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

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.

This book was a game changer. For about 6-8 months my very potty-trained just turned 4 year old was withholding. I tried many different conversations and approaches… MANY. I was worried this behavior would never end. I have truly tried everything. This book struck such a cord with my 4 year old - for many reasons - line for line it was what she was feeling/experiencing spoken through a character her own age (even I was surprised how exact it was), the illustrations are colorful and fantasy-like, and the story itself was engaging and had elements of interest to a 3/4/5 year old (dinosaurs, going to the doctor, garbage truck, etc). She has been asking me to read the story every day since we got it and going off to find the book during play time to look at the pictures by herself. Today was the first day she went directly to the potty instead of hiding in the corner to withhold and start the cycle over again. It seems the book has had a huge impact on her comprehension. I highly recommend this book if you are a parent going through this and also just recommend to have in your potty training library in general. We have a ton of potty/everyone poops type storybooks but this one was way more impactful because it wasn’t just another poop/potty story.

The media could not be loaded. Purchased because our 2 year old son was scared to go poop. The story is kind of long and I feel like it goes off on a long tangent that 2 year olds may not understand. I do like how there is advice in the back of the book that could be helpful to anyone.

The best purchase so far that has helped my 3 yr old in their pooping journey. Between 2.5-3, we experienced poop withholding with severe constipation. It does take time and a few other changes but now at 3 yrs and 1 month, fully potty trained, my toddler goes on their own daily. They ask me to read while they go and are pushing on their own by page 3 :) This booked aided them along with a few changes. Reading to your toddler while they poop beats all the tears and frustration.

I got this book for my almost 3 years old and although I love the concept of a book like this, I felt like it was way too long for his age group. Potty training ages do not have a long attention span. I could see this being a good book for children 4-6 years old.

This book is magic. My toddler has had troubles going #2 for MONTHS with things getting gradually WORSE instead of improving. We were at a point where she wouldn't even go in the diaper. She would just stand there and hold it in and be in pain. Then produce something ginormous once a week after much crying. She eats super healthy and drinks a lot of water so that was not the issue. She needed help understanding the whole process.Enter this book. It's amazing! 100% worth it. I wish we got it sooner. She was super interested in both stories (Ryan + the fox). And she loved being quizzed on which foods would make her poop "easy" and which would make it "hard." At least 5 times after reading the book, she'd ask for a carrot so her poop can be "easy".And yes, within 24 hours of first reading this book, she started asking for the diaper and actually GOING in 5 mins or less. I was at awe!! This used to be a 60 min+ struggle every time. Now she just goes!If it helps, at the same time of getting this book, I also explained to her that what comes out is just "old food" as her body is making space for "new food".So, she is still not potty trained per se, but at least she no longer holds it in!!! One win at a time. :)

We tried everything with our 4 year old son, visited a few doctors and they all said the same thing, he developed his feer of poop when got constipated and got cut, it was painful for a couple of weeks so he decided to hold his poop forever!:)The issue started in march, and just last month we started noticing that he is less fearfull and resistant to pooping.Among other things, this book was very helpful throughout the process of giving him comfort and ease. The main character in the story can easily be our son, we even changed his name to something that rhymed with our son's name so he connects better.Big thanks to the authors.

Really good book for helping children understand how we poo and why you can’t just hold it in. Bought to help my two and a half year old son who withholds and along with other books about poo seems to have really helped. He certainly asks to read it and is now proud when he does a bowl movement on the toilet when previously he didn’t want to talk about it. It is quite long and detailed so younger children or those not quite so aware of how the body works may not understand the story but I’d always leave it a while and try again in a few months as it is a great book for helping with holders. I also never drew comparison between him and the book character, I let him realise that on his own.

I bought this book for my daughter. She is 3 years old and tends to hold in her poops until they are very painful. She really likes to read this book and talks about how she wants to be the boss of her own body. It has been a slow process, but she is starting to improve.When I read this book to her she said that the character was just like her.

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.

The message is very well communciated. It deals with a difficult subject in an understandable manner. My 3 yr old asks to read this book which is always a good thing as it shows he wants to understand etc.