thread: Toiled trained 3 yr old wanting to use nappies for poos

  1. #1
    BellyBelly Member

    Oct 2004
    Cairns QLD
    5,471

    Toiled trained 3 yr old wanting to use nappies for poos

    Thats basically it! He insits on wearing a nappy if he needs to do a poo.
    He had the runs a few weeks back where we let him wear one and now its all he wants. Says he is growing little and needs a nappy for a poo.
    How do I approach this? I don't want him going back to nappies but I don't want him holding onto it either, which at the momnet he is doing.



    Anyone else delt with this before?

  2. #2
    BellyBelly Life Subscriber

    Nov 2003
    SE Melbourne
    326

    Fiona

    We went through the exact same thing with my eldest DD. The problem is that if you dont give in then they hold on and unfortunately this caused major constipation problems with DD. DD would come and bring me the nappy, I would put in on and within a couple of minutes she would poo and then want it changed. It didnt last long though, only a couple of weeks and we pursued the no nappy at all routine. I think its the splash in the toilet that scares them. I hope that I have helped a little.

  3. #3
    Custardtart Guest

    FJ, this isn't as uncommon as you'd think, some friends of mine had exactly the same thing with their two-year-old. She fell in the toilet and got scared, and insisted on nappies. She'd come and insist her Mum put one on her, then go into a quite room and do a poo, then come out to be changed back into her knickers.
    They eventually coaxed her back onto the potty, I think they ended up using bribery! I don't know if it's worth making a major drama over it, to me it seems like one of those things that you say "in ten years will it make a difference if I let him use nappies for a few weeks" and go with the flow, even if it's an inconvenience now.

    Only you know your son's moods and triggers, so go with your gut feeling on how to deal with it!

    Kerrie

  4. #4
    Melinda Guest

    I have absolutely no experience in this area, as we haven't yet reached toilet training as Jacob is only 15 months old.

    Having said that, I'll share with you what happened to a friend of mine's little boy. He had been successfully toilet trained and then had a little accident, which ended up with him getting poo on his hands and on the carpet. It was getting it on his hands that apparently freaked him out and really upset him. As a result, he has regressed and gone back to wearing nappies for now. Even though my friend didn't make a fuss of the mess, he still got very upset by it and has been using nappies now for a little while, but they are just letting him go through that until he's once again ready to use the potty/toilet again as she felt that trying to do it before he was ready might upset him further???

    I'm not sure if this has helped at all Fiona.......as I said, I've not been in this position to offer any suggestions from personal experience, but I hope you don't mind me sharing that about my friend.......

    I hope you find a solution that works for all of you......

  5. #5
    Registered User

    Jan 2005
    Down by the ocean
    6,110

    As Mason still has a night nappy, recently when he had a bad case of constipation due to a reaction to antibiotics, he would hold on until it was bed time and do it in his nappy. Sometimes it would be up to 5 days. Even with a laxative. This went on for about 3 months.

    I found the best thing here was to encourage him to sit if he had that look on his face. Let him know there would be a reward if he was a big boy and do it on the toilet. If he didn't want to I didn't make an issue out of it. One day out of the blue he came up to me and told me had had to do a poo just after lunch so I took him in the toilet and after a bit of cheering he did the deed. He was very proud of himself and straight away asked for some icecream which was the bribe of choice for the day LOL!

    Now he will tell me when he has to go and he doesn't ask for a reward anymore either. Just the praise is enough for him now. But it did take a few months to get him into the habit. I still don't think he's all there yet but he's got it most of the time.

  6. #6
    BellyBelly Member

    Oct 2004
    Cairns QLD
    5,471

    Thanks for all the input!

    Today while I was at work he did a poo for daddy in the toilet! He has been hanging on to it, which was my concern but I also didn't want him to fall back into nappies. He still has a night nappy, which I probably could drop as he always wakes dry but I'm just not game to try yet as he sleeps in our bed the most of the time so if he wee's we all get wet!

    Ok, Well I think I will just try and be patient with him and work through it.

  7. #7
    Registered User

    Jan 2005
    Down by the ocean
    6,110

    Great news FionaJill!