Pooping at the playground

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Not a downtown DC bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
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.

Yeah, we're hoping he can to go a school in January where he'd need to be fully potty trained. I'm pretty sure they won't accept "he's fine if you don't let him go outside!"

[Anonymous]

Is he getting any exercise at home? If you're in an apartment is there like a basement or something where he can run back and forth in a hallway? Or just put in front on the sidewalk, then go back up to "go"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Not a downtown DC bathroom.

In the shower or tub? Or do people in downtown DC just use washcloths and the spray attachment to the kitchen sink? :)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Not a downtown DC bathroom.

In the shower or tub? Or do people in downtown DC just use washcloths and the spray attachment to the kitchen sink? :)

I'm so skeptical that this would fit in a standard sized bathtub. Also, once it is there, you have to move it multiple times a day so people can shower? There must be a better way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 2.5 yo has been potty trained for pee for several months, with very few accidents. We can't get him to poop in the potty or the toilet. He doesn't generally poop in his underwear, unless we are at a playground. He will poop every single time we go to the playground, sometimes multiple times. If we haven't been to the playground in a while for some reason, he will hold it until we go to one. We've been putting him in pullups at the playground because we just can't deal with all the poopy underwear. It doesn't matter if he's in underwear, pullup or commando, he will poop. We bring a potty with us to the playground and SET IT UP RIGHT THERE and he'll poop in his pants anyway. We've tried bribing him with high-quality things. Do we just keep waiting? It's been months. Is there something else we can do?

My kid did this but didnt just do it at playgrounds or withhold. It was VERY frustrating because sometimes we would only have 45minutes at the playground and 10min in he needs to go and then it was changing him (he wasnt potty trained at the time) in the backseat and that took 10min to walk to the car, change, walk back and then it made the rest of the play seem too short. He even started doing it once he was potty trained. He isnt 100% out of the woods with it and we have to bring a portable potty anywhere we go. He is good about listening to his body but if he hasnt pooped in 24 hours, you get him running around and poop there it is. He does wait for a toilet but sometimes, like at the pool, we take him home because the pool bathrooms are gross. Btw, he is a 1-2/day pooper so he isnt withholding at all.

Your kid must need a bit of excitement and activity to go over the threshold of withholding. Its like coffee for some people or anxiety pee for some people.

[Anonymous]

He is not ready to be out of diapers. It's that simple. If he can not poop in the toilet all of the time, he goes back into diapers. It's not punitive just practical.

This is him telling you he's not ready to be in underwear in public (and 2.5 is young, this is likely something he can't control).

[Anonymous]

I used to get the urge to go every time I went to Barnes and Noble in my 20s. The playground is a poop trigger for your kid OP. Stop taking him for a while as others have suggested. And quit with carting the plastic potty around. Gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to get the urge to go every time I went to Barnes and Noble in my 20s. The playground is a poop trigger for your kid OP. Stop taking him for a while as others have suggested. And quit with carting the plastic potty around. Gross.

What is with this anti-plastic potty thing? It's so helpful when they are little and much less gross than having them wear diapers. OP, ignore these fools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP. I have never ever seen this. close-in MD suburbs fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is not ready to be out of diapers. It's that simple. If he can not poop in the toilet all of the time, he goes back into diapers. It's not punitive just practical.

This is him telling you he's not ready to be in underwear in public (and 2.5 is young, this is likely something he can't control).

I agree with this. Keep doing underwear at home but have him wear a diaper to the playground. Bring the portable potty as well. If he poops in his diaper, explain you'll have to go home to change it because he's too big to change it on the playground. But let him know that if he uses the portable potty to poop, or if he pooped before you go, then you could spend longer at the playground. Eventually he will choose this over going home early each time. It probably won't even take that long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to get the urge to go every time I went to Barnes and Noble in my 20s. The playground is a poop trigger for your kid OP. Stop taking him for a while as others have suggested. And quit with carting the plastic potty around. Gross.

