Constipation Archives

bowel withholding

My 5 1/2 year old daughter is a bright, happy, loving and active child who is the light of my life. About 3 months ago she came down with a case of diarrea while at school and had an accident in her pants. The problem is she has been reluctant to have a bowel movement ever since. At first she only went 3 or 4 days without a BM, but now she can hold it up to 12 days. After about 3 days of holding back she gets tummy aches which get worse until she finally goes. Today I had to go pick her up from school because she was crying and holding her belly in pain. I've tried talking to her about it, bribing her to go, adding more fibre to her diet, giving her stool softeners, but nothing seems to work and she holds it regardless. Can you give me any advice on how I can help her?

Follow Ups:

• Re: bowel withholding (Archive.) Walt Stoll 09:18:39 6/04/02 (0)

In Reply to: bowel withholding posted by Becca on June 03, 2002 at 19:54:52:

Hi, Becca.

First, you have to realize that little kids are not just small adults. They are really like space aliens that just happen to grow up to BE adults.

The reason that we adults do not have to wear diapers is that we finally learned the it was a lot less stinky and uncomfortable to deposit our stools in the toilet than in our pants.

Just follow the stool witholding protocol and put her back in training pants or diapers until she gets back in control of her mind.

You are doing her no favors to be compassionate at this stage.

Let us know how she does.

Walt