We have had a lot of problems with our 4 year old in this area.  Sometimes, they just aren't ready for the whole potty training experience.

It is important you take it slowly and suggest using the potty etc.  Maybe getting some special underpants that he chooses will help.  If he uses the potty, then he can wear them, if he slips up, then back to nappies for another couple of days and then try again.

Yeah i totally agree with Yummymummyof3.  My boy is 2.5 years old and I tried some time back to get him to pee and poo on the toilet/potty.  He can do the wee but simply refused to do poo there.  He even cried and got really stressed up.  Yes like yummymummyof3, we were 'forced' to put his diaper on and let him poo in it.  And yes my boy runs to every other place in the house to do his poo in private except the toilet.  When i see him running away and searching for somewhere out of the corner of my eye, i know he is in a poo process in his diaper! Very funny! So far, he has successfully pooed on the potty and toilet once each only.  Other than that, it is crazy.  He just doesnt want to use them.

Few months back when we tried to train him, we utilised pull-ups.  Forget it, they were useless. He doesnt even feel uncomfortable with the wetliners thing.  Dont waste your money on those if you are thinking.  I tried using double layers of underwears.  YEs the urine trickles down his legs and wet the carpet.  There was even once his poop got onto the carpet.  Gosh, it was tough.  And I was so concerned with getting him toilet-trained since autumn and winter are approaching and he was going kinder next year, which requires him to be toilet-trained by then, i was feeling stressed.  With all this going on, he just could not understand that he needed to inform me if he wanted to pee and poo.  It was almost always too late by the time he told me.  He usually tells me after he has done his wee...

Now, he is still on diapers.  Not that i am giving up but more like I am totally convinced that every kid will be ready at his/her own timing.  I shouldnt be fretting.  Think about it.  Which Grade One kid wears diapers to school? They will get there one day.  And recently, my son has been able to tell me that he wants to wee and poo.  That is one step closer to getting him toilet-trained since he is now able to tell me before he does it.

So your son is progressing! And you are not alone.  Our kids are about the same hahaha....I think it is important that we do not stress the child out and stress ourselves out.  They will reach the same destination in their own timing no matter when they start. :)

In the morning when he wakes up and you change his nappy put his undies on, give him his breakfast and just say to him, tell me when you want to do poos okay. not having the security of his nappy might change his mind set. Any rooms with carpet close the doors, because there will probably be a few accidents. I think if your not going out anywhere, leave the nappy off, obviously there will be some cleaning involved on your part, but I dont think he will like it when he's dirty and wet and then may see the sense in doing it on the potty.

Honestly I think it's a boy thing. My oldest is almost 3 and toilet trained himself from 17 months - by 20 months he was completely wee trained day & night all of his own doing. The poo took much longer & we had to try everything many times...I found one particular book (a wiggles one that played their songs & he could play along to on a little drum thing on the front) seemed to be the magical thing. He would never use a potty either - he hated it - so used the big toilet with a little seat on it. Just keep trying. The one piece of advice I will stress though is that once you start training don't put nappies back on as it sends them backwards - use pullups when you go out but just let him wear jocks at home (let him pick out some special jocks & explain that they are for big boys that wee & poo in the potty/toilet as this may help). You may have to clean up a lot of accidents but believe me it is well worth it in the end! Good luck & feel free to minti mail me if I can help more.

I really have no answer for you, my son was the same, wee no problem but poo forget it, we used to ring the super hero we did everything,  He used to hold it in until we were forced to put a nappy on him, in the end we stopped worrying and one day he came running out of the toilet excited that he had done a poo on the toilet......   Everyone I spoke to at the time said they had the same problem and none of them had an answer, so unless someone on here has some miracle way of doing it I don't know, just wanted to let you know its not just your child,  my daughter on the other hand was no problem so unless its a boy thing.....  Goodluck x