4 Year Old wetting & soiling himself - solutions?

[StrawberryMartini]

Hi, I'm a childminder and have taken on a lovely 4 year old. He has wet himself and pooed himself a few times now. His mum says he's always had issues with going to the toilet. He uses a trainer seat at my house, but when we go out I have to lift him on the toilet - he doesn't want to do it himself. He won't talk about it and doesn't even tell me when it happens - just completely shuts down. He's been diagnosed with epilepsy but I'm not sure if that's connected.

Is there anything I can do apart from making sure he goes to the toilet regularly? I don't want this to turn into a bigger issue than it is already - he's going to full-time school in Jan and his mum is obviously concerned.

Thanks

Can you not ask his mam what his paed says, he will have a paed for the epilepsy, and are you sure that he doesn't poo him self when he is having a seizure ... because he could be having very mild petty mals during which he poos himself. Just a thought mind you.

Thanks mobile - will ask. Bumping for any other ideas.

I think in light of the epilepsy, you may need to talk to mum about it some more. Like mobile says, it could be connected and his doctor or health visitor might be better placed to make suggestions.

Hiya Strawbs

No experience of this but hoping someone else may be able to help

have you got all your info on epilepsy - absences and so on? there are some good courses around if you need more info. i teach a good few young people who have epilepsy, all sorts of things can cause them to wet themselves as even quite well controlled epilepsy means that they still have small 'episodes' where they would otherwise have had a larger fit. Does he go still, stiff or floppy in his seizures? they may be really hard to detect, and we often only notice them on the person's face not their body but sometimes tense muscle or loss of muscle tone (obv two opposite ends of the possibilities) can both result in loss of control of their bladder / bowel for a short time.
have i just written one enormous babbling sentence ? sorry if it's gibberish