Anal

It is true, Hadleigh is anal. In the truest sense of the word, my daughter has a poop problem. The problem is she doesn't like to poop and holds it in...and you thought I was anal! The word is this is a somewhat normal problem, but it still painful.

We have tried lots of things. Sometimes she will hold it in for several days and we have to use extreme measures to get rid of poop. Before this problem developed (over the last several months) she had been great at going poop on the potty before her bath. But at this point we are just thrilled when she goes at all. This has been a battle with potty training, though I decided early on that we were going to roll with the punches on the poop front. I just want her to poop daily and once we have that going I will worry about getting it in the potty. This is one reason why we are keeping her in diapers during sleepy time.

We have tried all sorts of things...sitting on the potty for 10 minutes before bed, rewards, etc. She knows she will get ice cream if she poops in the potty, but although she LOVES ice cream she is not motivated to sit on the potty.

She is so anal that she will suck her little tummy in and squeeze her butt cheeks together and moan and moan before she will poop. It is SO ridiculous. When it comes to this we generally have to MAKE her sit on the potty through much screaming and of course she poops...we do a dance, make a big production, give ice cream, etc.

Today we were at the pool when the moaning began. We ran to the bathroom and I had to hold her down on the pot while she screamed to get down. After about 8 minutes she pooped, we celebrated, she got ice cream, major deal. SHe is always thrilled when she poops, it is the anticipation of it that is difficule. Just an hour after the pool incident she had to poop again and it was the same scenario...MUCH screaming for about 5 minutes and then poop.

Today was a good day. I try to make the poop on the pot as fun as possible...but sometimes it is just silly and we just have to make her sit there, even when she doesn't want to. We don't know what to do...other than what we are doing. I just hope it works itself out soon.