It Hurts When I Poop!: A Story for Children Who Are Scared to Use the Potty

Needed to get a book to help my toddler with her pooping issues. We were starting to get super frustrated since she would only pee in the potty but not poop. Well, I read this book to her and no kidding she pooped in the potty the next day! It still took a few weeks for her to be consistent with it - but i swear this book really helped! No more pull ups over here :)

If poop withholding is an issue for your child, you need to buy this book. It works. While it's always possible that some children won't respond as well as others, this book can very quickly solve this chronic problem. After about a year of this issue with our child, now almost three years old, we were extremely frustrated. There were lots of toddler tears, fear, visits to professionals, and our child having countless bad days because of not pooping (even in a diaper) we found this book and tried it. Two weeks later the problem is completely solved. The effect of this story immediately increased the willingness to sit on the potty. The anxiety about pooping in general dissipated quickly and after two weeks we are many days into no-stress pooping on the potty every day. The book has cute illustrations, is not overly long, and is useful for kids at various ages. Two-and-a-half seems like the very low end of the age spectrum, if a child is seriously precocious, but more realistically a kid should be three years old and up for good benefit. The story involves the use of metaphor and just doesn't seem like it would do much for a younger kid. Anyway, the story is cute, and it allowed us to converse with our child in a different way about this issue. Our daughter picked up on the language and characters immediately and asked for it to be read again and again the first few days. As scary as the topic was, this book was not threatening. It very much seemed like it was a relief for her to hear this story. The book is printed by the American Psychological Association, printed in the United States, and is high quality for the price. If withholding poop is an issue for a child in your family there should be no question about buying this book. It's less expensive than yet another bottle of Miralax, a visit to a professional (who will probably just tell you to use Miralax), or any number of other solutions parents might attempt. Again, it may not work for all children, but it's absolutely worth trying.

The storie is about Ryan, a little boy who has constipation. His parents take him to the doctor. The doctor tell him a story about a Coyote with a dirty house the coyote takes control of his house because he's the boss not the mess. The doctor then says you wanna be the boss of your body right Ryan, not the poops. The doctor shows Ryan simple pictures of the digestive track and tells how what we eat is used and the leftovers become poop. She then shows a list of foods that make poops soft and a list of food that makes poop hard. My constipated 3 year old loved the Illustrations of the digest of track. And I found the list of soft poop foods and hard poop foods informative. The story about the Coyote was not enjoyed much by either of us. It's trying to make a comparison, but it's a poor attempt. The book would be better just leaving the coyote park out. Overall the book is A good teaching book for young kids and parents.

My two year old pee potty trained really early. There was no stopping him. Pooping however turned into a huge struggle. He was holding his poop. Enemas were traumatic but necessary and our life revolved around his bathroom habits. I ordered this book after seeing some great reviews. I was doubtful but desperate. The very first day the book arrived my son willingly tried to poop on the potty and went a tiny tiny bit. This kid hadn't pooped on the potty in months. We celebrated and started a potty reward chart and brought back food rewards (a probiotic gummy- perfect). We continued from there to have more and more success and at the 2 week mark we were drama free using the potty. The stress. The screaming. Over! Both my boys love this book and requested it over and over again. It is a little long and wordy. I was worried my 2 year old wouldn't stay interested but he was very focused. They are almost 3 and almost 6 years old now. Some days we'd read it 4 times. They love talking about poop. It's been months now and they will still ask if something they are eating will make their poops hard. I love how it empowers kids to help solve their own problem. I hope the author comes back and reads the reviews. Thank you! This was such a life changer for us.

I was looking for a book that would be age appropriate for my 38mo old son who had mastered going potty on the toilet for several months BUT had not yet shown ANY interest in going poop on the toilet. Overall the book is nice quality and an interesting story. But i found it was way too mature (sophisticated) for my son. I ended up paraphrasing many pages and had to skip through the entire middle section of the book because the story is much too long for a 2 or 3 yo (especially if they are sitting on the toilet while you read it). This book will probably work better later when he is closer to 4 or 5 yo and is having issues with constipation. As for teaching him how to poop on the toilet, the book called "where's the poop" was much better at making my son more comfortable with going #2.

Great resource for children's bathroom fears! The long story format keeps kids engaged while addressing this sensitive issue with gentle, age-appropriate language. Makes potty training conversations much easier for parents and children. Highly recommended!

My son could really relate to the boy Ryan in this book. As he too was holding, and avoiding and have accidents in his underwear. Its a bit of a longer book but my almost 3.5 yr old listens attentively each time I read it. The only part I found a bit of a stretch, is the story about Bill. While as an adult, You understand the connection, I think it is a bit of complex comparative concept for a toddler to fully understand... regardless, It is one of the better potty books I found for my son.

Bought this book for my 3 and a half year old as he was withholding and getting really stressed about going to the loo...and stressing us all out too. It's the best money I've ever spent. He read it twice the first day and the following morning got up and grabbed the book and said he needed to go to the loo...and did! 4 weeks on, we still use the book occassionally when he needs a reminder but the change in his behaviuor is huge and he understood the book straight away - perfect for 3-4 year olds and a great relief to have found such a simple solution to our problems. The only downside is the American language 'trash', 'poop', etc but a bit of rewording was easy and well worth it for the positive effect.

My dauther enjoyed this book a lot, she is no longer constipated, she likes going to the potty with this book every day. I recomend this book to all parents who have children with problems when they poop.

I held off writing this review and never write reviews but this book was the answer I'd be searching for for almost a year. I had tried everything - stickers, rewards, removing nappies, talking about it, not talking about it, you name it id tried it. Then I saw the reviews and thought I'd give it a go. We hadn't mentioned the issue for months and were happily handing out nappies. Then for a couple of nights we read this "new book". I didn't mention what it was called or relate it to my son just read it like a normal story book. Then over a weekend we did some of the activities it suggests (play doh, role play, etc) again without adding any pressure. And then within a week of reading the book he started to poop on the potty. Then after a few days moved to the toilet. It's been more than 2 weeks now and all poops have been in the toilet without any fuss or like it's a big deal or anything. I had to hold back on getting too excited as didn't want the pressure of pleasing me to contribute to him doing it the next time. He was so proud of himself and saying "I did it, I did it!". He's never looked back.

Overall the story is good and the book is interesting. Unfortunately there are errors in the list of food that makes poops harder. Apple, bananas, yogurt and potatoes are listed there, while red meat, fried food and snacks like chips aren't listed. Also the food that makes poop soften list doesn't mention oats, legumes and nuts. Would be good to update the book with correct information.