My 3.5 yr old daughter will not go to the toilet. PLEASE HELP!!!

[becks130]

Hi,

My 3.5 yr old daughter refuses to go the toilet and constantly has accidents. she was potty trained last summer and it was very successful and she was doing brilliantly until a couple of months ago when all this started.

She can go 6 days without going for a poo and rarely goes for a wee on the toilet even when reminded to go every 10 minutes. I have been to the GP and she had a blood test this week (results will be back neck week) but i'm not convinced there is anything physically wrong with her. The GP prescribed laxatives to give her before bed in the hope that she'll go in the morning but this has made not difference at all.

I'm at my wits end and finding the constant accidents and washing unbearable so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks x

We got some brilliant advice from the child psychologist regarding DS2 who wouldn't use the toilet until he was 4. She said that he had probably picked up on all the stress and anxiety the whole situation was causing and for us all to stop worrying about it. We left him in nappies or just cleared up the mess but we didn't mention a thing. Nobody was allowed to mention it at all - not even to talk about what big boys do - the complete ban on discussing it worked in two ways - 1) I stopped being so stressed 2) one day about 6 weeks later DS2 came and told me he had had a wee on the toilet and that was that! after 2 years of stress and anxiety he did it in his own time and his own way.

with the laxatives your DD will need to drink plenty of water for them to be effective

hope it gets better soon

Thank you for the advice, I will definitely give it a go. Can I just ask was your DS successfully potty trained before he became anxious about going to the toilet?