Excessive pooing - or not?

[Robeena]

My second son is 2yrs 4mths. He goes to nursery all day Mon-Wed and mornings the rest of the week.

The carers at the nursery spoke to me that over the course of a full day he will do 2/3 poos a day and when he does poo there is so much that most days they have to put him in a second/third set of clothes. They asked me to take him to a doctor and they cannot believe a child so young can poo so much - I was afraid to tell them that he already has a poo before he even gets in the car to come to nursery.

Obviously trying to soften the blow they did say that he is so smart and his diction is so good that they cannot understand why he won't tell them when he needs to go.

I have agreed with the nursery that I will keep a diary for the next two weeks on what he eats and how often he poos when not in school and they will do the same and see if he is reacting to something.

Is it just my child or do other children have this problem?

I wouldn't worry about frequency. Sounds like the poos are very soft thouggh if they come out of his clothes. I would be more concerned about that than the frequency of poos. Ds and dd poo at least twice a day (dh and I do too - tmi!)
p.s ds is clever and speaks really well and would rather eat his own head than admit he needs a poo. He's 3 and is a dab hand at hiding whenever he needs to go.

DS is 19 months and also goes 2-3 times a day and they are always very soft (occasional firm one, but rare).
I do think the same - whether I should take him, so I'll watch this thread with interest. DS had reflux a lot as a baby and seems to get really bad poos after eating tomatoey food too.

likessleep - yes soft poo - he's been doing this for what seems likes months now - he has only been going to nursery since end of February when he turned 2 and his diet is the same as his older brother and no problems there.

Anyway - they are keeping a diary at school and so far nothing out of the ordinary.

dd1 is 22mo and does at least 3 poos a day.

The leakage may have something to do with them not catching the poo in time - if he wees in a pooey nappy it will leak.

When he is at home with you does his nappy leak? If it doesn't it is probably because you catch the poos when they are done and change him - whereas at nursery if they don't see him doing it they may not get to it quickly enough?

I also have a poo deny-er - "dd1 have you done a poo"........."no poo mummy, dd2 poo"

Sounds like toddler diarrhoea to me, my DD has this and funnily enough it has always been worse at nursery than at home although I have never quite worked out why. I also had to do the food diary thing and see the GP but it wasn't anything in particular she was reacting to in the end. It isn't that uncommon.

I think your nursery is being unreasonable expecting a 2.4 year old to tell them when he needs a poo because he is smart and has good diction, do they seriously expect him to be fully potty trained? Also if he needsa couple of changes of clothes, surely you are actually paying them to change him? My DD is nearly three now and she was dry at your son's age and able to ask for a solid poo, but completely unable to control a very soft one and even now she will occasionally have a very soft poo accident (which upsets her very much now). This is what helped us improve things abit and also help nursery out:

1. Avoid apple juice.
2. Check how many portions of fruit and vegetables he is actually getting based on his fist being equal to a portion, too much can be a problem.
3. Banana, egg and milk are great to help with 'binding' the food, so I didn't stop her eating apples but I would give them with banana too or egg and tomatoes or a glass of milk with fruit salad.
4. We switched to an oat based breakfast cereal which helped too, although I don't know why. If she eats shreddies it sets it off, although she is not wheat intolerant.
5. Buy some very cheap undies and, if you are happy to, tell the nursery you are happy for them to just bin them if he has a bad explosion.
6. Invest in some crocs for nursery if he is going down to his shoes as they can just be rinsed.

It will get better!