How can I get my 3-year-old to poop in the potty?

Question

My son just turned 3 and he won't poop in the potty. When he poops in his underwear, he goes to the bathroom, takes his underwear off, dumps the poop in the potty, and flushes the toilet. If some spills on the floor, he runs and gets a tissue to pick it up and flush it down the toilet and washes his hands. Afterwards, he comes and tells me that he has yuckied (that's what we call it.)

Yes, he learned this from watching how I get him clean. Will he poop in the potty when he's ready or do I continue with discipline even though it doesn't seem to work? Yes I've tried incentives.

Answer 1

Jelly beans.

1 for a pee. 2 for a poop. Sounds like you might need to add an additional 1 for every time either happens "in the potty."

I recommend Jelly Bellies because they are small, so have less sugar, and are very colorful so you can do a few activities with them, too.

Is it sugar? Yes. Does the overall benefit of autonomy for the LO and less stress for you outweigh that? Yes. Just make sure you are brushing and when you get three consecutive poops in the potty then stop the Jelly Bellies.

Answer 2

Here is what we did. We figured that our son couldn't make the connection between his need to poop and the potty, yet. So we put him on the potty several times a day. Eventually he would poop by coincidence in the potty. Then we made a big deal out of it. Praising him, celebrating and high-fiving. That got the message across pretty quick.

There were occasional accidents of course, but he would soon ask for the potty himself for number 2. He would continue to be excited about it and we kept praising him. Good luck!