Kinder pooping pants

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Hi All: I am attending a SST meeting tomorrow for a Kindergartener who is pooping his pants. The info I have so far: he does it both at school and home, he's been to a doctor who says he has a bit of constipation, he will be asked if he needs to use the bathroom and will say no but then a few moments later will have poopy pants, teacher has tried to schedule him to use the bathroom but doesn't help, he's the youngest at home and is a very sweet boy well behaved, can tell that he has to go but doesn't give himself enough time to get to the bathroom. I was thinking that maybe there were some food allergies but doctor says no. Anyone have any other ideas suggestions?

Thanks

Specializes in ICU, Trauma, ER, Peds, Family Practice.

CAn be that he is not toilet trained. He may have some neuro deficit and not feel the urge to go until it is too late. He may be anxious at school .

Be nice to interview the parents. There can be something going on at home. He may not like using the toilet at school as someone mentioned. I know one of my sons did not like some bathrooms when we traveled and had a really hard time using some of them or would refuse.

If he is constipated what are the parents doing to adjust his diet? Needs more fluids and veges. Is he really that well behaved all the time?

Does he urinate in the toilet? What does the peds doc say about all this. Lots of questions and answers needed and then there can be a plan.

I have some friends that have autistic children and they are not toliet trained until they are 7 to 10 years old doesnt sound like he is on the autism spectrum. Just to clarify that point.

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

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One day her son pooped in his jeans. She got fed up one day, ran some soapy bath water, and made the boy clean the poop from his pants and undergarments. Miraculously, after this incident he never pooped on himself ever again. After being forced to clean his poopy jeans, he started defecating at the toilet.

. That worked for my son-he was toilet trained and then our family went through a rough patch and he began to have accidents.The pediatrician recommended that approach. I laid out clean clothes and wipes in the bathroom and waited for the next accident.When it happened he was told to go in the bathroom and not come out until he was clean.I did end up going in an talking him through rinsing his unders in the toilet but he got the job done.I felt horrible because he bawled the whole time but the doc told me to stand firm so I did. He never had another accident.

I'm thinking "since when is this the school's concern?' There are so many issues that can be causing this and it's up to the family and their pediatrician to solve the problem.I wouldn't want my child to be known throughout his school years as "the kid who crapped his pants in school" I feel he is not ready for kindergarten.Isn't continence of bowel and bladder a basic requirement for school children? I really don't think this issue should be dealt with a school.

Ok Now for my 3 cents worth. I have a friend who's daughter had this problem. Child was checked out at Stanford and there was nothing physically wrong with the child. Parents had to take child out of one school and send to another when child in middle school due to bullying. Now this child is 18 yrs old and has been in and out of psych treatment. Does not poop in pants anymore but is with mental issues. I would take this small child mentioned to psych counseling.

Hmm.. embarrassment in using the toilet at school sounds definitely possible...

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Hmm.. embarrassment in using the toilet at school sounds definitely possible...
But the original post indicates that the boy poops in his pants at home, too.

He doesn't feel the urge until its too late.... points to a possible neuro deficit, has he been checked for mild spina bifida occulta?

Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

Wow, what a huge variety of causes this thread has exposed. This was a problem for my step-son that I became aware of when I became part of the family and he was 7. It took me about a year to convince dad this is not normal, or poor cleaning habits. We tried behavioral tactics, having the child clean his own clothing, monitoring him closely for bathroom habits, so many things. Finally, he wound up in counseling with a child psychologist, who never got anywhere or found anything real to work on. At around age 9, he had a partial answer was found. I made him an appointment with a pedi gastroenterologist who determined he was chronically constipated and this was likely due to his severely restricted diet. Oh yea, step-son only ate a list of about 10 items, none of which had much fiber in them. The MD prescribed miralax but said the problem would persist until the child added more fiber to his diet.

Getting this child to eat varied items was impossible, when I say impossible, I'm serious, he would rather starve than eat something he didn't want. The reason for this became clear a couple of years later when he had extensive testing at school which discovered he had Asperger's Syndrome. These kids are very set in their ways and follow strict routines, this child's affected his dietary choices. Sometime in middle school he stopped soiling his pants. Social pressure means very little to children with Asperger's by the way, I'm not sure what helped him stop soiling, it was not due to him changing his diet.

So the soiling resolved, but then the child was a teenager and his Asperger's made him resistant to using soap or shampoo due to tactile issues. So he still stunk (and still struggles with this as an adult).

My recommendation would obviously be to assess the child's physical health, but be aware that there are many varying causes of stool soiling.

Here is a suggestion.... My son was 4 1/2 before he started using the toilet AT ALL. His biggest issue with accidents after that was that he seemed to sense that he was going to miss something.... i.e. there is something happening that he really enjoys & doesn't want to stop. I started taking him the the restroom every 15 minutes and made sure that we were really strict about it when he wanted to do what was going on. If he used the restroom, he did not have to start the every 15 minute restroom breaks for 2 hours. It did not take but a few days for him to figure out that if he used the restroom that he actually missed less of an activity than going every 15 minutes. After 4 days total, he was fully potty trained. So just a thought.

Hmm.. embarrassment in using the toilet at school sounds definitely possible...

Maybe he was being bullied in the bathroom and now he doesn't want to go in there

Specializes in Adult M/S.

A little more information after the SST...the student was potty trained at home and didn't have a problem until the family moved into the district last year. That and starting kindergarten seems to have set him back some. He gets very involved with whatever he's doing and doesn't want to interrupt himself to go to the bathroom. He was seen by a doctor who prescribed miralax which the parents used only once because he had a major blowout. They tried prunes with good success and have added more veggies. For the past two and a half weeks he's not had an accident! He used to go into the bathroom at school and if he didn't feel like he had to go immediately he'd go back to class then poop so the teacher told him to count to 100 while sitting and not to come out till he was done. That helped too! He also was having anxiety about being able to wipe but his Dad helped him out with that and it doesn't seem to be a problem any more. And yes, the school is in a poverty area but the parents are educated and have good jobs. What also helped was explaining to him that his pooping his pants was a problem for the other kids in the class (some kids told him this directly) and also knowing that his teacher, principal, school nurse, and parents were meeting to talk about him. So, I think a lot of different things happened to, hopefully, correct the problem. And someone asked why this was a school problem and it seems that not only this but some many other issues that don't seem to be a school problem are just taken on by the schools where I am.

Nice to hear from you OP - glad he's getting better.

We used wet wipes for kids - helps them clean up better. Just a suggestion for parents with potty training.

In Kenya, as an extreme example- what do babies do except poop on the ground? What is their 'potty training'?

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