3 year old won’t go #2 in potty?

Question

My 3 year absolutely refuses to go #2 in the potty. He’s been potty trained now for at least 4 months and he will go to the bathroom by himself during the day at home and at school. Our one issue is he does not want to sit on the potty to go poop. He will either beg to be “changed” (asking for a pull up) or he will go hide and go in his underwear. 
I tried for the longest time to take him into the bathroom when I know he usually goes or when he asks for a pull up but he will scream NO and refuse. We also have a small baby potty as well as a potty seat on our toilet. I’ve tried sitting with him in the bathroom, giving him books, letting him hold my iPad, offering a treat or surprise, etc. 
I’m kind of at a loss. What else can we try? He will be 4 in 5 months and i would really like to get over this hurdle. Any advice? 
*I would like to add when we first started potty training he would sit on the potty just fine and even went #2 multiple times. This really started once he got the hang of going in by himself.

Answer

I have no advice…but am looking forward to the responses as well because this is exactly what we are going through with my son as well.

Answer

Mine did that when she potty trained too. I had her clean up the mess when she pooped in her underwear. Of course I guided her and helped when needed but she did most of the cleaning and I told her how much easier it was to just use the potty. It took a month but she eventually started pooping on the potty.

Answer

To think I was the only one 🤦🏻‍♀️

Answer

It’s very common for little ones to not want to poop on the potty but will go pee just fine. It’s easier for them to crouch to poop than sit on the potty so sometimes it can hurt and that could be a reason why he doesn’t want to poop on the potty. Keep doing what you’re doing he will get there it just takes some time

Answer

We just got through this (like literally a couple weeks ago). My daughter will be 4 in February. She was only pooping in her pull-up at night right before sleeping, so we know she had it under control. Just didn’t want to go in the potty. Once she started sleeping dry through the night, we told her the pull-ups weren’t available anymore. She waited us out a couple days, but then went on the potty. She’s been pooping there ever since. 
Before I went cold turkey on the pull-ups, I was making her set up the changing area and throw her dirty pull-up and wipes in the trash (with supervision and guidance). If he’s going in undies or pullups, he should be part of the cleaning process. 
She did go through a period earlier in 2021 where she was successfully pooping on the potty with just a bit of bribery (stickers and a new small toy after several successes in a row), but once she had a setback nothing worked until I was able to remove the pull-ups.

Answer

Have you tried letting him be in his diaper but while sitting on the potty? You can working up to sitting by telling him he could wear the pull-up/ diaper but only in the bathroom and then move him closer and closer to the seat while he’s still wearing the diaper. Once he’s sitting on the toilet, with the diaper on you can try taking the diaper away. It’s a slow process and you’ll probably have small wins and losses but it might help to try it.

Answer

They say boys are the hardest. Every mom I talked to (even my mom and MIL) said he didn’t want to poop, it’s like a “part of them”. Luckily my little boy hated the feeling of poop in his underwear lol. 
Maybe try talking to him? Is he scared? Let him know it’s ok. Ask his pediatrician for a stool softener. It may hurt him to go poop? Just let him know mommy and daddy go poop in the toilet :) and he’s a big boy and big boys go poop in the potty :)

Answer

My son was like this and my mom gave me a different perspective on looking at why. Pooping to a kid feels like your insides are coming out and they don’t understand it’s normal, it is scary for them. So what we did and it worked for both my kids, when we saw they had to poop we put them on the potty and we cheered them on, lots of encouragement and at the end they got a small piece of chocolate. After a couple of times the tears stopped and they started willingly sitting on the potty. They sort of phased themselves out of getting the chocolate too. My daughter will ask for it every once in a while but overall both will go no problem. Honestly if I have learned one thing from potty training is to get really excited, now the kids come home and can’t wait to tell us that they went on the potty like big kids, to them it’s an accomplishment and we embrace it

3 year old won’t go #2 in potty?

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