Playing with poop

[cincin812]

My daughter is 8 years old. She's adopted, but I've had her since 2 years of age.  She has always had behaviour problems, and now takes medication for ADD.  She does strange things all of the time, and I'm at my witts end.  Her latest thing is she plays with her poop, or does something with it, and then wipes the excess on her bed.  Her biological mother is bi-polar, her biological father has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bi-polar, and manic depressive.  Are these things that she could inherit.  She also struggles in school, she has a hard time reading because she can't remember words.  She is very smart, but does very strange things. She's constantly going into the bathroom and staying, even at school.  She pours the soap out of the bottles and refills them with water. She hides candy and eats it in her bed, basically she puts anything in her mouth she can. Help me if you can, I'm going crazy. I have 5 other children, boys, 4 of whom are adopted, and none do these kinds of things.  Her behaviour is so off the wall, we can't leave her with anyone.
thanks.

[cerasdk7]

I myself have add and did as a child. I'm a louder high energy girl. I wet the bed till I was 13. No poop issues tho. But as for the reading. I struggled till my senior year I was taking aderals for the first time. Also my school offered a Sci Fi english class, I loved science. I read my first book "enders game" I was doing so much better all round in school. I was thinking slower and clearer. As a louder and high energy with also bed wetting. You get shamed so much. Be quiet calm down and so on. These are blows to your self esteem. Low self esteem can cause people to do strange things. So maybe build her self esteem up. Also self control!!!!!! I'm 30 now and still battle both self esteem and self control. We don't understand why we do it or why we can't control it. It's not laziness. Also my childhood was messy, trama and timing also play in. I really think building her self esteem will help a lot. Remember she has to believe the compliments for them to effect her self esteem. I still struggle with this myself. Hearing them I s not enough. And make us uncomfortable. We self punish as well. My thoughts are to your daughter. Mind over matter, our brains are powerful. Patients love and trust will always win!!!!!!

[cerasdk7]

I myself have add and did as a child. I'm a louder high energy girl. I wet the bed till I was 13. No poop issues tho. But as for the reading. I struggled till my senior year I was taking aderals for the first time. Also my school offered a Sci Fi english class, I loved science. I read my first book "enders game" I was doing so much better all round in school. I was thinking slower and clearer. As a louder and high energy with also bed wetting. You get shamed so much. Be quiet calm down and so on. These are blows to your self esteem. Low self esteem can cause people to do strange things. So maybe build her self esteem up. Also self control!!!!!! I'm 30 now and still battle both self esteem and self control. We don't understand why we do it or why we can't control it. It's not laziness. Also my childhood was messy, trama and timing also play in. I really think building her self esteem will help a lot. Remember she has to believe the compliments for them to effect her self esteem. I still struggle with this myself. Hearing them I s not enough. And make us uncomfortable. We self punish as well. My thoughts are to your daughter. Mind over matter, our brains are powerful. Patients love and trust will always win!!!!!!

[Sandman2]

   It might be due to sensory processing disorder.  Check out this link.
          
           http://spdfoundation.net/about-sensory-processing-disorder.html

[momofsevens]

I have a son that was taken in to foster care on the day of my seven son and he is four and is so picky about even someone touching his sippy cup that he wants to no and masked u if we washed our hand with soap before giving sippy to him . i read ur theory on it and believe it to be true but could there something else going on in that foster home more than that . cause the foster parent which is a 60 + year old man and wife that said they had this happen with another child ???
Please help if u can I got a high powered Super lawyer out of walnut creak ca  to fight this and although they are coming home after being gone a week and a half i want to no if any damage has been done to my little boy ? Thank u from all of us

[FreeCheri]

How did you become so articulate then? You're obviously very bright, which I'm sure you've been told and must be aware of yourself.

Therapy is a wonderful thing...if you find a therapist you can really connect with. I first got into therapy at age 23 after reading The Primal Scream. I live in L.A. where having a therapist is common. I am now 67 & have been in therapy 6-7 times, a couple times for over 5 years. Now I'm in a 12-Step group. I believe in not being alone in my problems. It makes them too painful and makes me too isolated, which is counter-productive, in my opinion.

BeIng different from the world at large is far less horrible when you've figured out who to connect with (and there are more of us than you would think), how to head towards sanity (I also became a Social Worker, to give back and to make use of my quirks), and when you connect with your Maker, who knows every part of your being and loves you anyway. Being so loved and accepted by Him and always having access to His input and thoughts became my most vital source of mental health.

You sound like a very level headed person, in spite of all you described. I hope you do try therapy again, this time without telling your mom. Parents always worry about having all their failures exposed to another human (your therapist) and many people believe seeing a therapist means you're crazy, which it does not. And even if a person is out of touch with reality (I.e., crazy), so what! So they get the help they need. People who are still worried about what any other human's opinions about them might be are creating their own tortured life and they need more help than we do.  Don't tell her anything more than what she can handle.

You are an adult now, and learning how to best take care of yourself is on your plate, not her plate. You are obviously capable of that learning.

[Ayk75]

Hi,
I am not a psychiatrist, but apparently they couldn't help poo smearing  anyway.

All of the children mentioned above suffered from some sort of lack of parental intimacy from their biological parents. (Adopted, or Left )

Here's my theory: Poo is a biological  product of the child, coming out of her/his body . It is a part of himself/herself.
By keeping his/her poo, the child keeps a companion from his/her biology. He/she smears it around so he feels comfortable.

What do you think?