they could have done. Let me tell you: we live in New England, and
having a three-year-old who can get his own winter clothes on is
truly an amazing thing. I bring this up because to me, that’s the right
order of things. My child’s brain didn’t need specific stimulation for
math or reading or music. My child needed to be in control of his
own person. Learning life skills like how to use the potty lets that
happen. It builds inherent self-pride in mastery. That’s where self-
esteem grows.
What to Do About the Pooping
All this chatter about why pooping has gotten harder is all well and
good, but you’re here because you want to know what to do about it,
so let’s look at the most common scenarios and some superspecial
ones, too.
As we do so, something to keep in mind above all else: this is all
new. The feeling of warm, squishy poop next to your child’s bum is
the norm. A free-falling poop into “a pit” of sorts can be scary. It’s
our social norm to put our poop in a container, but remember, for the
better part of two years, your child’s norm has been the diaper.
There are so many facets to why pooping is so dramatic that I’ve
broken the topic down into digestible parts. Let’s take a few minutes
and talk about the many things that are going on during your basic
poop in the potty. First, there is the slight, unconscious withholding.
This is a huge concern for a lot of parents. It might look like this:
your child used to poop two or three times a day in a diaper. Now you
officially start potty training and . . . no poop. There may be