Four year old pooing in pull-up at night

[Rhubarbgarden]

Four year old dd frequently poos in her sleep.

She's been dry during the day for about a year, but no sign of it happening at nights yet. I know that this is quite normal and it doesn't worry me, but the pooing does as I don't know any other four year olds that still do it.

Is this normal?

[Beahun]

Hello,poor you!My daughter was doing the same thing at nursery at nap time.I just told them to take away the pull ups.She weed herself a few times but never pooped in her pants.I bet she is ready at night too,but kids can be a bit comfortable with old things. So,if I were you I would just take away the pull ups and use lots of chocolate buttons and stickers.Good luck and don't be afraid:-)

[fairylightsintheloft]

My DS was . Doing this sporadically until a few months ago. He's just five. He is still in pull up as at night and nowhere near dry. To be honest not much that we did helped other than insisting that he sit on the loo just before bed and try to go. When it happened I was also not hugely sympathetic and consoling but told him it was unacceptable. Potty training has been a very long process for him all round - thank heaven DD got it in days!

[Orangeanddemons]

My dd did this for ages, including when she was totally out of nappies. That was fun.

I think she grew out of it at about 5.

[MrsSlocombesPussy]

My DS was still doing this at 4 - he would hold on to his poo until he put his night time nappy on, and then almost immediately do a poo. I think he was afraid of doing it on the toilet.
We used bribery / sticker charts to get him to stop (took a couple of weeks).
He's only just started being dry at night, at the age of 7 - we were waiting and waiting for dry nappies, but they never happened. So we just stopped putting him nappies. It's taken a couple of weeks and quite a few wet beds, but he finally seems to have managed. I think he was weeing in the nappies because they were there - it needed a few wet nights to 'train' him.

[duckyneedsaclean]

Sigh. My 3 yr old boy does this every night too. Bloody annoying!

[soupmaker]

Rhubarb, does your DD poo in the toilet during the day or just poo overnight?

My DD1 always pooed overnight from a very young age and I didn't realise it wasn't normal until we came to toilet training and she ended up constipated from withholding during the day. She's now 6 and we still have poo issues. The reason she was pooing overnight was that was when her body relaxed and couldn't hold in the poo.

Have you checked out the ERIC site to see if there is any help on it?

[Rhubarbgarden]

Not just here then! That's reassuring, although not great for everyone else.

She poos just fine on toilets during the day and has done for a year or so. In fact she was much easier to poo train than wee train when we did potty training, so no poo issues as such. They just seem to slip out when she's asleep sometimes. It's really annoying.

[soupmaker]

Glad things are fine during the day. Doesn't sound like she's a withholder like my DD1. Hopefully she'll grow out of it.