appleblue | February 2007

I potty trained my son in November and he did really well, grasping the idea quickly and weeing on the potty all the time within one day.  I noticed that he wasn't pooing (and he had always been a very regular, at least once a day kinda guy!) but thought it was something he would get used to. 

However, 3 months later and he refuses to do a poo at all.  He did at times do it in his pants.  He did even at other times actually do it on the potty.  He once did it on the toilet.  But now he holds on as long as possible and has made himself horribly constipated.  It now hurts so much for him to go (he will stand there clinging on to me saying help me mummy) that he is obviously very frightened of going, which of course is exacerbating the problem.

I have been giving him a little prune juice disguised in orange juice and for the past 3 nights he has been around 8PM whilst asleep, but he moans and cries in his sleep while he is doing it.

He is also "leaking" slightly now, because of the constipation, so his bottom is sore, as he doesn't always tell me he has leaked and I can't always smell it to wipe him and change his pants.  He has developed a lovely habit of sticking his fingers in his pants and pulling them out to show me the poo if I don't realise quick enough that he has leaked!

I have tried sticker charts, telling him he can have chocolate buttons if he uses his potty, getting him a book all about how everyone poos, letting him see me go to the toilet, telling him he can do it in his pants, asking if he wants a nappy back on - none of this gets past his fear of going though.

Recently, we have noticed that he will also hold on to a wee if he has to go to a public toilet - we think it is because he is scared of the hand blow driers.

He seemed to start so well with the potty training, and now he seems to be so fearful of it all.  I've held off getting some kind of laxative from the doctor, as the prune juice seemed to be working - but he must have one hell of a backlog in there!  My second child is due beginning of June and I was hoping to have him settled into using the potty completely by the time the next one came along!

Any advice?

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