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Toilet Phobia

1 reply

Shar12 · 24/03/2009 14:54

My son will be 6 in a few months and he seems to have developed a phobia about going for a poo.... we've had the odd occasion in the past where he's been a bit lazy, we put him on a star chart and problem sorted. This time its different, it's been going on for few months now, and getting worse if anything, at least once a day he'll have dirty pants because he just won't go to the toilet. We know when he needs to go and he will argue that he doesn't, we literally have to force him to go. I have taken him to the doctors who seem to think he's ok, they've suggested it might be attention seeking (we have a 5 month old baby), they think maybe a bit of jelousy. They gave me some lactulose, but doesn't seem to have made any difference. Problem is, when he does have an 'accident' it doesn't seem to worry him, he will just sit in it until someone realises and we tell him to go and clean himself & get changed.
I've made another appointment to see the doctor tonight..... we just don't know what to do now, we've tried everything - rewarding/punishing/ignoring.....it's causing so much stress in the house..... is there anyone else out there who is going through this?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
ICANDOTHAT · 24/03/2009 16:28

Has he always been lazy about pooing? I've known a few kids like this and they have grown out of it - I can think of 3 straight off my head. One of my friends used to have to put a pull-up on her 5.6yo dd when she wanted to poo because she refused to sit on the toilet. I'm sure doctors have seen this many times before, but I can understand you wanting to go back in case it's more of an involuntary thing. Hopefully someone will come on soon who has had a similar experience. Good luck at the doctors

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