Is it normal for a 4 year old to poo their pants?

[metoyou]

I look after a child who is nearly 4 years old. They have been wetting themselves, well starting to go for a wee in their pants and then me saying to them - have a wee which they then do in the toilet. But today, I have had to change pooey pants 3 times!!!

The first one was just like a skid mark and I got them to sit on the toilet for a poo, but they said they didnt want one. Then I was reminding child to go for a wee and they had done a bit more poo in their pants, again sat child on toilet but no poo. Then later on the child came and told me that they had pooed in their pants - actually smiled while telling me!

shouldnt a 4 year old be able to tell me they needed a poo?

Im sorry to go on, but ive had a shi**y day - quite literally!

My ds was like this until very recently - he's just turned four. He got the signal that he needed to poo/wee so late that sometimes he just was TOO late. Ds used to smile too and it really wound be up = but tbh I think it's something children do when they are a bit nervous - sort of to lighten the atmosphere - little do they know it makes us go off POP! Be patient. I'm sure it wil get better.

Yeah I think they may be a bit nervous about it - I think they had a bad experience in the past. I guess I'm just going to have to be patient and hopefully it will sort itself out!

ah aloha hoe sweet

Do a search on the archives - there are some good threads about this.

This may be TMI for some

Most likely cause is that he is constipated and when he gets too bunged up the soft poo behind the compacted bit sort of swooshes past the blockage and smears onto the pants. Because the hard poo is there the poo coming out does not activate teh anal sphinkter muscle and so the child has no idea that they have 'gone'!

I think the tell tale sign of this is that the child rarely poos full poos but has multiple smearing incidents!

The child is often quite bewildered too, which is why they may be smiling!

The solution seems to be to go to GP and ask for lactolose or similar which softens the compacted poo and clears the blockage!

There can be other reasons though - mainly emotional! Has your DS started school or nursery recently?

Agree with soapbox. This was the cause for our dd.
If this is the case with your child then get it looked at sooner than later as the longer it is left the longer it takes to put it right. Our dd is still on medication (Movicol) more than 12 months after we decided to see the gp and was referred. Her blockage was higher up in the bowel and because of the time it had been there her bowel had lost tone and been stretched, so it can take a while to regain a proper bowel habit.

poor little boy - my ds, 5, is on movical too. He often comes home with dirty pants becasue he is scared to go to the toilet and tries his best to hold it in. This is due to the constipation and pain he has had in the past. It's quite a common problem, try to be patient (easier said than done, I've done more than my fair share of complaining as another pair of pants heads for the bin)