Softy the Poop: Helping Families Talk About Poop

But this time I had to. My 3 year old son was withholding his stool for 9 months. It was horrendous. He was put on a high dose of Miralax, saw an occupational therapist and a GI but nothing at all helped. We went through 9 months of him each night screaming for up to 3 hours while trying to hold it in. It was so awful and typically ended with all of us in tears because we couldn't stand to see him so uncomfortable. No matter what we tried or how much we explained to him that it was safe to go and important to poop, nothing worked. We didn't even attempt potty training (he's still in diapers) because all we wanted was for him to poop without fear, stress, and tears. (We will tackle potty training later.) In a last ditch effort, I bought two books. This book and the "I don't want to go to the toilet" book. Over a four day period, I read them both to him dozens of times, and reiterated much of the language that the authors used over and over again when I spoke to him about pooping. Miraculously and suddenly, after 4 days, my 3 year old began pooping without pain, withholding, or tears. He initially would say "I'm a little scared but I know it's good to go." And now he doesn't even say that. He does talk about Softy a lot and how he knows he needs to come out and go down the waterslide and play with his friends. The last two weeks have been an absolute miracle in our house! When he has to go, he just tells us, asks for a hand to hold, and poops. The doctors/therapists were all shocked that books fixed a problem that they could not, but I'm eternally grateful to authors of both of these books

My daughter is 5 years old and has been withholding her stool for about 3. It is in the top three hardest things I've ever had to deal with as a parent. After she was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder, we tried the child psychiatrist, OT, the sleep specialist, several pediatricians, and a pediatric GI to try to figure our why she was behaving the way she was, and it was through OT we realized that all of her behaviors seemed to center around withholding. When she wouldn't poop, everything went to $h*t, essentially. She would sit on the toilet and scream like someone was wielding an ax at her. It was horrible.Finally, I discovered Dr. Tom. His book, "The Ins and Outs of Poop," helped me to finally understand WHY she was doing what she was doing, and helped me understand how to stop it -- for good. I learned more from him than I did all of those specialists over all that time.I ordered "Softy the Poop," along with the other book thinking it MIGHT have some influence on her. To my amazement, she LOVED this book. She memorized it immediately, and every new person who comes in the house gets a personal reading. She looks at it every day, and she now refers to all of her poop as "Softy" and waves goodbye when she flushes. Is it a little weird talking about poop in so much detail? Yea; but I would do just about anything to get her to go in the potty, not hold it, and not leak. I'm good with Softy, and you will be too. :-)

This book changed our lives! This may sound like hyperbole, but it is the truth. My 3-year-old was withholding her poop for almost a year. We had her taking Miralax daily. That allowed some of it to come out but she still was terrified, trying to hold it in, so usually it came out in her underwear. I first read "The Ins and Outs of Poop", which was very helpful, but something was missing. So, I bought DuHamel's book for kids. Day 2 of reading "Softy the Poop" and my daughter actually went poop on the toilet on her own. We read it every day and I am not kidding, she has not tried to withhold her poop since! I realize everyone may not have the same dramatic results that we did, but it is worth $11 to see if it can help your kid. My daughter gets so excited to say, "bye bye Softy! I'll see you again tomorrow!" every day before she flushes the toilet.

Can't believe I'm writing this but not only is this book totally educational, but Softy the Poop is soooo cute! After just a few readings, my 4-year old loves this book -- she literally told me to "come quick mom! I made a Softy!" yesterday. And, surprisingly, my 1 year old actually sits and looks at the pages (she doesn't do that with every book). They have done a great job making this book cute and fun for kids to read.I bought this because my 4-yr old lately has been talking a lot about poop (no surprise!) but has also mentioned that it sometimes hurts. Unlike the other books I bought along with this one, this one actually teaches kids what a "good" poop looks like and how to keep it that way. I learned a LOT reading this book and am especially grateful for the notes for parents at the end.

Wonderful book. It's quite short but it has a good bit for parents in it. The illustrations are friendly, the information is gives children is straight - there are no mystery words for what is happening, it explains the how & why of staying regular and using the toilet. It helped our son as he resisted his BMs but the book alone didn't "cure" him, we had help from a doctor and medicine. However this book was a great tool in our arsenal so to speak. He is potty trained now and still likes to look at this book once in a while and talk about it. We bought countless "potty" books and this is one of the best (other best is "Once Upon a Potty" also great DVD is "Elmo's Potty Time"). Wish I had this book much earlier.

Great book for helping with potty training. The only reason why I didn't give it a 5th star is because one of the pages has a kid in pain on the toilet. I do not believe it is a good idea to show a kid crying in pain sitting on the toilet when you are trying to positively potty train a child. A child can see that picture and think that going to the bathroom on the toilet is painful so may stop them from wanting to try. We generally just skip that page now.

This book has some funny pictures and ironically did keep my son engaged when it was time to talk about going poop in the toilet. I bought this for a 8 year old kiddo on the spectrum.

My kid loves this book, He really related to it and would highly recommend this book to help your kids go to the loo.

It definetly helped my toddler daughter to overcome her fear to poop in the toilet!! Highly recommended!

Great book, got little man back to normal routine after reading every night for a week. love it!

This is a good buy for any toddler who is experiencing difficulty in going to toilet very informative and easy for child to understand

Not very helpful! It reads that milk is good for constipation, a dr will tell u otherwise. It also suggests kids eat popcorn for constipation. Canada Health says kids under 4 should not have popcorn... the right ups made it sound informational which I think it is lacking even besides these blunders. My 2 yr old likes it but she'd listen to the newspaper if I read it to her. My search for a good poop book continues