5 yr old daughter with issues, answers please!!

[ticked]

The last 2 weeks my daughter has been soiling her underwear.  At first I thought that she wasnt wiping but i know that isnt it because my daughter wipes so well there is nothing ever on her underwear and she has been potty trained for 3 yrs now. She has a BM 1-3times a day.  They first are hard than she will have lots of soft ones come out. So i am thinking what is happening is she is trying to go but it wont come out and than she will play for a bit and some will go on her underwear and she cant feel it but knows when she feels that her bum is itchy and than about 1/2 later she has to go again and so i take her and its alot and its soft. I am on a strict diet myself for endometriosis so she eats alot of grains, fruit, vegetables and water.  I give her juice once a day and the rest is water, or organic milk.  I dont understand what is going on. She seemed to always have some kind of constipation problem since birth. It always hurt her tummy and now this is happening.  Could it really be Constipation if she is going to the bathroom daily? I am going to the doctors tomorrow just so I can get a stool sample and bring it to them.  I feel bad for my daughter because I know it bothers her.  

Any help would be great :)

[Hope1992]

I used to have this problem when I was a little girl, all through elementry school really. It was so embarassing. I would soil my underwear several days a week, sometimes everyday. It was terrible.

I got to where I would just go to the bathroom and throw my underwear away, then go the rest of the school day without underwear.

Eventually, I literally started running out of underwear to wear at all, and started having to go to school without any underwear because I had thrown so many away.

Finally, I had to talk to my step mom about what was happening.

The Doctor said it was diet related: because I practically lived off just junk food growing up, sugary, fatty, terrible food. Like nothing but little Debbie snack cakes, sugary soda pop, and chocolate. Turns out, that stuff is pretty terrible for your bowels.

So when I ate better, with more leafy green vegitables, less dairy, and non-processed meats, and avoided junk food, it got alot better. Yogurt helped alot too.

But, I am a little ashamed to admit, it started happeneing again to me in middle school right after I started getting my period at the beginning of 6th grade. I got to where I was eating bad again, junk food from vending machines, etc, and my bowels were paying the price. Then it just went away "mysteriously" later that fall semester of 6th grade - only later did I figure out it was because I started smoking cigarettes every day then, and have ever since!

Lol, obvi cigarettes are a terrible solution to that problem, and nobody wants their daughter to start smoking cigarettes all the time. I cant stand how addicted I am still today, and if I could go back and tell my 11 year old self to not start smoking that'd be great - but oh well. Too late now that Im allready addicted. Hopefully your baby wont start smoking too!

I think that diet can go along way to fixing what may be wrong. It always worked wonders for me!  Hope that helps!

[ggreg]

Since your child has had constipation since birth, go over to the pediatrics forum to see if you can get more comments on infants and children with constipation.  Just generally, if her stool is hard when it first comes out, then that is constipation.  A lot of times, after a person passes hard stool, the rest will be soft, and in fact will seep out as diarrhea, which is what is happening to your daughter.  

Put baby wipes near the toilet, so she can use those as a "final wipe" whenever her stool gets runny like that, and it will keep her from itching so much.  There are thicker underwear for children who have "accidents," too, to reduce worry.

The fact that she's had constipation since birth and is still having some hard stool, this means she needs to see a pediatric gastroenterologist.  Something more definitive may be going on than just plain diet, as you are beginning to look into.  Just the same, diet is often to blame for constipation or at least contributes to it.  You say you are on a special diet for your condition, but your daughter should not share that diet, I don't think.  Do a little research on what five-year-olds ought to be eating, the special nutrition needs for children, and so on, and feed her that way instead.

There is also the possibility she is lactose-intolerant or has some other allergy like that, which would explain why she's had problems since birth.  An allergist can be consulted for this sort of thing, altho the pediatric gastroenterologist ought to be able to get to the bottom of her chronic constipation issues.  In the meantime, you could try milk that some stores carry that is for lactose-intolerant people, it can't hurt.  Also, fruit should be given before she eats a meal, rather than as part of a meal, or better yet, separate as a snack.