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

Here you go;

Leaking of liquid or loose stools
When large stools get stuck and block your child's bowel, liquid stools above the blockage can flow around it and out causing them to leak watery stools into their underwear. This is often the first sign that parents are aware of that indicates their child has a problem with their bowels. Children can be constipated for many months before the soiling starts.

this is from this website. DD had this so know quite a lot about it...

www.childhoodconstipation.com/Childhood/SignsSymptoms.aspx

thanks for the info but I don't think she is constipated tbh

she doesn't strain at all or complain about it hurting

she just poos in her pants!

I will try and keep her on the toilet longer but I will not be there at school

I have banned fruit and veg this afternoon (or dh did) and will reduce to maybe one or two pieces for the next week and see if that helps

also food/poo diary

will make docs appointment then and see what he says

thanks again

There usually wasn't any straining involved when my ds had this.

Or any complaints of stomach ache.

Just pooing pants!

But definitely constipation in my ds that required lactulose to sort it out and constant monitoring of diet still a year later.

Good idea to ask gp what they think. My gp could feel the impacted stuff in my ds, colon when pushed his stomach. Some need x-rays to confirm it.

I hope you manage to improve things whatever the cause. It's not nice for any of us to deal with

Yes no straining just comes out if impacted. The GP would be able to feel if it is.

Be aware tho by restricting/removing her normal fruit & veg amounts/items her bowel habits will change!

If it is impactation, and it nearly always is, then you are doing entirely the WRONG thing by banning fruit and veg. You need to INCREASE the amount not reduce it. The thing that we have found works best is to get them to eat seeds - sunflower, linseed etc

They are not aware that they are doing it, there is no sensation of needing to go

Olive oil is also good at moving things along. I would avoid banana's tho.

They are not aware that they are doing it, there is no sensation of needing to go

I agree that is why they can't stop it.

Is it 'normal' poo TFA ? or runny?

just wanted to add my support, my dd is going to be 4 on Saturday and we are having problems with her wetting herself 3+ times a day. She also has almost exactly the same diet as your dd and poos about 3 times a day, often fairly mushy and require me to help clean her up, she also sometimes doesn't get there on time and we have poos in pants a couple of times a week. I think her fruit and veg consumption is the key and I have had to totally ban soft fruit like raspberries and strawberries as they go right through her. Someone told me that they generally do rise to the occasion when at school and tend to save poos for when they get home. I just think she's too little and her bowel and bladder are not mature enough yet but it doesn't help when we have 'big school' looming ahead does it?

hangingbellyofbabylon - weeing as well as pooing is also very common when constipated as the impaction pushes on the bladder.

Do a search for encpresis, soiling, pooing. You'll see that lots of children suffer this. It probably won't improve without getting rid of the impaction with medication and giving the bowel time to return to it's norml shape and sensation.

Strawberries probably appear to make it worse by loosening stools that can then slip past the impaction more easily.

Actually I've been to see my GP and he has done urine tests and felt her tum for any poo problems and her tum was nice and soft. My other dd has constipation problems due to her cerebral palsy and is treated with movicol so I am very aware of bowel movement in our family. Not to say that this might not be the problem of the OP's dd of course.

Does your DD understand it is not OK to poo in her pants? Does she realize that it upsets you?

Just asking because just clearing up and saying "oh dear, let mummy know next time" might not be enough. I know that the generally accepted advice at present is to ignore and clean, but I am not sure how well the message gets across when mummy doesn't show that she is annoyed.

she does know that it is wrong, yes, but I have not been making a huge deal of it, maybe I need to

yes, we have banned strawberries/grapes and apricots recently as they steam through!

I think I will take her to the docs on Monday when I am next off just to get him to check

no poos yet today...

I also had DD allergy tested as there was talk of having her assesssed and i wanted to rule out all possibilities before i went down that route. I cut back on the amount of gluten in her diet and that worked