my daughter won't do a number 2 in the toilet?

Question

she has been potty trained for much more than a year now and still asks for a diaper to go poop in. (she tried pooping in the toilet the first time around but that was the first and last.) i don't want to let her hold it, so any other suggestions?

serious answers only, please. for those trying to get points, por favor disappear.

***she's 3 and 3/4 years old. she wears panty and pants all day, pees in the toilet, and poops in the diaper.

Answer 1

Try putting the diper on her then putting her on the potty while she has the diper on. Then let her see you take the diper off and empty it into the toilet. Wipe her and let her see you put in into the toilet so that she knows that that is where her poop goes.

Answer 2

How old is your daughter?

I have four kids ranging from 10 to 1 and what you describe is actually a very normal situation and something I'd recommend you just wait out. For some reason or other your daughter is not yet comfortable with pooping in the potty. If she can articulate "why" she doesn't want to, it will help considerably. If you know what's wrong you can try and fix it! But if she's not conscious yet as to why she'd rather do it in a diaper, your only real recourse is to simply wait a little.

We went through this with a couple of my children. My 3rd child however, wouldn't "tee tee" anywhere but in his potty here at home. This made life interesting and we had to use pull-ups at grandmother's house and especially preschool. He said the preschool potty was "too small." He was 3 and potty-trained but just refused to do it. ON THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL for this past year, he decided -after I'd already said goodbye to his teachers and put his goodies in the car- he wanted to use the potty in his class.

I'd recommend just waiting and talking and waiting some more. I promise you she won't do this forever and I'm not aware of any lingering potty-phobias. By the time she gets to preschool and kindergarten this will be a mere memory. Until then, give her the diaper/pull-up, praise her for keeping you informed, and see if you can (gently) encourage her to talk about her reluctance. Who knows? Maybe it's scary for her to sit there and not know where it will fall when it comes out. At least in a diaper she can feel where it's going and knows it isn't going anywhere else.

Answer 3

Your daughter is probably afraid to do number 2 in the toilet because maybe the one time she did poop in the toilet water might have splashed up at her which does tend to scare kids. It took some time to get my son to go number 2, but he finally started. DO NOT let her keep wearing diapers or she could end up backsliding and then you would even have to retrain her to go pee in the toilet. Take away the diapers completely and maybe go out and buy a potty chair for her or there is something out that is a little toilet seat that can go right over the adult toilet seat. Maybe that might make the water splash on her and with a potty chair it will help her get comfortable with going number 2 in a toilet. Keeping her in diapers so long is going to cause a lot of problems though. I did a sticker system with my son and daughter. If they pee they get one sticker and everytime they poop they get two. I eventually was able to get my son off the sticker system and now he does fine by himself. Some kids also LOVE to flush the toilet so maybe tell her she isnt allowed to flush until she goes pee and poop in the toilet.

Answer 4

I started out by buying a simple white potty that looked the closest to a regular toilet. No bells n' whistles. Then I got her the "Feel N Learn" pull-ups which are great because when they are wet, they feel wet to the child. Then we had a "sticker" program. I would put her potty in front of the toilet and we would both go potty together. Every time she was successful, she got a sticker that she placed on the bathroom cupboard beside her potty chair. That way she was able to see the rewards of her efforts. And I also made a big effort to praise her really dramatically! Then we'd both empty her potty into the toilet and wave and say "bye-bye peepees/poopoos, thanks for coming out!" She'd sometimes just sit on the chair and "pretend" to potty just so she'd get a sticker! But she quickly figured out that she needed to produce visible results... It took about 2 months. Then I took her shopping and let her pick out her own underwear (Dora). She was so happy to wear them and very, very proud. She had a few accidents but I never made a big deal out of them to her. It got tricky when we went out because it's important that as soon as said she had to potty, we had to pull over right away. I was sure NOT to fall back on the pullups just because we were out. It just prolongs the process. She was able to wear underwear during the day and a pullup at night. Then, eventually she lost the nightime pullup and I woke her at 2am and took her to the potty - every night for about a week. And then that was that.

Every child is different tho - the key is to make a big fuss when they go and not make a fuss if they don't. Good luck with it.

Answer 5

I have the same problem with my 10 yr old boy. Not sure why but he just holds it for days/weeks until it leaks out bit by bit in his underwear and he has to clean himslef off several times a day. Several trips to the doctor just came up with "he's constipated--give him Senecot" which never worked--it got it out of him but did nothing to cure him. Finally another doctor put him on Miralax--prescription--and it is working much better. We are also tyring to keep track of him throughout the day. 10 minutes after meals, he sits on the toilet for a while. Lately, if we remind him, he actually goes. He ain't cured yet--it's been about 4 months--but he has made good progress and we are hopeful. Hope this helps and doesn't discourage you too much.

Answer 6

My daughter was the same way. It took me a long time to potty train her. This sounds weird, but when you do number 2 let her see it. Let her know that its okay. I would have my daughter in the bathroom with me when I went so she would be okay with going in there. My daughter also had signs when she was about to go number 2. I would take her into the bathroom and she resisted a few times, but eventually went. Reward her.

Answer 7

Does she like blowing out candles? If she does then light a candle in the bathroom and tell her that when she goes in the potty that she can blow out the candle. Or put several pieces of her favorite candy on the back of the potty and tell her when she goes she can have the candy. Good Luck!

Answer 8

Find out why, maybe she is afraid of the toilet. Perhaps she still wants to be the baby, and babies have diapers. Maybe if she sees you go #2 she will do it too.

Answer 9

As she is so young perhaps it would be best to go from 1 to 3 and come back to 2 later?

Answer 10

honestly don't worry about it and try not to push her. i am in the process of potty training my little girl who just turned 2yrs old this week....i let her run around naked in between "panty" changes, when i go pee pee or after bath and she will tell me poo or pee pee and i just tell her okay and she will go sit on her potty all by herself. i have noticed if i try to encourage *make* her go then she will protest...but if i just say okay and let her do it on her she does better. it's just a thought and every kiddo is different. don't be discouraged mom-it will be okay.