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3 Year old regressing - poo problem

2 replies

elandjacksmum · 29/11/2004 15:39

My three year old dd was beautifully potty trained by about 2 and a half years old but it didn't last. She's now three and a half and is regularly pooing in her pants. She's just pooed on the stairs which was the last straw. She has also wee'd in her pants today, but this is less frequent.

I've been through various options.

Attention seeking? Likely. We've now got a nine month old ds, she's started nursery school in the mornings and possibly is looking for extra attention. We have tried to remedy this by pretty much ignoring the pooing and giving her attention at other times...

Physical problem? She does seem to be a little confused physically. She can be DESPERATE for a poo, clutching trousers etc and then when she gets to the loo she says 'it's gone', 'I don't need one now' etc. If I make her sit there for a while she gets very upset and I believe it's not a good thing to fight about toilet training. If I can persuade her to sit there for a while, we have had some success after about 10 minutes. OR she can hold on for a day or so.

I feel like we've tried everything, but perhaps that's bad in itself as it can't be too consistent - we've been cross and stopped tv and video for 10 days until she managed one in the toilet. We've ignored it. We've rewarded the successes. I'd be grateful for any thoughts of anyone who's been through similar.

Cheers,

Elandjacksmum

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juuule · 30/11/2004 13:25

Hi

We had similar problems with our dd. It all got very confusing, we knew when she needed the toilet so thought she must know. This went on for a few months, with us thinking she was being awkward, or wanting attention, or having a physical problem. Eventually, when she was soiling sometimes 4 times in 1 hour, we asked for help.. It seems that dd was constipated and this had resulted in a blockage higher up in her bowel. The looser stuff moves around the blockage. The normal thing children do in this situation is hold on to their poo. They dont like the sensation and sometimes its painful. Eventually they cant hold it any longer and so can't get to the toilet in time. She was given Movicol in quite high doses for 1 week to dissolve the blockage(which it did)and is now on a maintenance dose while she develops a normal bowel habit(this could take a while apparantly).
So we have to monitor her, but she now goes on the toilet and is completely different to how she was before the treatment. Eventually the Movicol will not be needed.
Dont know if that helps in your situation, but it might be something to consider.
Julie

elandjacksmum · 30/11/2004 22:15

Thank you. That's certainly something that we hadn't considered before. I always imagined she wasn't constipated as her poo is quite soft...

It could be a possibility though as she was fine before.... Will ask the doc/health visitor. How could they tell? Just poking at stomach etc? She does sometimes say 'my tummy's poorly'. I'll see if I can get her to be more specific.

Just to confuse us further, she's started weeing more often than she was as well. One poo one wee today, one poo two wees yesterday.

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