Potty Training Was Going Fine. Until Poop Became the Problem.
If potty training has stalled, regressed, or turned into a daily battle because of poop — this might be the most important thing you read this week.
My daughter turned 3 in January. We'd been working on potty training for months, and I thought we were making progress.
Then poop became the issue. And everything fell apart.
It started slowly. She'd go a day without pooping and I wouldn't think much of it. Then two days. Then three. Then I started noticing the signs — she'd cross her legs, clench up, hide behind the couch. She was actively holding it in.
When she did finally go, it was awful. She'd cry. She'd strain. She'd grip the sides of whatever she was sitting on with white knuckles. Sometimes there was blood. And the look on her face wasn't frustration — it was fear.
The potty? Forget it. She wouldn't go near it for poop. Not a chance. Even if she'd been happy to sit on it twenty minutes earlier for a wee. The second she felt the urge to poop, it was like a switch flipped. Panic.
And I'll be honest — it started affecting everything. She'd hold it for so long that she'd have accidents. She'd refuse to go to daycare because she didn't want to deal with it there. Bedtime became a nightmare because she knew she needed to go but was too scared.
I felt like a terrible parent. Like I was doing something wrong. Like every other kid had figured this out and mine couldn't.
So I did what every parent does. I threw everything at it.
- ⭐ Sticker charts and reward systems — worked for maybe two days, then lost all power
- ⏰ Scheduled potty sits after every meal — she'd sit for 15 minutes, nothing would happen, and she'd have an accident an hour later
- 📚 Potty training books, YouTube videos, songs — she could recite them all and still wouldn't go
- 🍬 Bribery with chocolate, toys, screen time — she desperately wanted the reward but physically couldn't make it happen
- 🥤 More fiber, more water, prune juice every morning — her stools were still hard and painful
- 🧸 The "relaxation" approach — just wait, don't pressure, let her come to it — months passed and nothing changed
I was in three different Facebook groups about potty training. I'd post at midnight asking what I was doing wrong. The responses were always some version of:
"Every child is different. She'll do it when she's ready. Just be patient."
And I wanted to scream. Because it had been months. We weren't talking about a child who just hadn't started yet. We were talking about a child who was clearly struggling, who was in pain, who was scared — and no amount of patience was changing that.
Something wasn't right. I could feel it. She wanted to go. She tried to go. Her body just... wouldn't cooperate.
The turning point came at her 3-year check-up.
I almost didn't bring it up. I'd mentioned it at her last appointment and the pediatrician had said the usual — more fiber, more water, give it time. But this time I was more specific. I told her about the withholding. The fear. The pain. The fact that potty training had completely stalled because poop had become something my daughter was genuinely terrified of.
Her pediatrician listened differently this time. Then she asked me a question that stopped me cold:
"When she does manage to poop — is it hard? Does she strain? Does it seem like it hurts her?"
Yes. Every single time.
Then she asked: "And how long has this been going on?"
Months. Since before we even started seriously potty training.
She nodded like she'd heard this a thousand times before. And then she explained something that completely changed how I understood what was happening with my daughter.
She told me that what I was seeing wasn't a potty training problem. It was a gut problem that was making potty training impossible.
She explained it like this:
The moment it clicked
For a child to poop comfortably — and eventually on the potty — two things need to happen. First, the stools need to be soft enough that pooping doesn't hurt. Second, the gut needs to send a clear signal to the brain that says "it's time to go." When the gut doesn't have enough good bacteria, neither of those things works properly.
She walked me through what was actually happening inside my daughter's body:
Her gut bacteria was out of balance. This is incredibly common in toddlers — antibiotics, picky eating, processed food, even just having an immature digestive system can cause it. And when the good bacteria levels are low, three things happen at once.
First, stools become hard and painful. Without enough bacteria to support proper digestion, the stools don't form correctly. They're dry, compacted, and difficult to pass.
Second, the gut-brain signal weakens. The gut is supposed to tell the brain "it's time to go" — but when the bacterial balance is off, that signal is muted. The child can't feel the urge clearly, or by the time they feel it, it's already urgent and scary.
Third, and this was the part that broke my heart: a fear cycle develops. Because pooping hurts, the child learns to hold it in. Holding makes the stools even harder. The next attempt hurts even more. The fear deepens. Eventually, the child associates pooping with pain — and they'll do anything to avoid it.
This was why none of the potty training methods worked. Sticker charts can't override a gut that isn't sending signals. Rewards can't make a child push through pain that's genuinely scaring them. Patience can't fix a bacterial imbalance that's getting worse over time, not better.
