Photo: @stephaniehankim via Instagram
Once your kids are toilet trained, you may think your days of dealing with poo and pee are over. But it?s not uncommon for some school-aged kids to avoid using school bathrooms?which sometimes doesn?t end well.
?It?s about the toilet paper,? says Lisa Avram*, a Toronto mom whose kids, Liam, 5, and Kendra, 9, both refuse to poo at school. ?They use wet, disposable wipes at home, so that?s what they?re used to, but I got the ?No way, Mom? look when I suggested taking wipes to school.?
?School is still a relatively new place for children between the ages of six and nine, so they may not be comfortable yet,? notes Joanne Cummings, a child psychologist with a private practice in Toronto. Past kindergarten, the bathroom is most likely located outside the classroom, so kids might be shy about having to raise their hand to ask to go or worried about finding their way there and back. They may be grossed out by the smells coming from multiple stalls, embarrassed by the sounds they make or anxious about a noisy toilet or hand dryer. Sarah Tremblay discovered that for her six-year-old daughter, Maggie, the issue was FOMO, kindergarten style: Not wanting to miss a second of class, she was putting off peeing until the last possible second, resulting in small leaks and wet undies.
Medical problems can crop up when kids regularly hold on to pee or poo. Aside from causing irritated skin caused by wet underwear, disregarding the body?s signals to urinate...