I thought for a while about what to call this post: Poop-tastrophe, Rise of the Planet of the Poop, Poop-stravaganza...you get the idea.
Any one of them would have been sufficient to let my loyal readers know, I am having a problem with poop!
Well, not with
my poop, with
Ben's poop. Or to be more specific, the fact that even though it's been almost a month since we started potty training, he has only gone poop in the toilet ONCE.
Yes you read that right. For the last 3 1/2 weeks, almost every time he has had to go poop he has gone in his pants.
His older brother, Jarom, didn't like going poop in the toilet either, but he would save it up until I put his pull-up on him at night, and then go. It was annoying, but it wasn't as completely disgusting as going in underwear and pants, which I have to swish out in the toilet, and then wash in hot water. I have a perpetual load of laundry in the washing machine, just from Ben's accidents. And for those of you who know how much I hate doing laundry, that's a big deal.
I figured that Ben would get a clue after his first poop accident, just like he did when he wet his pants. He didn't like how it felt, and decided that he would much rather go in the toilet. And, really, he's almost an expert about going pee in the toilet.
He will usually tell me when he has to go, even if he has to stop playing, or come in from outside, or whatever, take care of business, and then go back to whatever he was doing. Lots of times he'll go completely on his own, without even telling me first--the only sign being that he's naked from the waist down, and I need to help him put his shorts back on.
Of course, he will have
occasional accidents, but what kid doesn't? But he got the peeing thing so quickly, like within a week, that I really thought that this was going to be so much easier than it was with Jarom. So close, and yet sooooooo far away.
Yesterday was the last straw though. I was in my room, when he came in, sans underwear or shorts, with a guilty look on his face, and poop on his hands. He had taken off his underwear and shorts, and actually peed in the toilet, and
then gone in the playroom and pooped on the floor!!!!!
I cleaned him up, cleaned up the floor (
I swear, we should have stock in Resolve pet stain carper cleaner), and then put him in time out. I didn't scream, and I didn't spank him, but he was in time out the whole time it took me to clean everything up.
Usually, whenever he has an accident he is no longer allowed to go out and play, or ride bikes (
his favorite thing to do) because I want him realize that it's a big deal, but also because its a natural consequence of his behavior. If he pees or poops in his clothes, then he has used up his clean pants for that day, so he just gets new underwear. And he
can't go outside in just underwear. (
OK, he would go outside in just his underwear, and be perfectly fine with it, but then the neighbors look at me weird.)
I thought that would get through to him eventually, but, so far, it seems like it's brand new info every single time he has an "incident". He gets upset that he can't go outside, and tells me that he's sorry that he had an accident, and that he will tell me the next time he has to go poop, but then nothing actually changes, and I'm stuck swishing underwear out in the toilet.
The one time he
did go poop in the toilet it wasn't because he told me, but because I spotted him hiding in the corner, looking very intent, and I knew that he was about ready, so I whisked him onto the toilet and didn't let him get off until he had produced.
We still gave him the truck we had as a reward, and the Hershey Kisses, and made a big deal about it, and I really thought (
again) that maybe that's all he needed, to see how it worked one time--get over his mental block, or something. But then he went poop in his pull-up that very night. So, nada.
After yesterday's incident I took the reward truck back, and told him that he had to go poop in the toilet to get it back, but I don't know if that will have any effect. Or maybe I am being too harsh. But this has
got to stop.
Anyone out there have anything that worked with
their boys? Cause I am seriously out of ideas.
Boy, this is probably more thinking about poop than you've done in a while, huh? Aren't you glad you read
this post? :o)
