PT'ed child pooping in underwear

Three days in a row now, Bea has pooped in her underwear. She's been potty trained for well over 6 months. She knows how to go poop in the potty. The first two times, I kind of let it go, just cleaned it up and moved on. Today, I got a little mad. She was just sitting there playing and pooped. No effort to make it to the bathroom. It's not diarrhea or anything, that I could understand. I asked her why she didn't go potty, she said she was "too busy playing". Except in the beginning of potty training, she always been very good about stopping and going potty. The only thing I can think of is that Ainsley is not really PT'ed, she's still in a pull-up most of the time, so maybe she's like well Ainsley doesn't have to stop and go potty, why should I? In today's instance, Ainsley had just pooped in her pull-up. I told Bea that Ainsley doesn't know how to go potty yet (we're working on it, it's been a struggle with her) and she has a pull-up on.
I don't know how to handle this appropriately. I know we're not supposed to get mad at accidents, but this doesn't seem like an accident.

Wasn't sure whether or not to post this in the general area or PT subforum. I think it's more behavioral than an a Potty Training issue, but whatever the mods think.

 

If pooping in the potty is something that she has been doing for quite some time, I'm like you--I'd probably get upset about it too, especially if my girl said that she was too busy playing. I'm not sure what would be an appropriate punishment, maybe time-out?? I don't really know what I would do either, I hope you find some answers though.

 

I agree, this is a behavioral issue, not a PT one. Your assessment of the situation sounds right on.

If it were pee, I'd say the consequence should be that she needs to clean herself up before she can go back to playing. But with poop, I don't know if you want her trying to do that by herself. :blink: Maybe you could clean her up, but then she has to get her own clean clothes and put them on? Hopefully she'd see that as enough of an inconvenience that she'd decide it's easier to just poop in the potty.

You might also try rewards for pooping on the potty. I'm sure you thought you were all past that with Bea, but if it works...

 

QUOTE(Minette @ Nov 24 2008, 05:05 PM) [snapback]1084651[/snapback]
If it were pee, I'd say the consequence should be that she needs to clean herself up before she can go back to playing. But with poop, I don't know if you want her trying to do that by herself. :blink: Maybe you could clean her up, but then she has to get her own clean clothes and put them on? Hopefully she'd see that as enough of an inconvenience that she'd decide it's easier to just poop in the potty.

I'd take her to the toilet and have her watch you flush the poop away. Explain again that she needs to use the toilet. If you think she would understand the logic you could try explaining that she has to stop playing to get changed if she has an accident and that takes more time than just going to the toilet properly.
Another tactic that I've heard of is to buy some really boring (plain white) underwear. Let her start the day in 'nice' underwear and if she has an accident she has to have the boring underwear. Of course this tactic depends upon her caring about what she wears. Or you could try telling her that she will have to have a pull-up if she doesn't use the toilet, although again that depends on her caring that she gets underwear.

 

Ben did this for a short period of time after being trained for six months or so. At the advice of our Mommy and Me preschool teacher, I did the following: 1) Walk him to the potty and dump it in the potty. 2) Don't lose your cool, lecture, shame (which I tried), punish. 3) Simply just say, "Poop goes in the potty." And then carry on. Her thought was that it was an attention thing. So I did not give him ANY attention for it. And he literally stopped doing it after two times.

Good luck. It was very frustrating.

 

My oldest (4 now) continued to have poop accidents well into his 3rd year. He was PTed when he was 2-2.5. It was almost always when he was out playing and too busy to come in. Sometimes, he would just drop his pants and poop outside!! :bad: I think that when kids are PTed early, they still have some of the maturity to develop. Stopping to go in and poop is a big waste of time and not a priority. I would get so mad at him, but the only thing that worked was time.

 

QUOTE(twoin2005 @ Nov 24 2008, 06:15 PM) [snapback]1085278[/snapback]
Ben did this for a short period of time after being trained for six months or so. At the advice of our Mommy and Me preschool teacher, I did the following: 1) Walk him to the potty and dump it in the potty. 2) Don't lose your cool, lecture, shame (which I tried), punish. 3) Simply just say, "Poop goes in the potty." And then carry on. Her thought was that it was an attention thing. So I did not give him ANY attention for it. And he literally stopped doing it after two times.

Good luck. It was very frustrating.

You know what, I think this might be it. Maybe she jealous because everyone's making a big fuss over Ainsley's minor (in comparison) pottying successes. I also think the boring underwear after an accident will help, she really likes her Princess underwear.