What to do if Your Child is Soiling

Abstract

In the absence of any physical abnormality or disease most children will learn to control their bowel movements by the age of four years. Beyond this age occasional accidents are not necessarily an indication of a severe problem, but if your child is of school age any instances of soiling should be considered to be a matter of concern. It is thought that around two or three boys in every 100 aged 7 and one or two in every 100 at 11 years soil, many of them also wetting their pants or the bed (enuresis). Girls are far less likely than boys to be faecal soilers, but the problems and difficulties they present are no less for that. (Should your child wet in addition to soiling, then you should ask the teacher for the Unit for parents on BEDWETTING).