The Poop Scoop (again)

Poop withholding.  uggggg. It's a killer! Anyone heard of it or dealt with it?  It's pretty simple. Basically the potty trainee does not GO 2! EVER! Apparently 1 in 5 children potty training go through it. And lucky me Conner did it. It was crazy and hard and stressful and not awesome at all and included dr visits and everything. (he once went 7 days with out pooping an ounce! SEVEN DAYS!) So since 1 in 5 go through it I figured unless I had 6 kids (which I was sure would never happened since I never wanted to potty train another human being as long as I lived, let alone 5 more) my odds said I had served my sentence. Right? Right? WRONG! My sweet cute fun little Sophie is now holding in the stinks. and boy does it stink!

first day potty of training!!!

I did the 3 day potty training method (totally recommend!!!) mid January and she did beautifully with #1. It was amazing! But the 2...not so much. So I've been doing a lot of research of how to help her and let me tell ya, everyone's got an opinion. Here's what I've learned thus far: ahem

 Poop withholding is always about control. Unless the child is terrified to go. Poop withholders are always just scared.  Just ignore it. By you not caring the child will not be stressed about it and get over it. If you ignore it and don't nip it in the bud then it could turn into a life long psychological problem and they might become the rooftop killer. Tell your child that poop is stinky and gross and make a big deal about it being icky and yucky but don't ever talk about poop in a negative way. It will make the child even more afraid of it. Put a pull up or diaper back on them and let them go in it. Never put them back in diapers or pull ups once potty trained, it just confuses them. When they do poop have a party! Wear hats, do a dance, eat ice cream, throw a parade, ride a pony, buy them a car, but don't make a big deal about it because pooping is what is expected of them.
Give them mineral oil. Don't give anyone under the age of 12 mineral oil. Give them milk of magnesia. Don't give anyone under the age of 8 milk of magnesia. Give them Miralax. Don't give them Miralax. It's probably anthrax.

Thanks google search people.

All joking aside, I don't think anyone who has never gone through it can fully understand just how stressful it is. If I tell anyone about it most people tend to brush it off and say "oh. That sound's weird, I've never heard of that. It will pass I'm sure. She's gotta go sometime!" and I know it will pass, but people don't realize how hard it is to get to it passing (haha no pun intended. really!) First of all it is probably pretty unhealthy to keep the stinks inside so I stress about that, but the hardest is the pain that the kids have to endure. There's the waking up in the middle of the night crying that her bum hurts, or her tummy hurts, and wants me to fix it and I as a mommy have nothing I can do but tell her to poop. There's the sitting on the potty for 1 1/2 hours straight in the middle of the night while she tenses up straight as a board to hold it in every time she feels an urge. There's the bum rashes, and the hiding and shame when she finally can't hold it and has an accident in her kitty underwear. It kind of breaks my mommy heart. And it doesn't help anything that it's tax season so my tax accountant husband is non existent and I'm dealing with it as a single momma which  is pretty fun.

 

So wish us luck, say some prayers, send us some pixie dust and let's hope we can get this little girl over her big fear of the big 2! (and if you are a 1 in 5 who has gone through this and have any tips I'd be happy to hear them!)