Potty Training

[hbonsky]

Does anyone in here have a child with Crohn's who is trying to toilet train? Or has anyone had experience with this. I am having a rough time with my 3 and 1/2 year old. I'm not sure if he can even control it, but he has several accidents a day and he is frustrated and cries when I have him sit on the potty.
Thanks for your help!
Heather

 

[Crohn's 35]

Sorry I can't help you but I am sure someone can pop on here and give you some help. It is hard enough with a healthy toddler trying to get them potty trained. I was lucky my daughter went the same time every day. If your child communicates well he should be able to tell you most of the time but heck even we have accidents. Good luck, hope you get some help.

 

[Rebecca85]

Does he have messy accidents in his sleep? If so, that is a good indication that he cannot control it, since nighttime bowel continence is usually first to be achieved. Then day bowels, day bladder, night bladder.

Does he tend to go at the same time after food? Like an hour after each meal? If so, sit him on the potty ready.

Maybe you could play games or read a book together while he just sits on the potty, make it a fun place to be! Or maybe a sticker chart, where he gets stickers just for sitting for a set time. That way he can 'achieve' something even if he's having accidents, and that will cut out a lot of frustration.

Maybe he'd be more willing to try the regular toilet (with a seat of course!), if the potty just gets him upset.

 

[hbonsky]

Thanks Rebecca,
He actually has a few messy BM's at night and during nap so I think that maybe he cant control it. He goes to the bathroom at random times throughout the day. I can't seem to figure out his schedule. I may try not push so hard and maybe when his meds get straightened out he will be ready.

 

[AZMOM]

I'm in agreement with Rebecca. It is a whole lot easier for them to figure out what to do when it isn't urgency multiple times a day. When he is down to once or twice, you'll be in business! I'm sure you are ready.

This is random but I was reminiscing the potty training of my two and one piece of wise advice the pediatrician gave me was not to start until my kids could pull their pants up and down. Are you there yet? He told me that until they could do that and tell me they needed to go that I was just training myself to take them to the potty. Ha ha. I told him (he's a friend of ours) that if I trained myself well enough I didn't have to do a dirty diaper. ;-)

I hope things "regulate" soon and you can be doing celebratory potty dances at your place.

Hugs,

 

[Dexky]

I agree with everyone else Heather. Until his meds get him straightened out, I would not push it. It may frustrate both of you to the point of exhaustion. Good luck!

 

[hbonsky]

Thank You!

Thank you everyone for you suggestions. I am going to lay off for a while until he is doing better. He is supposed to be starting Remicade or Humira pretty soon..just waiting for my insurance to approve one of them.

 

[cowgirlnz]

Hello. My son has had Crohn's since birth, so we went through the whole toilet training issue with him. We took it very slowly - in fact he was four when we started. By this time he had great language and fully understood what was expected. In fact, after seeing his peers at pre-school using the toilet, the call to start trying came from him. And he figured it all out very quickly, and was very proud of himself. What we did do however, was to keep him in pull-ups, the training diapers, for quite some time. We made it very clear that 'accidents' are ok and the diapers are there to catch those accidents. And unfortunately with our kids there are going to be a few of those - it's often beyond their control.
We didn't phase the pull-ups out until shortly before he started school. That went well, as he had reasonably good control by then. Although we still get the occasional accident at school, and always have a change of clothes in his bag, and a staff member that he knows to go to for help.

So yes, I think you're right not to push it. You and your son have enough to deal with right now. There's still plenty of time, and for kids with Crohn's it's important to be as stress free as possible around toilet issues.

Best of luck with it all.

Gillian.

 

[troydanielbecker]

Echoing earlier replies, sorry to meet you on here. But I'll be honest, it's exciting in a way to meet others going through something so similar.

Actually, I just wrote a blog post which had to do a little with potty training. Our Isaac "got it" a few months into our diagnosis and treatment time. He also didn't have solid poops ever, but shortly after we got a diagnosis and made some diet changes he started having solid poops. I think all of this "poop attention" helped him get it. But really, it just clicked like a switch and in a few days he was in the routine of using the toilet. I think each child is really different and no doubt, the experience with uncontrollable diarrhea would seem to affect a child's potty training mindset.

So even though Isaac is potty trained, he has accidents from time to time. We didn't see any in January, but he had a couple accidents last month and one just today. We just roll with it. Hopefully over time we'll figure out more about the accidents, or at least develop good procedures for them. He's going to be 3 in May by the way.

Keep us posted with what you try/learn and let's see how it goes!

 

[hbonsky]

Thanks Troy,
My son is going to be 4 in July. We still have not gotten medications and things under control yet. He has never had a solid poop in his life. We found out in December that he has crohn's. What type of diet is your son on? I want to try to make some changes in my son's diet but he is a very picky eater and barely eats anything. He drinks milk all day and some pediasure. Other than that, he will nibble on foods that are mostly not good for you like chips.

 

[troydanielbecker]

Will he eat rice? That first change we made in our diet, going with an elimination diet which was mostly rice at first really helped. Luckily for us, Isaac would eat his fill of rice, and we could put "safe" foods with the rice to help nutrition but also to systematically observe what reactions he had. For us, we found out soy and dairy affect him the most.

Probably what to suggest is to look into elimination diets and see what would work in your situation. Just googling it and starting in is good for learning about it, but with diarrhea, we generally wouldn't worry about flushing the system first with fiber--just get into something starchy and without common allergens. With kids it seems like response is quick, but see what happens in your case. Introduce allergen groups systematically and see what causes what. Keep a rigorous in/out journal.

It might help.

I'm a big pusher of the probiotics. Isaac seems to do better when he's on them and do worse when he's off them, with greater impact than anything else we've done as far as we can tell. A good sacchromyces boulardii capsule is available that you can hopefully introduce. There are other probiotic powders that dissolve and might bring results.

I also bet that if/when the poop starts to be more formed and the urges less urgent, your son'll be more motivated.

You can check out our blog for more details. To help keep an in/out journal, you can start a blog to go with that daily record, and you can also have an outlet for your feelings too. This whole experience, especially last fall and into the winter, was a really tough time for my wife and I, responding in our ways to Isaac's condition/treatment, but of course it also has bonded us together all the more at the same time. And you're on the right track! Involvement in a forum like this is also a great source of shared experience and others who can understand some of what's going on.