Painful Poop Experiences

Some children only have to experience a negative situation one time before they learn to avoid it. That helps if you're teaching that the above is hot, but not when potty training. Try to explain to your child that there is a reason for the hard poop. Monitor your child's diet so you can guarantee easy pooping. It may take lots of encouragement and multiple successes for your child to overcome the negative association between poop and pain. In the future, try to avoid the problem through diet and exercise.

An older child may understand simple explanations of how the body works. Food is the fuel that makes the body go, it builds bone, muscles, and brains. You can explain that pee and poop is what's left after your body takes all the good stuff it needs. But sometime the poop gets hard and it hurts to push it out. Tell your child that you have good foods that will make the poop soft, and then it won't hurt. Or explain that you have good medicine from the doctor that will help.

Unfortunately, if your child had a negative experience, it may take a number of easy successes before your child lets go of that fear. Use the ABC response: Acknowledge and accept that this hurts. You must be very gentle while encouraging your child to attempt something that caused him pain in the past. In this case, you balance emotions and information when you earn your child's trust that you have food or medicine to help him do something he doesn't want to do. Finally, your child must conquer this one. Watch your emotions because you don't want your child to feel pressure from you. You can encourage and support, but your child is the one who must release this fear.