Holding in poop? What's this about?

winery

My friend's little girl holds in her poop.  You can actually see her straining to not poop and she concentrates super hard at holding it in.

What is this about?  The doctor gave her some stimulant strips that she gives her DD when it's been a long time and she's really fighting it.

Anyone have experience with this?

Bellisimo

DS only does this as a means of control in situations which he's uncomfortable in.  For instance, he will NOT poop at MMO or at church.  He waits until he gets home.  I don't think he strains or anything to hold it in...he'll just tell his teachers, "Poo-poo!" but will never go while he's there....and that's his normal poop time! ;-)  It's all about control for him!

jorie

I feel for your friend:(  DD went through this for a few months and it was HORRIBLE.  I think she had a bad experience once (her poop hurt) and from then on, she related pooping to pain.  She'd do her best to hold it in for  days.  Of course, it was just an awful cycle.  We used prune juice, Miralax, suppositories, and anything else we could think of to get her to go.  She would not use the toilet.  We kept a pull up on her (she'd been PT'd for over a year when she went through this phase) and just told her she could go whenever she wanted.  Whether she went in the pull up, in her undies, on the toilet, or on our floor, we were happy that she went at all.  Ugh, thinking back on that brings back all the memories...it was an awful period.

CubbyMama

Funny story: one of my kindergarteners does this, which his mom told me about IN GREAT DETAIL at his parent-teacher conference.  She used the phrase, "His poop is so big that it hurts and he doesn't want to go" about 7 times.  I was kind of embarrassed for him!  Anyway, that's why he holds it in as long as possible, and then it just makes the problem worse, so she's looking into safe stool softeners for kids.  Don't know if that helps...

GinandTonic

Yes.  Long story short, DS was 3 in August and still not poop trained.  I think it started as a control thing when the baby was born back in December and it took me awhile to figure it out.

We have him at a GI dr because the pedi kind of blew it off.  I could dhe describe what goes on in more detail, but I'll spare you.  He's on a stool softener and as much extra fiber as I can get in him.

 He was doing better, but we just went on vacation for a week and that really threw him off - he really only likes to poop at home.  So, he's got some issues today.