My son won't poo at school - help!

[mumtogusnalbie]

Hello - my DS1 has just started doing full days at school and already twice this week has come home with poo in his pants because he won't go at school. When he goes at home I try and encourage him to wipe his own bottom but he stills wants me to "inspect" it (a word given by Grandma for this situation!). I think the problem is that he doesn't want to be sitting on the toilet at school shouting for the teacher - any advice?

[Elasticwoman]

I don't blame him - I never wanted to poo on a school loo. I think the answer is to give him a high fibre breakfast + juice and enough time for him to go to the toilet at home before you leave the house. It may mean getting him up earlier or insisting he eats straight away, and suggest he goes and sits on the loo and reads a comic or something. Bowel habit can be retrained in a short time.

Raymond Briggs (author of The Snowman, Father Christmas etc) had another solution to this problem - it's all in his book about his parents, Ethel & Ernest - a great read which I highly recommend.