Help Wanted - Daughter Still Poops in Her Pants at 6 Years Old

T.
I feel for you! Have you been to the Dr.? At 4 my son had a pooping problem called encopresis. It all started when he was costipated & when he finally pooped it hurt, so after that he started holding in his poop & would only go everyfew days. The problem with this is it made it hurt worse. Long story short after one time of no poop for 8 days we had to take him to DR for enema (which eh held in for 20 mins!) & we learned about the problem. Holding in poop can actually make the muscles loose their feeling so you don't really feel that you have to go & sometimes the poop leaks out. & Usually kids with this will eventually go a huge poop in the toilet every few days. My son was on stool sofeners & laxatives for a full year for him to Forget the Ouch of pooping. Please, Please see your doctor. I also found an online support group of parents going thru. good luck.

I don't know wha causes this, but have you tried having your daughter clean her panties out and washing them when she does this? My grandson had to get imbarresed when he was in school to stop pooping in his pants and said the same thing. Some kids have a nerveous disorder and wet the bet until they are older. My son was 4 when I caught him squating in the back yard pooping and I spanked him and made him clean his pants out. That stopped him. He is now 43 years old and never had any more problems after he cleaned his pants out at 4.

Hi T.,
Have you taken her to the pediatrician to get this checked out? I have a friend who is raising her 3 grandsons and one of them has this problem. He was taken to the dr and it was finally discovered that he had nerve damage around the muscles that tell us when we need to go. Hopefully this won't be the case for her, but ,better to find out and deal with it the best way you both can ,than to not know. ( she also sends extra clothing and baby wipes to school with him if this does happen at school.) Hope this at least encourages and lets you know you're not alone. Best of luck to you both. C.

A little about me: I'm the mother of 3, 1 girl, 2 boys (all grown) and raising an 11 yr old granddaughter !

The only other time that I have heard about this type of thing, the mom had to talk to the pediatrician about it. Sometimes the muscle that controls this doesn't develop tight enough or something like that and can be easily corrected through surgery.