So I titled this How to Get Your Toddler to Poop in the Potty, but I am clearly not an expert. We have been potty training for two months now and Miller has gone #2 in the potty TWICE.
But, I asked a lot of my readers for their advice, so I am going to share all of the tips and tricks in this post to help those of you who are reading this SOLELY to figure out how to get your toddler to poop in the potty.
Potty Training- The ‘Oh Crap’ Method
I need to backtrack a bit here. We bought the ‘Oh Crap’ potty training book based off recommendations and it was AMAZING, but it didn’t help much with the #2 situation. It also didn’t help a lot of my friends who tried to start potty training right after we did. It just isn’t for everyone.
If you try the ‘Oh Crap’ method and your child isn’t KIND OF catching on after a week you should probably switch to a different potty training book/method.
‘Oh Crap’
The ‘Oh Crap’ Potty Training book is a quick and easy read. We read the entire book BEFORE starting potty training our 26 month old. It took about two days for Miller to be COMPLETELY potty trained when she was out of a diaper. Yes, you read that right- two days.
Basically, the book has you strip them down on day one and whenever they show a sign that they have to pee you pick them up and rush them to the potty. After doing that a couple of times Miller would tell us she had to pee. After a few days of that she would just go sit on the potty and pee herself whenever she needed.
We have had two pee pee accidents in two months. One was right after swim class (they have to wear two diapers during class) so I really think she just thought her swim diaper was still on. The other was just yesterday. We went on a pretty long hike and completely forgot to prompt her. Usually she will just let us know but she slipped and fell on the way back down and we think thats when she peed herself a little.
Did she catch on quickly because of the book or because of the kind of child she is? No idea! It is the only potty training method we tried and she just took to it instantly.
*we went by the book when it came to guidelines on how long they should be naked, then how long they should be commando, and then when to put the panties on for the first time.
Things that helped:
1.Lots of praise and encouragement at the beginning! We made a HUGE deal of it every time she went. We would have her take the pee to the big potty and dump it, flush, and then we would all do a happy dance. We did not give her any treats or anything, just praise! I like to think we just made her feel proud.
2.Prompting. The book says not to prompt but peeing in a potty is new for them. You need to remind them sometimes to go or they will just hold it forever (especially when they are playing!)
3.Having the right toilets. Miller loves her small toilet. We kept it by her at all times in the beginning and now it has a special place near our front door so that she knows where it is. We also have two on-the-go toilets that we take with us when we leave the house. I will link everything below.
4.Fun Potty books!
5. Panties with her favorite characters. Forget the super cute panties guys. Grab them underwear with their favorite people or characters on them. Make it fun and exciting to wear the diapers instead of a chore. Target has a lot or just grab some from Amazon.
Diapers-
Miller is still in diapers during nap time and bedtime. Her nap diapers are usually always dry now, bu the bedtime diapers are soaking wet.
We will continue to have her in diapers when she sleeps until we convert her to a toddler bed. I just don’t think it is right to contain her in a crib and expect her to potty train herself without being able to leave the crib to use the potty when she needs to.
The Poop Problem
Pee training was no biggie for us, but how to get your toddler to poop in the potty is an entirely different issue.
We tried it all. All the bribery, all the poop books, all the things.
Miller holds her poop in every day and goes when we put the diaper on at night. We usually have to go in there a couple of hours after we put her down, wake her up, and change her poopy diaper.
It drives me CRAZY because we know she has to poop. She does a poop dance all day, sits on the potty 30 times in one hour because she ‘has to poop’ but just refuses when it comes down to it.
A lot of people say toddlers are scared. I honestly think she is just way too impatient to sit on the potty and wait for it to come out. She will say ‘I have to poop’, sit on the potty, and bounce right back up after 5 seconds.
It has been two months of this madness. So I took to Instagram and asked my readers how they got their toddler to poop in the potty. Here are some of the best responses (that don’t involve bribery):
-Have them watch you poop in the potty. Yall- I tried this. This was one of the only times we got her to poop in the potty!
-Put glitter in the potty after you poop and have them come in and see your ‘glitter poop’. This sounds fun- I am going to try this next!
-Put their diaper on earlier in the night and have her sit on the potty in the diaper to poop. This one is interesting but I just wonder where you go from there? Maybe to the next tip?
-Put them in the diaper and put a hole in the diaper so when they sit on the potty in their diaper the poop falls in the toilet. I have heard this one A LOT! Definitely worth a try!
-Give it time. They will get there eventually. She definitely isn’t showing any signs that she wants to get there any time soon!
-Keep their poop soft, or make them have to poop. I got this one a lot. Some people recommended prunes or miraLAX to soften the poop and make it to where they couldn’t hold it all day. This one makes sense. We may have to try this after the glitter poop.
-Stop using diapers. This makes sense, but again, she can’t get out of her crib yet so this seems cruel? I am all for it once she can crawl out of bed to use the potty.
-iPad on the potty and put a show or movie on she loves. Not above this at all. In fact- seems genius haha!
If you have some amazing advice on how to get your toddler to poop in the potty PLEASE WEIGH IN HERE! Comment below and tell us what worked for you! I will try anything! If I can figure this out I will come on here immediately and edit this post to fill you in on the big secret!
PS- want to see more posts like this? If so, check out my family-related articles here. My last post was on How to Find Great Childcare!
xox Amanda
