Developmental Delays

My youngest step-daughter is special needs; she's been diagnosed as mentally retarded and she shows signs of oppositional defiant disorder. She's 9 years old and we constantly have problems with her pooping and occasionally peeing her pants. Needless to say, we go through quite a bit of underwear and it makes going places a huge chore at times.

We thought the peeing problems had been brought under control but they've cropped up again but the pooping problem has been on-going for quite a while. We're going to take her to a doctor next week to be checked to see what might be going on. We're really at a loss as to what to do to help her. She knows what she's supposed to do; if you ask her, she'll tell you that she's supposed to poop and pee in the toilet. She's done it before, too. She has an IEP for school and they've had her on a schedule of going to the bathroom every 45 minutes but I guess we'll have to scale it back to 30.

Has anyone else struggled with this issue with a special needs child?

  "Aut dosce, aut disce, aut discede" - Latin Proverb   "I am the Grammarian about whom your mother warned you."

 

HI. Welcome to the board. Sorry you are dealing with this. It must be very frustrating. I don't have any experience with it but I know at our hospital there is a behavioral health dept. Do you have access to anything like that? Taking her to the doctor is a good start to see if there is any medical reason or if they can point you in the right direction.
I had a friend whose typical dd would do it intentionally when she was angry, either in her pants or right on the rug. They finally have gotten beyond it but it was very hard.

Hugs.
Kari

I feel for you. I have a 6 year old with developmental delays and we've been working on toilet training for 2 months. It's driving me crazy because sometimes it seems like she's getting it and then other times (like today) I start to think she'll never get it. I think some of it is behavior because she tends to do much better at school than she does at home, but we don't know if it's behavioral or a lack of communication skills, or a sensory issue where she doesn't recognize the sensation in time. I think our biggest problem is that she doesn't care if she's wet or dirty.

Unfortunately, I don't have any advice, since I'm trying to figure it out myself, but you're definitely not alone.

with your step-daughters developmental delay there could be a lot of different factors involved.   Do you know the cause of her disablity,  is her motor skills affected, a specific part of her brain?    

My guess is that she doesn't want to be having accidents either, she may not have great control of her reflexes or muscles in that area.  possibly going to a professional would be your best bet .  My son has a few issues once in awhile but if he was having daily accidents or he needed to be taken every thirty minutes........... he would be wearing pull-ups.  is that a possiblity? that way she can still work on it but you don't have to clean the floors.   good luck!