5yr old says she doesnt know.

[CJL2010]

My little girl has had a bit of a rough ride toilet wise. She used to have 8-10 poo accidents a day that were very runny. I took dairy out of her diet because i had the feeling she was allergic and this was part of the problem. When we took dairy out of her diet things improved greatly she now has 1or 2 BM a day and now everything is alot more normal, however she still isnt using the toilet. She says that she doesnt need to go until its already in her knickers and she doesnt get any warning. She is getting very upset about this and obviously it embarrassing for her especially in school. Im at a loss at what to do and the school is useless. I dont really know where to start to look for help. Should i go back to the doctors even though im already waiting on a dieticians appt. I think that even though removing dairy has helped greatly and it is connected i think there are other problems that are not connected to her diet. I believe her when she says she doesnt know she needs to go. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[Katiesaltwell]

If you have a local bladder & bowel service I would give them a call. It sounds a lot like she has chronic constipation and what's coming out is just the excess breaking off because her bowel is so full. A course of Movicol/Lactulose is probably what's needed.

I'm currently going through this with my 5 year old so I know how frustrating and upsetting it is.

[annierosered]

Sounds like what we've been going through with my 4.5 year old since she was about 2! We've just reached a place where she'll have normal BM every day ish and only 1-2 small dirty pants a week. What I've found solved the problem is this:

Like the pp said, a course of movicol disimpaction so get rid of any blockages. Messy but necessary. Then a maintenance dose for as long as needed after (ours is one sachet a day).

Reduced dairy. My daughter was having cups of milk, cheese, bowls of yoghurt every day as I was sure it was providing lots of calories for her. I reduced it a lot an switched to soya and saw a massive improvement.

The main game changer was fluid intake. May sound simple and obvious but my daughter was averaging about 200-300mls a day maximum, if that. I made an effort to encourage at least 900-1000mls a day of juices, water, tea and soya milk and saw an overnight improvement.

Hope this helps!

The lack of feeling in her bowel might be because it's stretched due to chronic constipation. My daughter has the same. Xxx

[joannavince]

Do toilet sits after breakfast lunch and dinner. Get her to stay on toilet for 5-10 minutes. Reading playing on iPad or blowing bubbles. Go back to using a child toilet seat and a step for putting feet on. It helped my son so much, he has stopped using them now he is 8 and can now feel when he needs to go

[CJL2010]

I've been to the gp this morning and she said that she doesn't feel constipated at all which has left me at a bit of a loss because that was what I was thinking it was. The gp believes it's psychological but all rooted from the fact she was so loose for so long due to the problems with dairy. We have a general paediatricians appt next week that we've waited 6 months for and im so confused I don't want to not ask the right questions and miss the opportunity to get her the help she needs! Sorry I'm rambling I'm just not sure what I need to do to help her sort this. She's only 5 bless her.

[SallyandPaul]

I was hesitant to reply to this as it doesn't sound quite like the constipation issues that most of our children have. You have done well to isolate the dairy as the main issue. Perhaps the amount of runny poos that she has done have caused her to lose a lot of her sensitivity. This will eventually return I imagine, though it has taken our daughter over four years!! Hopefully the paediatrician will be more helpful. The only thing I can suggest is regular sitting on the toilet , although this is such a pain for them when they don't feel that they want to go. Also insist that school are more helpful. This is a medical issue and they have a duty of care. Good luck x

[Luella19]

I really hope the paediatric doctor you see next week is helpful, the consultant we were referred to was brilliant and so calm and understanding. I felt quite nervous about the initial appointment with my daughter who had constipation/withholding/soiling issues, but what helped me was writing everything down. I went in with a clear time line of all symptoms over the years, what measures I'd taken, what various GPs had said, what we had been prescribed, results, diet changes, successes etc.

Also at the end of appointment ask if they offer a telephone clinic, I can book in to a telephone clinic with our consultant when ever I need advice, I phone and book a time slot with the receptionist and he rings me. I think he has one quite frequently. Was a great resource to be able to contact him between appointments with questions.

[CJL2010 in reply to Luella19]

Thank you that's a good idea because I do tend to get cafuffled and forget things. I will right everything down this week so I can go in with a clear head.