poo woes

[Boot]

I'm looking for some ideas about how to proceed with my almost 3 year old ds. He has been pee potty trained for about 6 months but he still does a huge, messy, uncontainable poo in his pull up every morning. It is a shower job every day. If I get to him in time to take the pull up off first he will do his poo in the toilet (usually later in the day) or skip that day and do an even bigger one the next day. I have been working on his diet to try to get his poos more normal in consistency but nothing seems to help. It's not that easy to get to him before he does the poo as I also have a 2 week old. He has a potty in his room but won't use it for poos. I have two questions. Can anyone recommend a brand of diaper or pull up that might contain the mess better? And how can I encourage him to do the poo in the toilet? We haven't tried charts or bribes. Anyone?

PS Sorry about the gross nature of this question but I reckon if you're on the toddler you can handle anything!

[pbjmama]

I think it took my ds about 8 months from pee trained to semi-poop trained, we had a relapse over the holidays but thing are good again. I finally found the signal with him when one time he said his tummy hurt right before pooping. After about a week of reminders he understands that tummy hurts = go to the potty and poop. We also talked about how if you poop in the potty you can go right back to playing but if you poop in your underwear it takes time for mom to clean you up, you have to put your underwear in the wash, etc.

All of that said, from what you describe it sounds like your son may have a food allergy or intolerance. You don't say what you have tried but I bet the mamas here or on the allergies forum can help you with sorting those out. The first thing I would do would be total dairy elimination.