8 year old using a potty.

B2023316

New Member
my 8 year old cousin will only poop and pee in a plastic training potty not the toilet. If we take it away he’ll go on the floor or in his pants. He wears diapers to school and whenever we go out in public. He has nothing medically wrong with him. We don’t know what to do. We’ve tried taking it away we’ve tried bribing him we’ve tried the naked method nothing has worked.
 

Copabanana

Well-Known Member
Has he gone to the pediatrician? I would ask for a referral to a regional Children's Hospital. There he could be seen at the Child Development Department where he would be evaluated by a child neuropsychologist, a child psychiatrist, social worker, etc. Was this issue addressed when he was younger? Did he used to have more normal toileting habits, and did he regress? If so, when did that happened, and what was going on then? Has he received any mental health diagnoses? Are there stressful things happening in his family? What has school personnel said?

I think what needs to happen first, is to figure out what is going on. There are a variety things this could be, all very different. And depending upon what it is, different interventions and treatments would be in order.
 

Nandina

Member
I, too, wonder if he has anxiety about it. To a small child a toilet can be a little scary as its seat is much bigger than their little bottom and they usually have to hold themselves up to keep their bottom from going down too far. So, it could be possible that he’s afraid of falling in. Aren’t there little adapters that you can put over a toilet that are more the size of a child’s bottom? I think they’re used for the transition from training potty to the toilet.
 
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