26mo DD can't poop in the potty. Advice needed please :)

[Momtotherue]

My 2 year old showed interest in her potty chair very early, and we have always been open and accommodating about it. We don't force her to use it if she doesn't want to, and I haven't really started "trying" to potty train her. I've been kind of lazy about it and letting her go her own pace really, which is probably for the best anyways. I don't want to push her before she's ready. She goes before bath or showers and sometimes she'll join us in the bathroom and go with us on her potty. Other times, she'll completely take off her pants and diaper, pee in her potty and dump it out in the toilet and flush it. She even wipes. She's definitely got the idea down. 

She's at the point where if she isn't wearing a diaper (she's too skinny for pull ups or for underwear since she's all of 20lbs :-/) she'll pee in the potty and she'll let us know she has to pee or poop. However, whenever she sits on the potty to poop she gets nervous and can't go. I helped her down many times and when she said she had to go I helped her back up, but eventually she asked for a diaper and I put one on her. Within about 5 minutes, she didn't want to sit down in a chair and told me she'd pooped, so I know she really did have to go. 

My question is, where do I go from here? I feel like if I started being proactive about it we could probably make a lot of progress toward keeping her out of diapers, but I don't know how to approach the poop issue. I know it's pretty common. I don't want to create a bigger problem about it. Also, I'm 11 weeks pregnant, so I worry that when the baby comes she'll feel the need to regress back into diapers if she completely potty trains close to the end of my pregnancy. 

I don't mind the diapers, and I'm not in any rush, but I don't want to do her harm by waiting too long either. 

Can you all offer some advice? :)

[~Adorkable~]

where i would go is straight to http://www.jamieglowacki.com and download her amazing 15 dollar book. it has whole chapaer on nothng but poop, i think she even has a radio show about poop tomorrow (tues) at noon

she is down to earth and frank and explains things in real workable ways. 

[~Adorkable~]

here is the link to the show tomorrow, this lady has been potty training folks for 12 years. she knows her shit, or poop as the case may be

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ohcrap/2013/02/12/the-drama-of-the-poop

[skycheattraffic]

Does she poop in the little potty? Your comment about helping her down sounds like she tries to poop in the toilet. Toilets are hard for little toddlers since they are high up and usually their feet dangle, making it hard to bear down. They can also be spooked by splashback and that may make some kids reluctant to poop in the toilet for a while. If she's pooping in a little potty, I'd stick with that. If she's afraid to poop in the little potty then you may be able to help her work on pooping on the potty with the diaper on and eventually phasing it out slowly. I apologize if all this is old hat to you but I wasn't sure about the details. Good luck! I have a 23 month old who will happily use the potty if I put her on but won't initiate. I'm 16 weeks pregnant so I also feel you on not wanting two in diapers

[nstewart]

Originally Posted by skycheattraffic 

Does she poop in the little potty? Your comment about helping her down sounds like she tries to poop in the toilet. Toilets are hard for little toddlers since they are high up and usually their feet dangle, making it hard to bear down. They can also be spooked by splashback and that may make some kids reluctant to poop in the toilet for a while. If she's pooping in a little potty, I'd stick with that. If she's afraid to poop in the little potty then you may be able to help her work on pooping on the potty with the diaper on and eventually phasing it out slowly. I apologize if all this is old hat to you but I wasn't sure about the details. Good luck! I have a 23 month old who will happily use the potty if I put her on but won't initiate. I'm 16 weeks pregnant so I also feel you on not wanting two in diapers

Yes, I'd agree with this.  You can put her in a diaper and then get her to sit on the little potty so she gets comfortable sitting on it and pooping.  Then you can open the diaper on the potty while she poops (but it's still under her so she's sitting on it), then eventually you can get rid of the diaper all together.

Also, the issue might be that she needs/wants to squat to poop.  If so, you could try a Baby Bjorn Little Potty as it's small enough she can squat over it (or the $5 Ikea potty which is about the same size).

Good luck!