Pooping at the playground

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No suggestions, but I have a friend whose kid used to do that. He did grow out of it eventually (sometime when he was 4), but it was a pretty gross phase. Hang in there!

I am amazed my kid has a kindred poop spirit and I do hope it is a phase! It is super gross. After months of trying to stick with the "no going back to diapers" stuff from the potty training books we just had to go back to strategic pull ups for our own sanity. I couldn't scrub poop out of any more underwear, I just couldn't do it. Thanks so much for your support!

[Anonymous]

Have you tried putting a slide and/or swing in your bathroom?

[Anonymous]

Lose the pull ups lady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried putting a slide and/or swing in your bathroom?

I love you, this is my favorite suggestion ever. You win the internet. (Unless you are being serious, in which case I will say my bathroom can't fit two people brushing their teeth at the same time, so no that is not an option we can try, but thanks!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried putting a slide and/or swing in your bathroom?

+1 the little tykes probably would fit in the bath tub. He can be close by.

[Anonymous]

Why not give him pull-ups when he goes to the park and accept that that’s where he poops? Our pediatrician said to stop the poop struggle and tell our daughter just to let us know when she needs a diaper for poop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where does he go to poop otherwise?

Also please tell me I misread and you aren’t taking your kid to the park commando and letting him poop, or setting up a potty at the playground for him to use.

NP - have you spent much time at a playground frequented by 2-3 year olds? We have a travel potty we bring, and so, it seems does everyone else. You set it up in a little out of the way spot if the kid has to go. The bolded is NBD, and super, super common in neighborhood playgrounds frequented by toddlers.

Having the kid run around naked, I agree would be inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried putting a slide and/or swing in your bathroom?

+1 the little tykes probably would fit in the bath tub. He can be close by.

In all seriousness I’ve used a doll house item to mimic an object that had become a discriminative stimulus for a specific behavior in order to transfer saliency of the object from one environment to another. See https://www.trubxd.com/post/salience for clarification.

Try giving the child a small but realistic looking slide or swing to play with while sitting on the toilet.

Maybe something like this that they can play with:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194259173416?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338590836&toolid=10044&customid=5978933d75041fd4d2ccf1d402d7d379

[Anonymous]

I know it goes against all potty training advice, but I would probably just have him go to the playground daily and accept that that is where he's pooping for now and revisit in a month or two.

My potty training anecdote as to why: My kid dug her heels in and ONLY pooped in her night diaper. Usually right before bed, right after I'd had her sit on the potty. At first I tried all kinds of things to change it and nothing worked. Eventually I just gave up and put her back in cloth diapers for an hour or two at night on the strict understanding that they were poop only not for pee (since she's big enough they now leak) which let me off the hook for being annoyed about the expense and ecological impact of two diapers every night. We did that without any comment except that she had to wear a "poop diaper" after her bath and before bed and only got switched into night diapers right before lying down to go to sleep. Then one time she asked for a poop diaper in the morning (rather than just pooping in her night diaper), and when she got it she occasionally asked for one before nap time. At that point I started with the bribery since she clearly had control and knowledge of when she needed to go. So far: I have bought her doing her nighttime poop *next* to the potty (while wearing a diaper) with a mini marshmallow and after a few days of that two daytime poops actually in the potty with a full marshmallow. She's still choosing poop diapers every evening but I'm beginning to have hope that some day I will actually get to stop changing diapers.

Tl;dr Sometimes a break in the potty training stress for caregivers and kids actually helps you make progress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried putting a slide and/or swing in your bathroom?

+1 the little tykes probably would fit in the bath tub. He can be close by.

In all seriousness I’ve used a doll house item to mimic an object that had become a discriminative stimulus for a specific behavior in order to transfer saliency of the object from one environment to another. See https://www.trubxd.com/post/salience for clarification.

Try giving the child a small but realistic looking slide or swing to play with while sitting on the toilet.

Maybe something like this that they can play with:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194259173416?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338590836&toolid=10044&customid=5978933d75041fd4d2ccf1d402d7d379

This sounds crazy scientific, and Peppa Pig's Playground Playset is like $12 on Amazon, so why the heck not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried putting a slide and/or swing in your bathroom?

+1 the little tykes probably would fit in the bath tub. He can be close by.

In all seriousness I’ve used a doll house item to mimic an object that had become a discriminative stimulus for a specific behavior in order to transfer saliency of the object from one environment to another. See https://www.trubxd.com/post/salience for clarification.

Try giving the child a small but realistic looking slide or swing to play with while sitting on the toilet.

Maybe something like this that they can play with:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194259173416?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338590836&toolid=10044&customid=5978933d75041fd4d2ccf1d402d7d379

This sounds crazy scientific, and Peppa Pig's Playground Playset is like $12 on Amazon, so why the heck not.

That’s what 20+ years of teaching ABA gets you. I can’t make specific recommendations, obviously, just stating I’ve done it before and it worked. Thinking back I think we had to take the item to the initial environment first (in this example the playground) and pair it with that environment first before transferring it to a novel environment. Don’t listen to me though, I’m just an anon on dcum. Peppa Pig is cheap though..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not give him pull-ups when he goes to the park and accept that that’s where he poops? Our pediatrician said to stop the poop struggle and tell our daughter just to let us know when she needs a diaper for poop.

This is where we have landed for the moment, we just put him in pullups and accept that it will happen. But it sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not give him pull-ups when he goes to the park and accept that that’s where he poops? Our pediatrician said to stop the poop struggle and tell our daughter just to let us know when she needs a diaper for poop.

This is where we have landed for the moment, we just put him in pullups and accept that it will happen. But it sucks.

The more he does it at the playground before you address it, the more difficult it will be to fix. Find someone to help you if needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried putting a slide and/or swing in your bathroom?

I love you, this is my favorite suggestion ever. You win the internet. (Unless you are being serious, in which case I will say my bathroom can't fit two people brushing their teeth at the same time, so no that is not an option we can try, but thanks!)

NP. I know it's crazy, but this is 3 feet long, a foot and a half wide, and just over 2 feet high. Might it fit under the sink?

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Tikes-First-Slide-Blue/dp/B008MH5H4M?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not give him pull-ups when he goes to the park and accept that that’s where he poops? Our pediatrician said to stop the poop struggle and tell our daughter just to let us know when she needs a diaper for poop.

This is where we have landed for the moment, we just put him in pullups and accept that it will happen. But it sucks.

It does and it doesn't. It sucks because you feel like he's right next to being potty trained except for this one teeny tiny problem where he poops in his underwear at the playground everyday.

Potty training is hard. It's a minority of kids who get through it without at least one set back. This is yours. It's incredibly frustrating but it's also incredibly common (not this specific problem which is a little unusual, but poop withholding during training is so, so common).

This will either resolve on its own or will be helped along by a change in routine. Preschool tends to be a big motivator for resolving these sorts of potty training roadblocks.