Frequent Bowel Movements

[HeroMom]

My daughter will be three in one month and she has frequent bowel movements. She will sometimes have 5-6 a day.  She hides when she has to go.  It's never loose. Some days she won't go at all.  She drinks apple juice and eats yogurt every few days. I just don't understand why she goes so much. It is interfering with her potty training. She won't go poop in the potty yet and she is hesitant to pee since she frequently poops. Should I be concerned and is there anything I need to be doing for her or giving to her?
Is your child male or female? :   Female What is your child's height? :   38 inches What is your child's weight (kgs or lbs) :   34 pounds

[rileysmomOH]

Check into Encopresis.   Read up on it.  

Your daughter probably hiding not to go in her pants however she is hiding because she is trying to withhold.   How much is she going?  A few little smears or a full movement?

Once they start withholding the poop stays in their colon and gets larger and larger making it very difficult for them to poop a full poop.   I know that you may feel like she is "going" five times a day however I bet she is only letting out what she cannot hold anymore.   Again, read up on Enco.   It will explain what I am talking about.

My daughter also started this problem after she was potty trained around 3.5 years old. She would only drink water and apple juice.  For most kids, from what I was told, apple juice would make them explode however for some kids it has the opposite effect so don't use that as a tool.   I have heard that pear juice may work as well as a prune or two.   We tried that and it didn't work.    The withholding got so bad as did the "smears" that we were at our witts end.   Finally found a new doc which was very well versed in Enco.   Got her cleaned out and on stool softener along with doing regular sits on the potty after meals.   Had to retrain her how to push it out instead of holding it in.

If I were you I would talk to your doc and see about getting her "cleaned out" and work on the habit of withholding (it is a habit that needs to be broken).   She may need to be on a stool softener too.   My daughter has been on miralax for 2 years now and is doing wonderful!!!   Every now and then she has set backs however I keep a close eye on how much and when she is going.  She is almost 7 and knows that she has a "pooping problem" and is very open to discusion about it.   POOP has become nothing more than a 4 letter word in our house.  

Good luck and if you have any questions, I will be here!  Trust me I needed help when I was going through this for almost a year before anyone would help me.  

rileysmomOH

[margypops]

Does she do a regular size poop or is she doing it in bits" if you see what I mean,could be she doesnt finish each time then needs to go again, I am wondering if the apple juice may cause it, leave it out for a few days and see,try pear juice or better still water, To get her really started on the potty training you need to remove diapers and pullups as these enable her ,once she is in big girl underwear she will want to keep them clean,