The subject of encouraging your child to do No.2’s (poos) on the potty, has recently come to my attention, both in person and on social media.

I did encounter, this problem, with my middle child, although his problem was of constipation; which in itself can be a vicious circle, it hurt him to go, so he tried to avoid it making the whole situation much worse. It took me a while to figure out, why he wasn’t using his potty for this, shall we say “activity” when he had been using it for doing wees for quite some time.

I actually found him one day hiding behind the sofa, sitting on his bottom in an effort to prevent himself from going. This is when the penny dropped and I realised this was more of a medical issue.

Regular readers will be aware, that I don’t give medical advice, as I am NOT qualified in this field. I only give advice on topics that I have experience of and that I believe will work.

I started to give my son foods that were high in fibre, such as brown bread, fresh fruit, plenty of fluids and even sprinkled bran (obtained from a health food store) over his breakfast cereal. Of course, I also took him to see our doctor, who told me that I was doing all I could to help him and she also prescribed some mild medication. As time went on, I discovered that diluted prune juice ( not syrup) did the trick, he drank it happily from his cup and I would then read him a story, while he was sitting on the potty, crouching down beside him.

Happily, with time and patience and lots of praise when he did manage to preform , he got over his fear and normal service was resumed! My elder son would do a No.2 in his potty, while he was watching his favourite programme on television. I have written more on general potty training in an earlier post.

As I have already mentioned, I don’t give medical advice, but questions of non- medical issues. or comments are always welcome.