We are about a month into our potty training adventure, so it is probably time for an update. We have good days and bad days. There is really no other way to say it than that. He will do great for a few days, having either no or just one accident, only to be followed by days with several accidents.
He is doing great with the pee training, with only an occasional accident. The poop training is a totally different beast. If you don’t like the word poop you might want to stop reading this post, because like us, you will be elbow deep in it by the end. I hate the phrase BM or bowel movement and this is a PG blog, so I will call it poop.
To get the full story, I need to give some history. Both my boys have a constipation issue. We thought Jack’s issue was due to formula and tube feeding, but we just may have a tendency in our gene pool toward constipation. Will has been holding his poop on and off for a year, a condition called encopresis. It is adding a layer of complexity to an already complex process in potty training. He has been taking Myralax in the morning to get his poops soft enough so he can’t hold them, and Ex-lax at bedtime to help get him to poop.
We were doing well and then he started holding his poops. He wouldn’t poop in the potty or in his underwear, so about every 20 minutes some poop would squeak out in his underwear. It was a battle and a horrible series of days. After meeting with our pediatrician we decided to up his Myralax and just keep trying.
As with anything it works well for a while, then there are bumps in the road. He starting pooping in the potty again with a couple accidents a day, but things were moving through. Then it seems like his poop got more firm, and the holding resumed. He has surprising bowel strength and can pretty much hold back most forms (I warned you, lots of poop.) It is such a back and forth daily battle. Jim or I have to sit with him and really help him get the poop out. Each time I think of a song that my friend found called The Poopsmith Song by Over The Rhine. The chorus is “Poop in the potty, Poop goes in the potty.” So funny and at times like that I need a good laugh.
Today Jim added to our arsenal of poop tools a few books for toddlers on pooping in the potty. I will share the titles in our next update if we feel like they helped. Long-term perspective is easily lost during this battle but I have to remind myself that we are making slow and steady progress and with any luck he will be poop potty trained by September when school starts.