What is with this anti-plastic potty thing? It's so helpful when they are little and much less gross than having them wear diapers. OP, ignore these fools.

I have never seen this and honestly it's disgusting. I don't want to see anyone pooping in a public place. A kid pooping his pants regularly is not potty trained and needs a diaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to get the urge to go every time I went to Barnes and Noble in my 20s. The playground is a poop trigger for your kid OP. Stop taking him for a while as others have suggested. And quit with carting the plastic potty around. Gross.

What is with this anti-plastic potty thing? It's so helpful when they are little and much less gross than having them wear diapers. OP, ignore these fools.

I have never seen this and honestly it's disgusting. I don't want to see anyone pooping in a public place. A kid pooping his pants regularly is not potty trained and needs a diaper.

Pooping his pants AND stop having pee accidents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to get the urge to go every time I went to Barnes and Noble in my 20s. The playground is a poop trigger for your kid OP. Stop taking him for a while as others have suggested. And quit with carting the plastic potty around. Gross.

What is with this anti-plastic potty thing? It's so helpful when they are little and much less gross than having them wear diapers. OP, ignore these fools.

I do think the portable potties are gross for poop. I also think the push to potty train earlier and earlier, and to do it fast so that families can keep going out as much as possible, is what drives their popularity. We never used a portable potty because we stuck close to home when potty training and also didn't rush it -- we were just never in a position where my kid was young and inexperienced enough with potty training that they couldn't make it to a nearby bathroom to go. I didn't really consider her potty trained until she was capable of realizing she needed to go with enough warning for us to get to a bathroom. And yes, that meant that for a while we had to stick to playgrounds at rec centers with toilets, or close to home. It was like 6 months -- not a huge sacrifice.

The upside is that my kid never pooped herself at the playground. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to get the urge to go every time I went to Barnes and Noble in my 20s. The playground is a poop trigger for your kid OP. Stop taking him for a while as others have suggested. And quit with carting the plastic potty around. Gross.

What is with this anti-plastic potty thing? It's so helpful when they are little and much less gross than having them wear diapers. OP, ignore these fools.

I do think the portable potties are gross for poop. I also think the push to potty train earlier and earlier, and to do it fast so that families can keep going out as much as possible, is what drives their popularity. We never used a portable potty because we stuck close to home when potty training and also didn't rush it -- we were just never in a position where my kid was young and inexperienced enough with potty training that they couldn't make it to a nearby bathroom to go. I didn't really consider her potty trained until she was capable of realizing she needed to go with enough warning for us to get to a bathroom. And yes, that meant that for a while we had to stick to playgrounds at rec centers with toilets, or close to home. It was like 6 months -- not a huge sacrifice.

The upside is that my kid never pooped herself at the playground. YMMV.

I am the OP - we only started potty training because my little guy showed interest - he wanted to be like his big brother! He sat down himself and started peeing! He pooped without prompting and all by himself one glorious time before the proverbial shit hit the fan. (No real shit has hit any actual fan - yet.) I agree he isn't potty trained yet - I don't claim he is. That's that problem.

Now we've been at this for 6 months or more now, and we've stalled. None of our local playgrounds have public bathrooms that are regularly open, so saying "avoid the playground for a while" is basically saying "deprive your child of outdoor time, or travel very long distances." We don't have a yard he can play in, public playgrounds are it. So he stays in a pull-up at the playground because every other option is too gross, and we keep trying to get him to go before we leave and at other times. And we bring the fold-up travel potty because at least if one day he decides he wants to go in it, it will be there as an option - I don't get why people think this is weird? Like someone else said, this is pretty normal at all our playgrounds, we're not the only ones.

Anyway, "normal" potty training stuff isn't working, so I'm looking for the kind of advice only strangers on the internet can give. Or, a recommendation to someone I can pay to help me solve this. (And I've ordered a dollhouse-sized playground set that will now go in the bathroom at home because why the heck not it can't possibly make things worse.)