Toilet issues

Following because we are having exactly the same issue 😭

Same here.. He asks and go to toilet to wee and flush himself excitedly but refuses and cries to poop in the toilet.. Whenever he needs to poop he gets his diaper and asks to put it on.. I guess they will slowly adjust and I am not pushing too hard as well.. Just a matter of time I guess..

Aw I really feel for you!! I had a very similar experience with my daughter and it was highly traumatic for both she and I and went on for months during my second pregnancy, it actually took a huge toll on me so I sympathise massively. My daughter's started out with a bout of constipation that made her nervous to poo but it was then greatly exacerbated by toilet training. She didn't want to poo on the potty at all and would only do it in nappies, then for some reason she wouldn't poo in nappies either and refused to poo almost all together! I was pulling my hair out trying everything I could think of. I had appointments with the GP, phone calls with health visitors, called a helpline of a charity called ERIC which specialises in stool with-holding in children. She would sit on the floor and hold her legs close to her chest and try desperately hard to hold it in and would then cry and get deeply upset from the discomfort which she then associated with any bowel movement.

She ended up going 7 days without pooing once and I was so worried about her. Honestly it was one of the hardest times of my life, no exaggeration. She was so upset so much of the time as her body desperately wanted her to go, it was so upsetting. I was really not sure about using any kind of laxative but in the end it saved both of us (more so me from having a nervous breakdown tbh 😂 honestly it got that bad!). I am SO glad I did and also feel very guilty that I didn't try it sooner. After 3 appointments with 3 diff GPs one of them said she needed a laxative and said she should've been prescribed one from the get go! So, I started to give her half a sachet of plain Paediatric Laxido in her milk at night and slowly increased it to 2 sachets every night for a period of time. It worked so well! She was just so nervous about going and after the constipation and then subsequent holding it in she had become a bit backed up and the sensation of a harder stool scared her.

I gave up potty training for a while and just kept her in nappies (she would often ask to wee in the potty though) but I made sure she always wore a nappy in case she was to need a poo. I solely focused on getting her bowel movements going again and healing her relationship with that! She started to poo in the nappy again really soon after starting the laxative and oh my gosh it was such an amazing turn around! I made such a huge deal of it every time she did do a poo and gave her a little prize each time and she was so chuffed with herself! I was soo relived. (I had tried a kind of reward system before the laxative but it hadn't worked until I combined the two). I wish I had got a laxative prescribed earlier as I feel I could've saved us both a lot of trauma tbh! Oh, I also bought some children's books to read to her about poo. One of them she liked was an Usborne book called 'what is poo?'. I think that was helpful but not essential. ☺️

She's now 3 and I still have to give her a sachet in her milk a few nights a week to keep her regular as it turns out she is a bit prone to constipation and just has a bit of a sluggish gut I guess, which is not super uncommon. It helps to keep her regular and stops her from suffering from constipation again which I've always been nervous of as I wouldn't ever want her to be set back. I'm not sure how long she'll need it but it really isn't a huge hassle as of now and I hope that we'll be able to stop it at some point soon. Oh also! After a little time had passed and she was happily going for a poo in her nappy again she asked to go on the potty one day to my amazement and after that she never did a poo in a nappy again! She just decided she was ready one day. It wasn't that long after either...maybe 2 months or so after she started the laxative. Hope that's helpful and that you get it sorted soon! 💕💕 xx

This is super normal by the way! We did the NOT recommended thing of chocolate buttons… if he managed to get a poo on the toilet he got 2 buttons. Chocolate is a HUGE treat we don’t have it in the house (mainly because I would eat it all!). It worked within 2 days. We kept it up for about a month and haven’t had an accident since

@Jessie hope you don’t mind me jumping on the bandwagon here 💕 my daughter was born Sept 22, so ayear youngerthan your daughter. She too struggles with constipation 😭 no reason for it either as she eats so well and drinks lots of water, it’s just one of those things the doctor said! She was on lactulose for 3 months which wasn’t working very well, seen another doc who said they should have prescribed laxido, which she’s been on for 8 months and seems to be working well. We’ve been able to reduce down to 1/2 a satchet 2 times a week, yet she was poorly recently and had really soft poo’s so I didn’t give her the laxido as it would have given her diarrhoea. Anyway, a week without it and she started struggling again, the poor thing! She’s now started withholding again as I guess the poo’s got a bit big and firmer. She too seems to struggle with sluggish poos without the laxido. So now I’ve got her on 1/2 3 times a week and she seems to be having normal poos again but is still with holding

@Jessie the cognative impact of the constipation is just awful! I feel so sorry for you and your daughter as I can really symmetrise with you. It breaks my heart too 😭 I just wanted to ask, how long has your daughter been on laxido for now? Our doctor has reassured us its not causing her any harm, infact it’s more harmful to under treat constipation. I guess I’m just chomping at the bit to get her off it when we can 😭 it’s really reassuring to hear your daughter was able to potty train whilst on the laxido as I heard it can be REALLY hard to potty train with constipation! I too brought that poo book just last week to try encourage her to squat to poo as at the moment she will only stand up and squeeze her bum cheeks together 💔 she wasn’t doing this for ages before this bout of illness/constipation so it’s just so sad!

@Jessie can I ask what age you started potty training successfully? My little girl is 15 months so I’m not in any real rush right now but in my mind I’ve been worrying I cant start until she’s off the laxido which has been making me stressed! But it’s wonderful to hear your daughter has potty trained successfully whilst on it 🥰🥰🥰 sorry for the long messages 😭 x

@Chloe hi we were told they can be on it for years. Although we don’t use it now. As you was also advised that being constipated can have negative effects on potty training so absolutely if you feel they are ready start when on it. It was explained to us if they are constipated and it’s hurts to go this can cause them fear as well of pooing having them nice and soft and easier to pass takes fear away xx

@Chloe Will get back to you as soon as I have a moment ☺️💕 xx

When we started my daughter would only poo in a potty, and would hold her poo for days in the end we went to GP and he gave lactulose to help her go. We also found having toys or books just for the toilet really helped

Thank you so much everyone and sorry for the lateness in responding, since I last posted we’ve managed to catch two poo on the toilet but they’ve been very solid and large, to the point they’ve made his bottom bleed. I will go to the gp on Monday and try to ask for some laxatives for him x