Potty Trained DCB Pooping in Pants

[Suzie_Homemaker]

It's a process. And while having 4 accidents in one day takes time, he's had a whole three years of being cleaned up. Three years of habit to break is going to take time and consistency for him to believe that you aren't ever going to be stepping in and cleaning him up. This is his responsibility now going forward, for ever.

The fact he opted to not poop in day care and wait until he's home, should show you that he has full and total control over his bowel movements. Sure, this day he went 4 times but to be honest, he can only hold it so long!

So what if another parent showed up during the last incident of the day? You were busy dealing with a child in the toilet which is higher priority than an adult hoping for a usual interaction with another adult. I'm sure that parent would prefer your focus to be on the child during business hours which means sometimes, the adults have to be adults and understand your priorities.

At the moment, this is a power struggle. He knows you can't stop him pooping in his underwear. You know he has full control and he's just choosing not to use the bathroom and soil himself because he's not entirely convinced you won't clean him up as you would a diapered child.

Be consistent and keep going. I've not lost a battle of will with a three year old yet. If you don't keep going, it's just geography in the sense you'll be going through it all from the beginning again, in 6 months time or in the future. It's going to be just as unsanitary then.

Don't put a diaper on him. That's the adults making the decision that it's too inconvenient for them to follow through with teaching him something. Keep going.

And since he clearly knows what he needs to do and was talking you though the steps, stop interacting with him so much during the process because you are rewarding the accident with your full attention. Once he's cleaned himself up to the point you don't need to supervise for hygiene reasons, walk away and leave him to redress himself.

Focus on everyone but him as much as possible during the clean up. He's meant to be missing out. It's meant to be inconvenient. He isn't meant to have your full attention for the duration.