop in the toilet. He has been peeing on the potty for at least 6 months now, and he does great- even stays dry during naps and at night- but getting him to poop on the potty is like trying to fit an elephant into an eggshell without breaking it! He poops his pants nearly every day, and I'm getting tired of cleaning it up.
I try to catch him right when he needs to go and then run him into the bathroom, but he will usually just hold it until he finds a chance to sneak into a corner when I'm not looking and make his move (he won't poop in his pants with someone watching). Tonight, however, I kept a close watch on him because I knew he needed to go. I had taken him to the toilet several times, but again he had refused to do anything while sitting there.
Then when he was in the bathtub, he got this look of urgency on his face and said, "I need to go potty!" But as soon as I sat him on the potty, he started yelling, "NO! NO!" and tried to get back in the tub. I was determined not to let him poop in the bathtub, so I just held him (rather forcefully) on the toilet while he screamed and kicked and cried until finally, he relaxed and let it go. He was so proud of himself for pooping in the potty- which I find rather funny since he really had no choice in the matter.
I have to wonder if I did the right thing or not. I hate to force him to do it, but I don't want to be cleaning up his poopy underwear when he's 25, if you know what I mean.
If someone opened a potty-training boarding school, they'd make big bucks... but it's not gonna be me!

5 comments:

Nurse Heidi said...

Welcome to the blogging world! I'll add you to my sidebar : ).

Queen of the Castle said...

You could send him to day care for a while. I hear they do potty training. Potty training is incredibly frustrating. I think that it is okay that you did what you did. I would say things like, "Remember when you were taking the bath and you pooped in the potty? That was awesome!" Turn it into a positive experience. It's okay to back off and use pull-ups for a while if you need the break. If you are too stressed out, he may be feeling that and not wanting to poop in the potty because it is too stressful. Good Luck!

Jamie said...

Good job, Lura. Potty training is not easy. Sounds like you are doing good.

Laura said...

I had to do that with Eleanor a couple of times. I put one hand on her lower belly (right above her legs) and the other on her lower back. I gently moved my hand in a circular motion to help calm her down and maybe, shall we say, "encourage" her body. After a couple times she started to do it on her own. Wesley will get there! You can do it!

Kristen said...

Wahoo! I'm all for force when it helps avoid cleaning up messes. It doesn't sound like thats what he remembers anyway.