I have 3 kids and I now have 3 episodes about poo that are worth telling, so here it goes…
When Miss Z was about 2½ she was very bothered about poo. I hadn’t started with potty training yet because I had just had Mr A and life was hectic, but she was definitely aware of what was going on down there.
She would walk to a corner or hide behind a table when she was pooing and then, until I changed her nappy, she would not sit down. No poo on her precious bum cheeks, oh no.
We were on a Christmas holiday to South Africa and had just arrived at the car rental place at Port Elizabeth’s airport. There were at least 5 people in front on us in the queue. I am an impatient person by nature, so waiting around with your hubby and two small children in the early evening after a whole day travelling was not my cup of tea.
And yet, as Murphy’s law would have it, it got worse. Our turn came and they went to get a couple of car seats of different age groups to see which one would be more suitable for Miss Z. Just in that moment, Miss Z pooed in her nappy and of course that’s when she refused to sit down. I didn’t want to look bad forcing my child to sit down on the chair amidst screams and cries and so it was that instead of 5 people there were 6… Before we got our rental car, with a fresh nappy on Miss Z’s bum 😉
Boys just don’t have this sort of problem. I tried potty training Mr A for the first time also around 2½. And he just wasn’t bothered. Nappy, pants, same thing. Potty? No thanks. And so I waited until he was 3. But by then we had just a little over 2 months to get him trained to start Nursery school, so the pressure was on. He was great with wees – much less accidents than Miss Z had had.
But alas, no poo in the potty. We moved to the loo fairly quickly and he was fine for weeing… But no poos. He would wait until we put a nappy on him for his afternoon nap. And when we removed the nappy for the nap, he would wait until the night nappy.
Most days he would do it just as he woke up, before I had time to grab him and sit him on the loo. I was stressing out and considering bribes like chocolate buttons or jelly beans.
With one month to go (and Miss A’s imminent arrival as well) I took up my sister-in-law’s advice. I found the e-book “Poo goes to Pooland” online and I printed it.
Both my nanny and I took every opportunity to read him the story or to just talk about it. Preferably when he was sitting in the loo. I was so sceptical about this book. Mostly because Mr A was at a stage when I didn’t think he grasped the meaning of stories in books yet.
But repetition was key in this case. And success did come!! And Mr A was very proud of himself. I remember my nanny texting me at work to tell me the good news. And we had no more problems with Mr A being afraid of pooing in the loo.
The most recent story is with Miss A. She’s nearly 8 months now and in the last few days a new pattern emerged. Her morning routine is such that I feed her milk, then she stays in her cot a little while watching a video on my phone whilst I make breakfast downstairs. I then give her breakfast, let her play a little and then change her nappy before putting her in bed again.
This new thing is that when I change her first nappy of the day, there’s normally only wee in it. And as soon as I put a fresh nappy on, she poos in it. The first couple of times I thought it was just a coincidence, but after that I thought “nope, that’s it, gotta think of something”.
So this morning, I wiped her and instead of putting a new nappy on, I kept the same nappy but I put a couple of sheets of toilet paper between her and the wet nappy. I figured it must be the feeling of dryness and comfort that makes her poo. And lo and behold, she pooed. I did the same the next day and the same thing happened. So there you have it – an inexpensive way of saving an extra nappy a day – for those fussy bum bears in your family 😉