My 3 (nearly 4) year old keeps pooing in her knickers! Do I ban fruit and veg or what? She starts school in 3 weeks!

[TheFifthApe]

has pooed 3 times in her knickers SO FAR today

she is a fruit and veg fiend, mainly vegetarian diet

does eat carbs but not much meat

will have say banana, grapes, apple, carrots, peas, brocolli each day

is this too much?

I need to sort it asap

thanks

I don't think it is her diet that needs sorting. Or does she get caught out?

Have you tried bribery?

she just seems to do it, no warning

I stress she must tell me if she needs to go and I remind her all the time

but it still happens

what will I do about school?

What's the consistency like? If very runny then maybe too much fruit/veg, or maybe she's got a stomach upset. If normal consistency then what's she usually like? Does she usually poo 3x a day?

Sorry. This happened to my DS & my friend's DS. They were just about potty trained when they started at the local primary school nursery.

For the first three weeks they still had poo accidents. The teachers did get fed up & were threatening to "expulse" them. Fortunately something clicked.

Not v helpful sorry. Bribery helped us (chocolate/ toys/ telly) and I tried not to make a big deal about it when DS had an accident.

Re diet -I don't know.

not runny

normally goes maybe twice a day

but then has these 'accidents' in between

no stomach upset or pain (that I am aware of)

"expulse them"

ffs, they shouldn't even be there imo anyhoo, she is only just 4, a full 10 MONTHS YOUNGER than dd1 when she started

anyone else got any advise for me?

advice!

Maybe she's a bit nervous about starting school? They don't have much in their arsenal (sorry!) and a poo is a powerful way of giving a message. What does she say about it?

Is this a recent thing or has she always been a bit hit and miss with pooing on the loo?

she has always been like this come to think of it

but I am stressing now as school is looming

she is looking forward to school, very excited, no worries on that front I don't think

knows the teacher and has tons of friends moving up from nursery

I was going to bribe but then thought that make too much of the situation? At the moment I am just clearing up and saying "oh dear, let mummy know next time [grits teeth]"

Have you tried reward charts or anything? (I don't have exp of this, btw, but dd1 has had periods of wetting in the past)

Maybe she needs more carbs, try keeping a food diary for a couple of days as well as a 'poo' diary, post it on here and maybe we come up with some ideas to help.

lol at carb and poo diary

oh the joys of parenting

good idea though

YES! I get the more pants thing too, grrrr

it seems I need to change my ways with dealing with her then

she is not really into tv much tbh

Hi,
My dd1(4 in September) has only just learned to poo in the toilet. we also had the "never mind accidents happen" type scenario when she wasn;t taking it seriously enough.
The problem was cracked by my sis who gave dd a wand to use when she sat on the toilet or potty.
It kept her on the toilet for longer, gave her something to concentrate on (wave the wand and see if you can squeeze a poo out- sorry if TMI).
This really worked and we have since lost the wand (though a couple of times she asked for something to hold). For us it was just getting her to concentrate on doing a poo for more than a minute.
We also used a sticker/reward chart aswell
Good luck

My DD went through a stage a couple of years ago, ended up taking her to the gp who referred us to a paeditrician and believe it or not she was actually constipated!!! Had to take some laxatives and it soon sorted out the problem. Sounds strange i know but true.

I know it may seem illogical to suggest constipation but I had exactly this problem with DS1, tried all the things that have been suggested and got nowhere. Luckily Dsis pointed me in right direction and gave me a booklet from an organisation called ERIC www.eric.org.uk which explained it all and advised giving a spoon of lactalose and a spoon of laxative together (I think once per day, you might be able to find it on the website) and it worked like magic - after about 3 days he was pooing normally and years later has never had any trouble again. Someone else may be able to give you more details, unfortunately I don't have the booklet anymore, I got to the stage where I would have tried anything to stop the problem and once I'd done this felt awful that I hadn't done it sooner as it would have saved a lot of heartache.

merryandmad - fantastic

If has been happening for a while, I would say she could be constipated too.

TMI ALERT:
The poo becomes very hard and impacted (?) in the colon and softer poo leaks around the edges and out. After a while they become desensitised to the urge to go so don't notice it happens.

Search soiling, encopresis, pooing and there are loads of threads and suggestions which will depend on the severity of the problem.

Have a look and see what you think.

HTH

She could be constipated if these are happening frequently. Hold on will look for some info on it...

Does she help 'clean up' after the accident?

Maybe special reward pants for a poo in the loo

does it happen at a similar time in the day? maybe spending toilet reading time would be helpful not a fab idea i know but can help.