My daughter didn't need more training. She needed her gut to work properly so that training could actually take hold.
Her pediatrician recommended supporting her gut with a pre and probiotic designed for kids. Not a laxative — she was clear about that. Something that would actually restore the bacteria, not just force a temporary result.
I spent the next two weeks researching. I looked at every kids' probiotic on Amazon, in pharmacies, on health blogs. Most of them were just basic probiotics — a single strain, no prebiotic, nothing addressing the gut-brain connection specifically.
Then I found UpAiry Tummy Gummies.
What caught my attention was that they combine three things into one gummy — and each one targets a different part of the problem my daughter was having:
Kiwifruit powder that pulls moisture into the colon to soften stools naturally. This was the first priority — make pooping stop hurting so the fear could start to fade.
Adds good bacteria back into the gut to support proper digestion. This is what was missing — the foundation that everything else depends on.
This was the ingredient I hadn't seen in any other kids' probiotic. It helps restore the connection between the gut and brain — so the child can actually feel when it's time to go. Without this, even soft stools don't fully solve the potty problem.
I was skeptical. After everything we'd tried, the idea that a gummy was going to fix months of poop battles seemed almost laughable. But the reviews were full of parents describing exactly what we were going through. And the 75-day money-back guarantee meant I had nothing to lose.
I ordered two bottles.
Here's What Actually Happened
I want to be completely honest — because I know how it feels to read one of these and wonder if it's real. This is exactly what we experienced:
She Liked the Taste (Small Win)
She actually asked for them. Called them her "tummy sweets." One less battle to fight. No visible changes yet, but she was taking them willingly every morning.
The Poops Got Easier
I noticed her stools were visibly softer. She still wasn't using the potty for poop, but she stopped crying when she went. That was huge. For the first time in months, pooping wasn't a trauma for her.
She Started Telling Us
This was the moment I knew something real was happening. She started saying "Mummy, I need to poop." She'd never said that before — not once. Some days she'd make it to the potty. Some days she wouldn't. But the signal was clearly there.
The Potty Clicked
She pooped on the potty on a Tuesday afternoon. I will never forget it. She looked up at me with this enormous grin and said "I did it!" I burst into tears right there in the bathroom. By the end of week 6, she was going on the potty more often than not.
It Just... Became Normal
The pull-ups were gone. Daycare stopped calling. Bedtime stopped being a fight. The fear was gone. The pain was gone. Pooping was just... something she did. Like any other kid.
Looking back, the thing that frustrates me most is how long we spent fighting the wrong battle.
We spent months trying to train her to do something her body physically couldn't do. Every failed sticker chart, every tearful bathroom sit, every accident at daycare — none of that was a training failure. It was a gut failure that we didn't know about.
Once her gut was working properly — once pooping didn't hurt and her brain was getting the right signals — the potty training we'd already done just clicked. All those months of groundwork weren't wasted. They were just waiting for her body to catch up.
One thing that really mattered to me: this isn't a laxative.
I'd deliberately avoided laxatives because I didn't want her gut to become dependent on something artificial. Her pediatrician confirmed this was the right instinct — laxatives force a result but can make the underlying problem worse over time. Tummy Gummies restore the bacteria the gut needs to function on its own. The goal is independence, not dependency.
If any of what I've described sounds familiar — the withholding, the fear, the stalled potty training, the feeling like you're failing — I want you to know it's not your fault. And your child isn't being stubborn. Their body just needs help that sticker charts and prune juice can't provide.
I'm Not the Only One
"My son would withhold for days at a time, and we were getting desperate. We'd tried everything — prune juice, fiber gummies, even Miralax. Nothing lasted more than a few days. These gummies have finally brought some consistency back to our routine. It took about two weeks, but the difference has been night and day."
"These have been amazing for my 4-year old. Poop struggles have been a never-ending nightmare in our house for over a year. In just a few weeks, our daughter has made real progress and is now pooping much more frequently 💚"
"Within a few weeks, bathroom time became so much easier. The constant belly pain is gone, and everyone in our house sleeps better now. I wish I'd found these sooner instead of spending months on things that didn't work."
"We tried everything before this, and nothing stuck. These delivered. Our daughter actually asks for them now — she calls them her 'tummy bears.'"
Backed by Published Research
*Based on published clinical studies of individual ingredients. Results may vary.
Questions I Had Too
The Potty Training Battle Doesn't Have to Last Forever.
You've done everything right. The sticker charts, the patience, the midnight Googling. Now give your child's gut what it needs to catch up — and watch the training finally click.
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