my 3 yr wont poop in the potty

[candler]

My 3 year old son will not poop in the potty. He has once by hiself without me or my husband asking him. He has not gone in the potty after that. We ask him and sometimes he will tell me if he has to go but wont and just goes in his underwear. He pees in the potty by hiself w/o us asking he just runs inthere and goes. I dont know what to do anymore i use stickers candy praise him and explain to him after he poops in his underwear that next time to tell me so he can go in the potty. Any suggestions?

[Nadelle]

I've been having the same issues with my 2 and a half year old niece. She'll litterally wait till she's in pain from not going poop before we can even convince her to try going on the potty and then it's a full day of her crying in pain and us giving her laxitives and salt water to try to loosen her up. NEVER a fun chore. But as with LeeLewis, we tried the putting the poop from her panties into the toilet and making sure she understands that the potty is where it belongs. It can get a bit frustrating because she is an obsessive clean freak about her 'big girl panties'. They are not allowed to have skid marks in them! And every time she THINKS she may have left one, she freaks out. We're trying to use that as a tool as well to get her to use the potty. She's doing so well otherwise. Not wetting the bed, not going in her pants while we're out and about, it's just number 2.

Every kid has their own unique little things that you can use. Watch for ques when your kid does poop his pants, see how it effects him and see if there's anything in there you can use as a learning tool. Good luck!

[leelewis]

My son went thru the same thing and I started making him take off his own underwear and dump it in the potty and made him wash himself off in the tub everytime.  He hated the thought of touching the poop and having to get in the tub everytime he did this.  It didn' t take long for him to start using the potty.

[Athena_M]

My pediatrician said most boys aren't potty trained until 4 and will even have accidents after that.  My son wasn't potty trained until he was 4 and a half and he learned during summmer vacation from school.  It was hard we did stickers, hot wheel car toys, prizes, everything.  Finallly we put a little TV tray dinner table in the bathroom with him and he loved playing with his toys while pooping.
I also had some discussions with him.  I would say, "Only babies poop in their pants!"  Finally after saying that for I don't know how many months he said, "But mommy you looooove babies."  
I asked him why do you poop in your pull-up/diaper.  His response was, "I loooove to poop in my diaper".  
It takes time and I know it is frustrating but he will learn.  

[mammo]

Yes, just let it be.  Remind him to use the potty and let it go, one day he will decide he's ready to poop in the potty and will do so.  What worked with my grandson (like a charm!) was to buy him underwear with his favorite characters on them.  At the time it was Barney, and when I put them on him I said "now don't poop on Barney," and he didn't.  He would run to the potty and yell "grandma I didn't poop on Barney."  My youngest grandson is 3 years and 2 months, and he too refuses to poop in the potty, and the underwear thing didn't work with him.  It's always a guessing game, isn't it?  But my daughter has spoken to several doctors, his teachers and they say to leave him alone and he will go when he's ready.