Potty training HELP!!

[jsw4]

I need help. I am desperate right now.  I have a 3½ year old boy who will not poop on the potty!  We have tried everything! We reward him when he does poop. The only way we can get him to poop on the potty is if we make him sit there for a long time and he eventually just happens to go. Problem is he is not the type of kid who poops at a certain time everyday.  We went to just underwear but then after two weeks straight of him pooping in his underwear, we went back to pull ups because I was sick of cleaning his underwear out everyday. I just felt like we were getting nowhere with that because he didn't mind pooping in his underwear because he would get cleaned up right away.  Just the other day me and my husband were having a talk with him about pooping on the potty and AS WE WERE TALKING about it to him, he POOPED HIS PANTS!!! I am having another baby in June and would really really like him to be fully potty trained by then because I also have a boy turning two in a month that is in diapers.  Any suggestions??

[larzanna]

What if you have him help clean it up when he goes in his pants? Not in a "you are in trouble" kind of way, but in a matter of fact, "well, when we poop in our pants we clean it up" kind of way.  I bet he can use a small brush to get out those stains in a bucket of water...might turn him off from using his pants.

[jsw4]

I read about people doing that and thought about trying that.  I guess when I read it online before I was thinking of them going in and cleaning themselves up too and I was thinking that he would make a bigger mess getting his pants off and trying to wipe himself. But I never thought about having him do the actually cleaning of the underwear.

[~Amy~]

If they were my boys, I'd back off the older one for a few days and try potty training the younger one. My son PT'd so easily at 23 months...before the stubborn phase kicked in too much. I'd suspect that seeing his younger brother pooping on the potty would be pretty good motivation (and as a bonus, you'll hopefully have them both out of diapers before the new baby arrives). And definitely at 3.5, he's plenty old enough to help clean himself up when he poops in his pants.

[jsw4]

I was thinking about starting to potty train my younger but almost scared to.  Some people say starting too early back fires sometimes and I don't know if that is why I am having a hard time with my older.  I think it will be easier potty training my younger one because as soon as he poops he runs up and tells me because he wants to be changed. My older one has never been bothered sitting in poop. I always knew we would have trouble with him.  Maybe I will just start trying to training the younger. That would be nice to have them both potty trained before the baby!