Potty Training: Won't Poop? Sh*t happens... eventually

One of my kids' favorites books

Both of my kids were potty trained before they were two and the biggest struggle was to get them to poop on the potty. It's normal. It's frustrating. It's messy. It's perhaps the most common potty training problem out there. But rest assure, my fellow moms...after pee, poop will come. It may take an extra few days, it may take weeks, months or upwards of year -- but eventually your potty trained kid will poop on the potty.

My daughter was one of those kids that would simply wait until she had a Pull Up on for nap to take her after lunch dump. My son, well, he has a harder time holding it. It's actually pretty comical to watch him walk around on his tip toes, run to the potty every other minute, sit down, fart, and then pop back up to an empty potty.   
I have to admit, more times than not after that routine he's just simply not made back in time and pooped on the floor.   He does, however, understand that poop goes in the potty. Pooping on the potty takes patience, good timing, and relaxation. As a toddler those aren't easy things to sync and so many kids end up being potty trained, but they won't poop on the potty.

Very early in our 3 day potty training boot camp, my two a day pooper decided he was going on a pooping strike. He held it for two straight days and I could tell his stomach was upset and he was uncomfortable. I broke all the PTBC rules and put a diaper on him. Within two minutes, he'd done the deed. I immediately took the diaper off and dumped its rock hard contents into the toilet to show him -- THIS is where poop goes. I repeated this several times as we waved bye-bye to the poop. Stupidly thinking he was done, I eased up and a few minutes later he let loose on his sister's favorite Build-A-Bear. Yikes!

If you know the signs that your child has to poop it can be easier to catch them before you run into this problem. But even if you recognize the poopy dance moves -- well, sometimes, sh*t just happens. If it happens anywhere other than the potty I always pick it up with a paper towel and put it in the potty (as gross as that is). This reinforces where poop is supposed to go. Eight days after I started potty training my son, he's fully trained on the pee front, but he's still catching on on to pooping on the potty.   He's probably pooped on the potty 3 or 4 times successfully and had an equal number of accidents.

A book for the kids who refuses to poop

Think of it this way - your child might pee 8-10 times a day, but poop only once. Why wouldn't it take 8 times longer to learn how to poop on the potty then?  

Share your best tip with us about how you got your potty trained kid to poop on the potty.

READ MORE: Our 3 Day Potty Training Boot Camp experience:

• Day 1: This is Potty Training Boot Camp: Meet my Cadet 
• Day 2: Making serious progress...already 
• 3 Day Potty Training for Boys: Days 3, 4, 5 and beyond 
• Potty Training update: One Week Later
• Potty Training Tips: 10 ways I trained my 22 month old son in less than a week