3 1/2 year old pooing in pants Post Reply

[CornishMummyinLondon]

My three and a half year old daughter has been potty trained since she just turned two but for the last three months has taken to pooing in her pants.

First I tried ignoring it, then getting cross, then I went back to basics and tried a star chart/giving her chocolate buttons for every poo in the loo, then putting her onto the toilet every hour even if she said she didn't need the loo but nothing has had any impact. She is doing three or four little poos a day in her pants.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? I wouuld appreciate ANY insights or ideas whatsoever as I am at a loss as to what I should try next. Thank you very much for your help.

[Claire M]

Hi,

I had a similar experience with my son when he was about 4 1/2 which nearly drove me demented. It transpired that after a nasty tummy bug he had become lactose intolerant - when lactose was removed from his diet the problem was resolved overnight. Obviously you have to be careful about excluding things from their diet at that age but it might be worth raising with your GP.

Good luck

Claire

[sutherland]

Assuming this isn't just a reaction to starting at school or other emotional upset, it may be that she is constipated especially if she is regularly doing little poos. Try increasing her liquid intake, fruit and roughage in the first instance. Cut down on the milk if she is having a lot of that. When she is on the toilet make sure that her knees are slightly higher than her hips and that she feels very secure on the loo - you may need a child's seat on top of the adult's seat. In order to encourage to feel happy on the toilet, give her a special toy or book that she only has access to whilst on the toilet. Above all avoid it becoming a battle try and maintain a very matter-of-fact attitude- good luck!

[claphammummy]

You could have been me writing. We had this problem from Jan to Aug this year. We'd get a few accidents then nothing and we thought we were safe...then it would happen again. Both GP and paeds wondered about constipation and lactulose was prescribed. Excellent results then not so good (in retrospect, should have tweaked dose downwards...) then went off an problem solved. Ask GP... Oh, someone on some site suggested trying the story of "feeding the fishies" with poopoo. Worked for us for a few weeks but then reverted to problem. But maybe worth a try first?

[CornishMummyinLondon]

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to offer me this advice. I'm going to speak to the doctor to see if it is constipation. We've thankfully had a very successful weekend with no accidents but I'm not holiding out much hope that it will continue. She does have a lot of milk so I will definitely cut that down, and will continue to up her fruit intake. Fingers crossed we will get to the bottom of it soon. Thanks again for all your posts.