10 month old dd won't poo in nappy. should I use a potty or just keep on catching it?

[entropy]

for the last few weeks my dd hasn't pooed in her nappy. she makes a straining noise but straightens her legs to make sure nothing comes out. am worried that it hurts her to poo and have taken her to Drs but they were quite dismissive. She poos every day but only with her nappy off and me holding her legs! when my mum found out she got us a potty and dd has used it 3 times fairly succesfully. (she has a v small bum and can fall in ) but it feels wrong. She isn't telling me she wants to poo. She is probably only aware of pooing because its unpleasant for her...

am I looking a gift horse in the mouth? surely at 10 months (and this has been going on for over a month) she can't be ready for a potty?

From what I've gather from books they have certain times that they are susceptible, so if you are prepared to go everywhere with a potty it will definitely save you nappies! Ds is 18 months and is only aware of pooping because we tell him he's doing it when he's busy, he also likes catching his wee in the bath...

My in-law and her mother wont allow her 8 month old to poo in a nappy. the grandmother knows when he is going to poo and holds him over the toilet . If they are out, they have to go home again, or go to the loo so she can hold him over the public toilet loo!

Pavlov, that's the kind of insanity I want to avoid!! I feel like I'm turning into a pushy mum by trying to get her to use a potty way to early. but on the other hand she is more comfortable pooing on the potty than lying down and its not like I'm stopping her from using her nappy. she choses to hold it in until the nappy comes off!

spacepuppy, I haven't read up on potty training yet thought I'd have about a year to get round to it. think I will get some books... but going everywhere with a potty is not possible. I don't drive and have trouble with pushchairs as I can't see where I'm pushing them so I'm trying to just take a sling and a bag out and about! I will just have to teach her to use the big loo

Where as some child are indifferent to their motions some babies like yours and mine object to sitting in their own poo and TBH I can see their point.

You will not damage your baby by letting her poo in a potty or over the toilet. In fact she will properly be much happier, as she is clearly unhappy with te poo in nappy option.

For home you could buy a 'Baby Bjorn Little Potty' from Ebay or Boots apparantly do a small potty with a small hole perfect for little bottoms.

For Out and about either hold her over the toilet (hold her back to your stomach facing the toilet and hold her thighs from underneath) or use a foldable potty or unfold a cloth/plastic nappy and hold her over that.

HTH

I heard on five live this morning a bit of discussion about ealy potty training andf thought of you!

They were talking about active potty training, rather than your case, where DD is doing it herself!

My DD started doing poos on the potty at 10 months, although we did the leading. She found it easier to push them out.

For out and about, you can get porta potties by tommee tippee i think. You can buy liners but we just use nappy sacks with cheap sanitary towels in. They easily fit in the changing bag.

HTH.

I wouldn't worry! She obviously doesn't want to do it in her nappy so let her do it in a potty. It's not as if you're forcibly potty training her she's obviously not comfortable with doing it in her nappy so you're just making it more comfortable for her. As long as she's poohing regularly it's fine!

I'd say definitely let her use a potty because by deliberately holding it in until you're ready to help her out she's showing you that's what she wants. My DD's almost 14m and does about half her poos in the potty. I'm sure the rest would end up in there too except she only does the 'potty' sign if asked 'do you need your potty?' and I am a bit slack about checking with her.
Don't let Huggies/Pampers-inspired propaganda about pushy Mums deter you from responding to a change she's keen to make!

thanks for all your responses but it seems that my instincts were right and its a dislike of (problem with) pooing rather than using her nappy. she was ok with the potty for a few days as it was a more comfortable position but I think she had a painful poo there as well as has now rejected it. (and pooing as it happens!) she's been suppressing the same poo since friday. I keep seeing it but then she insists on sucking it back up (babies are so grim) It's doctors time tomorrow I think she is already having the maximum dose of lactulose and prunes every day so when she finally lets it out its going to be horrific!

I would keep going with the potty idea or you sitting with her at the toilet because if you are going to have regular poo problems using the potty or assisting her is going to be much easier without a nappy on. Dh mum and sister are nurses and if ds is having problems they put their finger with olive oil or vaseline up his bum to help ease it out.

Look into infant potty training or elimination communication if you want to know more.

I think ds has a fissure and I help him to squat over his potty to get sore poo's out , this is a much more natural posistion to poo in , indians are clever to have modern toilets that are just flushable holes in the ground to squat over.

