We have a mostly potty-trained 3-year-old (still requiring help with wiping and clean up) that we will shortly be transitioning from an enclosed crib to a twin mattress on the floor. Currently we keep her in her diaper during quiet time (she doesn't sleep) but along with the transition to a cageless twin mattress we are also planning on switching her to undies during quiet time and telling her to let us know (through the monitor) when she needs to go potty (otherwise she shouldn't get out of bed, or at the least not out of her room).
The problem is that she currently (while in diaper) holds poop in until it's quiet time, and then lets it out as an excuse for us to get her up (even if it's only temporarily). We've tried sitting her on the potty for a long time before quiet time to no avail. Even if she does poop before quiet time she still forces even the smallest stool you've ever seen out to tell us she pooped (and thus get out of quiet time temporarily). I forsee that if she's in big girl undies then she will undoubtedly keep telling us she needs to poop then not pooping on the potty, only to throw a fit if we put her back in quiet time because "I need to poop!" In other words she has learned to use poop as an an excuse to get out of bed and we believe it will only continue when she's in undies.
So my question is, what approach do we take so that;
- She doesn't simply get out of quiet time whenever she yells "I need to poop!" and then sit on the potty as long as mom/dad tolerate it.
- She doesn't accidently (or purposely?) soil herself because we didn't get her to the potty when she really needs to go.
I'm thinking of telling her I'll check on her every 30 minutes, and sitting her on the potty for 5 minutes, then back in quiet time but wanted to get other people's thoughts.
FWIW I'm looking for a strategy to follow once she's in undies during quiet time, not necessarily how to address the current situation (though the given answer seems to imply we should fix the poop issue now, so that's one approach).
