Potty Training! Help! Please!!

17 years ago

I am a preschool teacher. I teach 2 and 3 year olds. We are considered the "potty training class." One of my kids is almost four and will not poop in the potty. Yesterday, he sat on the potty for about 15 minutes and within 5 minutes of getting up, pooped in his underwear. He doesn't have wetting accidents anymore. He has been wearing underwear for close to a year. I really don't know what else to do with him. There's a lot of pressure to get him trained so he can move up because he's too big to be in my room. We recently promoted our kids, so I've got a bunch of little girls and one big, hyper-active boy. Please help. I appreciate any suggestions or ideas you submitt.

Comments (3)

sweeby
17 years ago
What does his mother say? Are you both on the same page with potty-training, and are you both seeing the same behaviors? Some boys just take longer, but others have something else going on.

There's lots of good information available about potty-training, so I won't go into any specifics here on that tack. But as the parent of a child with special needs, I'll address that possibility.

You mention the boy is hyper-active. Has he been officially diagnosed with ADHD, or are you just using the term to indicate how active he is? And does he have any other differences compared to the other children his age -- speech? language use? gross and fine motor skills? social skills? If he's behind in one of more areas, talk to your Director about your observations and how to share them with his parents without making it appear like you do not like their son. If there are some developmental problems (and being somewhat late to potty train IS NOT, in isolation, enough reason to suspect serious problems) -- But if there are other reasons to suspect a problem, the best thing you can do for this little boy is to voice your concerns to his parents.

And why should not being poop-trained mean this little boy should have to stay in a class that is otherwise inappropriate for him? IMO, that is not a good policy, and may actually illegal discrimination if it turns out the potty issue is related to a disability.
moumine_2006
17 years ago
Boy's are harder to train.
Have you tryed making a game of it?Or giving him a toy which he likes alot while he is on the potty.
Maybe he can feel the pressure that you have to train him and that is why he won't do it in the potty.
Have you asked his mommy if he still does it in his underwear at home.

I wish you luck.
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Put bits of paper or cheerios in the toilet and have him play "sink the ship"...if he's old enough to use the potty he's old enough to stand....and for little boys, that's a lot more fun!! Maybe Daddy needs to teach him... Linda C
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My daughter was potty trained at 22 months, and not because I forced the issue either. Once she got to where she could let us know that she had to go, and she was sitting on the potty with her clothes on, we moved the potty to the living room and took off all of her clothes. She ran to the potty when she had to go. We rewarded her with mini M&M's (only one). She never got candy, so that was a real treat for her. From that day on, she always wore panties because I'd been told not to use pull-ups for the reasons stated above. I think she had maybe 3 accidents in the following month. If we went out of the house, I also didn't use pull-ups. I put a plastic liner over regular panties, and I had a change of clothes of course. Also, the car seat was a big concern because mine is a pain to clean, so I'd lay a waterproof pad in it before I put her in it. Anytime she said she had to potty, we ran to the bathroom no matter how inconvenient it was. I remember going into some store bathrooms 4 times before getting out of the store. I think she just liked to see new bathrooms. Poop-This was a problem for about 2 weeks because she had trouble with constipation from the time she was an infant. She didn't like to poop, and she tried not to. She must have thought it's hurt worse on the potty because she would ask for a diaper when she had to poop. I gave in for the first few days, but then I decided that if she knew she had to poop, then there must be a reason that she wouldn't. I figured she was scared. I still had to put her in diapers for naps and bedtime, and she would actually wait for those times to poop. She would also wait until she woke up, so she didn't have to sleep in it. I wouldn't rush to change her when she did. I'd try to wait 10-15 minutes. When I did change her, I'd let her flush the poop down the toilet. We'd say bye-bye to it. I'd always tell her that the potty was where she should do that, and that if she did, we'd do a really special dance called the potty dance, but she couldn't see what it was until she pooped on the potty. I also told her that she'd get two big cookies if she pooped on the potty. She never got cookies either except from Grandma, so this was exciting to her as well. One day (within the two weeks from starting to wear panties), she went to the bathroom and pooped. We danced and had cookies! Also, anytime before that when she would pee on the potty, I'd try to get her to poop by telling her to push way down in her back. I had a friend tell me that. I think some kids know that they have to poop, but they can't figure out how to make it come out on the potty, but rather they wait until it is on it's way, and then can't make it.
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I agree that almost 3 doesn't mean anything. DS started potty training right before his 3rd b-day in April. He's been pooping in the potty since then...never had an accident yet and no fights about it. The peeing on the potty has been a different story. Some days he's great, others not. It's been a juggle back and forth between pull-ups and underwear. For a while he just would not pee in the potty at all so pull-ups were a must. He's recently gotten back into underwear all day. One night I was so tired that I fell asleep and he was laying in our bed watching cartoons and slept with us. It wasn't until morning...late morning when he decided to get up that I noticed he still had underwear on and had not wet the bed at all. I thought it was a sign..but he's been peeing every night since like crazy in a pull-up. He also decided on Friday that he was too busy to stop and go the bathroom and peed his pants at the mall! Thank goodness we were on tile and next to the store my Mom works at so I dashed for paper towels. It's a different story every day with the potty training, I'm finding. I have read enough to know that you can't force them or they won't do it, either. So don't fight with your son. He'll start soon enough and when he's ready. TREKaren, I'm sure hoping I'll get to that day when he's suddenly potty trained over night!
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Why don't you use the cloth training pants? When they potty in them they can feel it, and it gets cold and they don't like the coldness so eventually they don't want to potty in them anymore. You do need to have plenty of extra clothes ready, but this is just a phase and it may take a while but pretty soon they get the hang of it. My niece is in training pants right now, and every time she pees she can definetly tell and does not like the way it feels at all, then comes running to mommy to change her. The concept is to have her running to mommy or the potty before she wets herself. Also they are alot cheaper than buying pull ups, which I did not think they worked very well, especially when they poop and you go to pull them down and everything else comes down too all over the place. These you rinse out and wash them in the washer. Also when I bought the training pants I bought a package of the cute little underware with his favorite cartoons on them and told him when he can learn to use his training pants he can wear his big boy pants. He was very enthusiastic about being a big boy and really wanted to use his big boy pants.
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dlynn2
17 years ago
Our pediatricians say that is quite common with boys (having difficulty learning to poop in the potty). Some thoughts on it are that boys are used to seeing their pee come out and go into the potty, so it is kind of scary to them when they can't see the poop coming out. Girls, on the other hand, can't see the pee coming out so not being able to see the poop coming out is no big deal.

What worked on my boys, if you can wait a few more months and this child believes in Santa, is to have the Mom take him to see Santa and explain it to Santa in front of the child. As soon as Santa arrived at our mall I brought my son to sit on his lap and while my child was telling him how good he had been I interrupted with "Now Santa, I realize you won't be able to bring him any of the nice toys that he wants until he begins to poop in the potty. So as soon as he starts to do this we will come right up here and let you know." Santa looked at me like I had lost my mind and my child was totally horrified. We left the mall and went home. Within 15 minutes of being home my son had pooped in the potty and asked to go back to tell Santa about it. We did and he never pooped in his pants again.

Potty Training! Help! Please!!

Comments (3)

sweeby

moumine_2006

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dlynn2

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