Kim

thanks Kim, thats good advice. I'm worried its a fissure too. unfortunatly I can't get dd to our gp until tomorrow at the earliest as we live near sheffield and all our doctors are stranded by the floods and road closures. she did however manage a small poo by herself this morning (in her nappy!) will keep up encouraging using the potty though.

does she drink lots of water and have high fibre foods such as weetabix? and fruits are good at helping little ones poo, but banana used to bung my dd1 up.

can you get to a chemist today? you can get lactulose over the counter, explain what's been going on. also if it continues glycerine supposeteries are good but think she might have to be over 1 for them.

agree with vaseline and olive oil to help the poo slide out a little easier.

she will only eat weetabix with banana mixed in which is conterproductive I know. (although when I spoke to a dr they said banana wouldn't block her up!) i limit her to holf a small banana a day. may have to cut this back though. she eats lots of fruit. have cut back on the ammount of yogurt or rice pud I mix it with. she has prunes once a day. usually mixed with pear. i've also given her baked beans and lots of wholemeal bread! she also drinks aptimil which her dietitian told us produces looser stools than the other formulas

I have enough lactulose to unblock and elephant thankfully! they gave me a 1000ml bottle when she went onto a prescription milk that bunged her up but she only stayed on the milk a few days as she wouldn't drink it. she has been on the maximum dose for about a week now.

she has pooed twice (small ones) today with minimal discomfort but with that amount of fibre and medicine I would have expected a return to the exploding nappys of old! seeing Dr tomorrow and I'm not going to let them fob me off this time....

forgot to say she's not good at drinking water. ever since she learned to spit water out like a little hose pipe she's had very little interest in swallowing it. (maybe 6 sips with each meal) she won't touch juice at all and doesn't drink well through the day. I mix extra water into her pureed fruit to try to compensate a bit but if its not a fissure or other medical complication lack of water is all I can think of. she still wees lots though....

the dietician told me that water is essential to work alongside a high fibre diet but if she has lots of wet nappies this might not be the problem.

glycerrine supposeteries are really good but you'll have to find out what age they're from. dd1 has digeorge syndrome and we've ended up in hospital with her when she hasn't pooed for about 10 days a couple of times and as we're waiting to be seen she then does a poo finally!

another thing she used to do at times when it got really bad was poo in the bath. the first time she did this i was really shocked but glad she'd pooed, then i used to have a couple of towels laid out for when she'd poo i could quickly wrap her up, drain the bath, give it a quick clean, refil and finish bathing her.

hope all goes well at the doctors. there is a drug that can give them the urge to push which dd1 was put on for a while but can't remember what it's called. maybe ask about this one as well?

hehe I know what you mean about the hospital wait. last time I told the paed that dd was constipated she did an exploding nappy on my knee. as if that wasn't bad enough I then in next breath said I didn't think dd's feeding problem was reflux and she vomited all over me. am now VERY careful what I say

dd also is a big fan of bath logs but her forte is pooing during her after lunch swimming lesson. so much so that I have started taking her swimming in the mornings only,

she has the urge to push, goes v v red then squeals and forces her legs straight and together to stop it comming out. I was holding her legs (or sitting her on a potty) but she is now fighting me and I'm worried i'd hurt her if forced her. will ask the Dr tommorrow about the vasiline/olive oil application as I think that might really help her.

he said just give her more lactulose! he told me to encourage her to sit on her potty. he didn't ask if i'd got one so i think he's not had much experience of babies development. think I will book into see the baby savvy gp when the floods subside.

i think your daughter may be very sensitive to have a little popo stick to her bum and dislikes the feeling so much thst she's able to express it in her own way....

Good luck!

some children can be on very high doses of lactulose, dd1(just turned 3) was on 20mls twice a day but since xmas just gone she's started cruising around the furniture and she just has fibre in her milk (is on a special high calorie milks called nutrini and fortini). your dd should be moving around more soon and hopefully that will help her. did you ask about the glycerine supposeteries?

well we still have the problem! the doctors are just telling me to up the lactulose dose by 1ml every couple of days until things "shift" well I thought we'd had success at 12ml a day but it was a one off so we are up to 13ml now.... she is losing a little bit of weight and now only weighs 7.5kg. my friends 14 week old weighs more than her!!! (she is 1yr in a couple of weeks)

we see a dietitian next friday and a peadiatritian the week after (not appointments specifically for this problem but I will wont some answers!)

apart from the glycerine suppositories (which the gp for want of a better expresion poopooed) can anyone think of anything I should be asking the doctors to do? I find if you don't go in knowing what tests etc you want done you find yourself waiting 3 months "just to see how she gets on"

Hi KZ! its so funny how our dd's seem to have the same problems! dd started with her poo issues at 9 months, it is just getting worse rather than better. she hasn't pooed since tuesday and isn't really eating much at mealtimes now. I'm not surprised really, she is full of poo! she won't let me hold her legs any more. I'm wondering if its a food intolorance but with her being such a light weight I don't want to go restricting her diet without advice and we have been waiting since march for out dietitian appointment (its next week!) by absorrption do you mean the amount of food she absorbs into her system?

dd was living on anything so long as it was fairly smooth and in a cheese sauce! (veg pasta and meat) but she even turned that down last night. its so frustrating as a couple of months ago I thought we had turned the corner. she was eating well and going up the centiles!

Hi entrophy. Hopefully your LO is unclogged by now FWIW you can use the glycerine suppositories when they're younger. I had to when DS moved to solids (about 7mo. It's not pleasant but it seems to shift it. Hope you won't need to use them!

As far as I know there isn't actually a max dose of lactulose..you can give as much as she'll take. My Dr told me that it doesnt actually get absorbed into the body so can give as much as needed.
My dd has been on absolutely massive doses before now. We have constipation probs, but they're due to dd's disability. There have been times when I've pretty much poured the stuff down her to get her moving!!