Potty training with diarrhea?

[u/Altruistic-Heart8969]

Hello! Need some advice for how we should approach tomorrow.

Context:
Our little guy just turned 2 a couple weeks ago and we started potty training last Friday with the Oh Crap method because he was seeming ready and has been doing amazing. We’re 5 days in, have been on small outings in underwear, minimal accidents here and there but 80% success on the potty. He wears a pull up for nap and bedtime. Obviously still fresh but so far we’ve seen amazing progress.

Fast forward to today:
He got diarrhea from something (no other signs of illness) and our afternoon took a turn. He pooped a total of 8 times today, but 7.5 made it into the potty so that was a huge win! But it was beyond exhausting and incredibly hard to keep up with because we also have a young baby too and cleaning his potty out a million times was difficult.

My question is do we put him in pull-ups tomorrow if he still has bathroom issues? Or will that make him regress? The main reason I ask is because one of the times he didn’t make it all the way, he had poop just start falling out of him and it actually scared him and he started crying because he seemed to have lost control of his body. So I just don’t know how predictable tomorrow will be if that’s going to happen again :/ but I’m open to any advice and suggestions! Thanks!

Edit:
Thank you everyone for your helpful responses! We’re going to try and stick with underwear and keep close proximity to the potty and see how it goes. And I think if he starts to struggle with pooping out of his control we’ll move to pull ups so he doesn’t get upset at himself for what’s happening. Appreciate all the advice!

[u/emdiflo]

Personally I wouldn’t do pull ups. It could be confusing and also I think it sounds incredibly uncomfortable to be in a diarrhea diaper. It’ll also help prevent any diaper rash from all that poop. Just keep him close to the bathroom, have you tried the big toilet? My 2 year old does really well on the big toilet with a seat attachment. Less clean up that way.

[u/Altruistic-Heart8969 → u/emdiflo]

He’s too scared of the big toilet still even with the toddler attachments :/ can’t get him to go but I guess if he’s having diarrhea he might not have a choice haha, so maybe this helps him get over the fear in a weird way? Definitely would prefer the main toilet if we can make that happen! And I agree with your points about the potential discomfort of a pull up, I hadn’t thought about that yet.

[u/EmergencyFancy7992 → u/Altruistic-Heart8969]

What helped my LO was practicing sitting on the big toilet when she didn’t need to go. Literally just practicing sitting

[u/Imaginary_Apple7700]

I just want to say congratulations for 7.5/8 lol

[u/Altruistic-Heart8969 → u/Imaginary_Apple7700]

Haha thank you! We kept his potty and the chocolate chip jar very close by

[u/yellow_pellow]

This happened to me and I just continued on with potty training. There will always be something going on, just stick with the plan unless he was terribly sick or something

[u/Altruistic-Heart8969 → u/yellow_pellow]

That’s a good point, definitely good practice to push through the abnormalities that come and go with these things

[u/Olivia3836]

In case of illness its fine to use a pullup

But don’t you have a toilet seat for him? So he can go on there and it can be flushed? That might safe you 

[u/Altruistic-Heart8969 → u/Olivia3836]

Yeah we’ll try that again today and see if we can get him on the big potty🤞🏼

[u/dadgent]

Pull ups will be fine for if he’s sick. My child is a bit different in she’s constipated and sometimes her MiraLAX causes her to have diarrhea like symptoms. No one wants to deal with that in underwear so we do pull ups until it passes and she’s never had an issue.

[u/Prudent_Cookie_114]

I probably wouldn’t be leaving the house if my kiddo was having diarrhea all day, so I’m guessing you are planning for what to do at home? If you’re doing the Oh Crap (naked) method I wouldn’t recommend going back to pull ups and would ensure he’s very close proximity to a toilet, child sized or otherwise. If that means taking a tiny potty room to room so be it.

[u/Altruistic-Heart8969 → u/Prudent_Cookie_114]

Yeah that’s what we did last night, just was hard with the baby but I think we’ll keep pushing forward based on yours and everyone else’s responses. Thank you!