Question
HI John, I have a question about toilet training with an almost 2 year old. I have started when he was 18 months. I did pants off for about 2-3 weeks. And then pants on but he still needs help getting his pants off. He has been doing well with pee - I just put him on regular intervals and we have minimal accidents. He does still have pee and poo accidents though. Sometimes more than other times. pee seems to be on the improve.
With poos however, its always been a hit or miss since the start. If I happen to put him on at the right time, he will do it on the potty. Sometimes when he's playing by himself, I will leave him with pants off and most of the time, he does poo in the potty if he needs to. However I often have to guess when he needs to go - either after naps or meals. If I don't guess correctly, he just does it in his pants and then tells me he has pooed. Sometimes he does it in his pants 2x in one day. This happens maybe 2-3x a week. Sometimes more, sometimes every single day. Sometimes in his nappies after his naps if I don't go to him soon enough. In essence, he gets it right about 50-60% of the time, with my guessing when he has to go. No, I don't micromanage with poos. I don't even ask if he needs to go. But it's starting to get really frustrating though because this has been going on for almost 5 months now. Its a big mess to clean up 2-3x (or more) a week. I don't really want to wait till he is 3 before I can make him clean himself up. He is obviously too young to clean up after himself now.
What in the world do I do with his poo accidents? With my daughter, it was the opposite. She never got pees right till she was almost 4. But she got poos right away (at 16-18 months!) with the very occasional accident by 2 years of age.
What should I do, short of locking him in the bathroom each day until he has done his poo? He doesn't poo every day. Sometimes once a day, sometimes 2x in one day and skips a day.
I'd like to be free of this burden ASAP. 5 months of cleaning up poos makes me feel like I should have started training only now, and not at 18 months. I am disappointed because it started off so well. Is it also possible that it's just that I have to wait even longer before he is accident free - since all kids are different? At least he isn't opposed to the idea. Please help!
