My dd is 17 months and loves her bath time. However, within the last several months, she has been pooping in the tub. I see little bubbles floating up in the water and I say are you going to poop? She of course says no, then a second later it happens! When this happens, bath time is of course over! I know the warm water probably feels good and relaxes her a bit..I've notice that her tub pooping usually correlates with days when she has very little bowel movements or hard ones (constipation). But, my question is should I be really trying to put an end to this? Or, let her continue doing what she needs to do? Anyone ever encounter this with their toddler?
Why don't you put a swim diaper on her in the tub? At that age they always say No to everything. But it probably is a phase, although not a fun one. Plus by putting a diaper on her it encourages pooping in a diaper. But with phases like this the less you say about it and draw attention to it the sooner they move on to another phase.
I know this question has been asked under the "Children's Health" page. You might be able to do a search there. Sorry, I don't have any advice, but I think this happens a lot.
I think it's a totally normal reaction to relax in the warm water and "let it go" like that. In fact, after I had hemmroid surgery I found Healthboards.com and a really long thread about others who had had the same surgery. One of the suggestions was to sit in a warm tub of water to have your first few BMs so that it was easier on your system after surgery.
I like the swim diaper idea! That's a great one. I'll have to remember that one...
