5year old holding onto poo

[Mumtozac-owen]

Hi just been referred to this site by school nurse and anything is worth a shot. Any tips would be greatful. Son was potty trained at 2.5 and got doing a wee no problem but has always tries to hold on to poo. If I catch him rocking in the corner or sucking his tummy in to hold it in by the time I get him to the toilet he says the feeling has gone. Some days it’s just stained pants but yesterday it was a full poo in his pants at a kids indoor play centre and most days he comes back from school with changed pants and varying amounts of soiling. Tried timers when sitting on toilet, sitting him on loo with iPad, blowing balloons, lactalose, bribing, with holding privileges and nothing seems to work. When the poo comes doesn’t seem to be hard so don’t think constipation and he eats lots of fruit and drinks well. Got a 2 year old who will start training soon and hope to god we don’t have this issue again,

Help!!!

[UppsyDaisy]

Hi there

Sorry to hear about your little one. I have had a very similar situation with my son.

He’s 5years old and we’ve had problems since potty training at 3 years old.

I believe it started with a painful poo and then he began withholding his poo.

He had of accidents, sometimes just a smear of poo in his pants but sometimes a whole poo and he would often sit in it for lengths of time and not be bothered about it. It was so stressful.

I found lots of helpful advice on the ERIC website and managed to get a telephone consultation with one of their experts.

I would really recommend this service if you are able to do it. They have me lots of advice on withholding and impaction which was something I didn’t really know anything about.

We saw our GP who prescribed him Laxido which has helped to soften the poo which means he is no longer scared of going.

It’s been a long road and we still have problems, we recently had a bad patch over Christmas but he’s ok at the moment.

So I would say possibly get some advice from ERIC or see your GP who could prescribe a macrogol if they think it’s needed.

I tried all sorts with my son in regards to getting him to sit on the toilet, iPad, singing songs etc. He sometimes felt more comfortable doing it on a potty rather than the toilet, would that be an option for your son?

I hope some of this is if use to you, if not I hope it’s helpful to know you’re not alone in the situation, it’s really stressful and I know I took a lot of comfort hearing from others on this forum who have a child going through the same thing.

Xx

[JamesParkin]

Hi, you could try reading through my short blog for children who soil, which tells my own story of withholding and soiling in simple language. This is designed to encourage kids not to withhold and use the toilet instead:

theboywhopooedhispants.blog...

[Nanoiu]

Sounds like he is constipated. We also didn't believe it was constipation at first, when our son started soiling. What came out was soft. It took us a couple more months to believe it was indeed constipation which required laxative treatment. That delay in starting treatment cost us dearly. Still dealing with this 2.5 years later.

[Nanoiu in reply to Nanoiu]

Laxative and stimulant treatment strong enough to overcome withholding, I mean. So he withholds, poo gets harder, new poo arrives in the colon and seeps around the big blockage. Read about encopresis.