4YO soiling her pants

[Eurydice84]

DD has been soiling her pants for months. We have tried everything: positive reinforcement, sticker charts, being more assertive, etc. The nursery staff have done their best as well. Sometimes she has a couple of good weeks but then it's back to square one.

The GP has prescribed mild laxatives, one month in and little has changed. We are seeing the doctor again in a week's time to make sure there is nothing physically wrong - sometimes she has accidents with wee as well, which makes me wonder.

DD doesn't have any other particular problems. She is happy, outgoing, cheeky, swims like a fish and very active. Nothing really big has happened in her life lately to cause a regression.

At my wit's end and tired of cleaning poopy pants every single day. School is starting in September and I am genuinely worried

Have you had a look at the ERIC website @Eurydice84? It's evidence based and usually very helpful

@Eurydice84 hi, I unfortunately have 5 years of experience of this with my child. You didn't mention if she is pooing normally at other times. Is it every time she needs a poo she is doing it in her pants or can she go on the toilet. It's hard to say if it's overflow from possibly being constipated.

Not a doctor but sounds like constipation to me, including the wetting.

We had this with DS at the same age, we thought it was behavioural but turns out he had faecal impaction and zero control/sensation of when he was soiling.

As PP said, the ERIC website is fab and they have a helpline too. We got the health visitor to do a referral to the children's continence nurse - many GPs aren't very good at treating constipation in young children and ignoring or undertreating it makes things much worse.

Thank you for the advice, the ERIC website is super useful!