hugely grateful for advice - don't know what is wrong with dd

[Ellaroo]

Hello

I'm having an awful time with my 4-year-old dd at the moment. She's been potty-trained during the day since a couple of months before her 3rd birthday and apart from a few problems while actually potty-training has always been fine doing her poos in the toilet/knowing when she needs to go etc. However, for about the last two weeks bits of very soft poo have been escaping without her seeming to know until it's happened. It's not a huge amount, but enough that it goes through onto her trousers and we are currently getting through about 5 or 6 pairs of knickers & trousers a day. I tried to be really nice about it at first but that didn't seem to get us anywhere so now I have been a bit firmer about the need to do it in the toilet, but I'm really worried that it's a health problem (in which case the latter approach would be entirely wrong) - has anyone heard of a problem like this before? We have a hospital appt. about a different problem but vaguely linked enough that I will be able to bring this up too, but I don't want to wait that long. Has anyone got any advice/experience of this? Thanks in advance x

[Jimjams]

I think this can happen with v bad constipation- new poo seeps round the edges. I'd take her to the gp if i was you.

[Donbean]

How about going back to pull ups for a week or two, retrain so to speak.

[Ellaroo]

jimjams - would that be the case even if she's managing to do a huge poo everyday as well as all this extra stuff?

[morningpaper]

Ellaroo: is there a poo 'behind it' i.e. is she keeping it in and this seepage is because of that?

[Ellaroo]

this was my thought, but I don't think there is poo behind it all the time. Even if she does an enormous poo in the morning she'll still have this problem for the whole afternoon. (sorry for graphic information!)

[Ellaroo]

Thanks for all your speedy responses. I do feel confused - I'd always thought constipation was hard poo that was hard to pass. DD's poo is SO soft.

[stripey]

I had a friend who had a toddler who started pooing a lot during the night and her Doctor said it was a condition called "toddler diorhea" (sp?). She was only around 2 at the time though. Also when reading an article about MMR it mentioned this could happen after the jab. Has she recently had the MMR booster? Obviously it may not be connected at all but my friend's dd had had the MMR about a month before the pooing started.

[morningpaper]

You could try giving her a Weetabix for breakfast ... I make my dd eat half of one to keep her bowels healthy...