4 year old still asks for a diaper for #2

amother

Linen

Sun, Sep 11 2016, 10:01 pm

My ds was toilet trained at 2 and a half years old, except that he refused to have bowel movements in the toilet. He would ask for a diaper every time he needed to make #2. I didn't want to refuse the diaper or push too much (no pun intended), because I was worried he would hold it in and become very constipated. That happened with a different one of my kids.

It's been a year and a half and he still can't make in the toilet. For the past couple of weeks, I have been working very hard with him, but he just can't do it. He needs to stand up to do it, so he needs a diaper. I tried having him wear the diaper on the toilet, but he couldn't make sitting down. I just sat in the bathroom with him for 2 hours while he tried so hard, and we did not have success. Every day, he ends up holding it in until bedtime when I put a diaper on him to sleep in and he makes in that.

I am at my wit's end. I cannot sit in a hot little bathroom for so long with a 4 year old and a crying baby who is climbing into the bathtub and eating toilet paper and closing the vanity doors on his fingers and splashing in the toilet. My other kids needed to take showers, but by the time we came out of the bathroom, it was an hour past everyone's bedtime. I feel like screaming.

Any advice? How can I get him to go sitting- preferably without moving permanently into the bathroom?

amother

Jetblack

Sun, Sep 11 2016, 10:40 pm

I don't have any experience with this, so you can take my advice with a grain of salt.

1. When you finish this pack of diapers, don't buy any new ones. Prepare him for this every day. "Only 5 more diapers and then we have no more!" etc. Then on the last day you let him know that this is the last diaper and you have no more. The store has none left. Something to that effect.

2. Start giving him miralax or benefiber daily (powder supplement added to a drink) to prevent him from getting constipated. Start a day or 2 before you run out of diapers. This will make it very difficult for him to hold back the urge to go.

amother

Linen

Sun, Sep 11 2016, 11:17 pm

OP here. It's so good to know I'm not the only one dealing with this.

To the poster who said to finish all of our diapers and not buy more- He wets the bed if he doesn't sleep in a diaper. Besides, we just got 2 new cases of diapers.

I did consider giving him miralax. I think it is a great idea, I'm just not sure how to get him to drink it. I probably will end up trying that, though I would have to give it to him after school on a Friday.

I do not have a potty, and I don't want to buy one for this reason. He has to learn to use the toilet, and he will have a problem in school if he ever has to go while he's there. Same with a stool. I did have him try with his feet up on the toilet seat- it seemed like it may be easier for him that way, but it didn't help.