Several times a year a mother will report that her child stands on the toilet seat and squats over the toilet bowl to poop.
These children learned to do this on their own. The parents instructed them to sit on the toilet, but the children decided that standing and squatting on the toilet seat worked better for them.
The squat is the natural posture that allows pee or poop to empty from the pelvis. The squat is also the natural posture for women to birth. Squatting is the natural posture that relaxes the pelvic floor muscles and lowers the resistance for anything in the pelvis (pee, poop, babies) to come out.
After learning to walk, most infants learn to poop with a squatting posture.
After toilet training, children are obliged to use a toilet to poop. The modern North American toilet is built for adults. Children do not fit on an adult toilet. To achieve a posture as close as possible to a squat, parents should encourage routine use of an over-the-toilet seat and a footstool. With these aids, the pelvic floor muscles can relax. Without these aids emptying is compromised and the stool builds up in the pelvis.
The children who learn to stand on the toilet seat do so to make the poop process easier. How might they have learned to do this? My scenario is as follows. Perhaps they had a very difficult-to-pass poop and in the struggle to pass the poop they leaned back and brought their legs up and braced the heels of their feet on the front of the toilet seat to help push. Once they discovered that this manoeuvre allowed the poop to pass easier, they took the next step (literally) and brought their feet up further and stood on the toilet seat and then squatted over the bowl.
These children learned to do this on their own. The parents instructed them to sit on the toilet, but the children decided that standing and squatting on the toilet seat worked better for them.
The squat is the natural posture that allows pee or poop to empty from the pelvis. The squat is also the natural posture for women to birth. Squatting is the natural posture that relaxes the pelvic floor muscles and lowers the resistance for anything in the pelvis (pee, poop, babies) to come out.
After learning to walk, most infants learn to poop with a squatting posture.
After toilet training, children are obliged to use a toilet to poop. The modern North American toilet is built for adults. Children do not fit on an adult toilet. To achieve a posture as close as possible to a squat, parents should encourage routine use of an over-the-toilet seat and a footstool. With these aids, the pelvic floor muscles can relax. Without these aids emptying is compromised and the stool builds up in the pelvis.
The children who learn to stand on the toilet seat do so to make the poop process easier. How might they have learned to do this? My scenario is as follows. Perhaps they had a very difficult-to-pass poop and in the struggle to pass the poop they leaned back and brought their legs up and braced the heels of their feet on the front of the toilet seat to help push. Once they discovered that this manoeuvre allowed the poop to pass easier, they took the next step (literally) and brought their feet up further and stood on the toilet seat and then squatted over the bowl.
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