The Humbled Homemaker: Potty Training a Child with Food Sensitivities {The First Years: Potty Training}

TMI Alert: In this post, I talk about poop. I do not want to gross anyone out--especially those who do not have children--so you may not want to read this unless you DO have children of potty training age. I am writing this to help inform other parents of what I wish I had known the first 3 years of my daughter's life.

About a year ago, we started our oldest daughter on an elimination diet. Three months later, a blood test helped confirm what the elimination diet had indicated--she has several major food sensitivities.

Specifically, she is highly sensitive to wheat/rye/barley (basically anything with gluten), eggs and dairy.

Whereas some children with these sensitivities or allergies (we do not yet know if they are true allergies--and we have hopes she will grow out of them!), exhibit mainly skin reactions like eczema, our daughter's symptoms were all in her digestive system and behavior.

From birth, she did not digest her food. She had very explosive newborn diapers, where I would have to change her clothes several times per day (and I didn't have to do this with my second daughter). She basically had chronic diarrhea.

When I mentioned this to her pediatrician at her 2-year checkup, she brushed it off with the fact that she was still young, and all was probably well.

All was NOT well.

But we started potty training anyway. I was expecting our second child, and it seemed like all I heard from people was either:

1) "You don't want two in diapers! You better get her trained before the baby comes!"

2) "I trained my child as soon as he/she turned 2."

I now know better--much better--and I wish I hadn't listened to these well-meaning people.

I should have waited to start training my child until her digestive system was normal.

Because it wasn't, my husband and I went through a year of cleaning up diarrhea accidents from the floor nearly every single day. I am not exaggerating here. I cannot begin to describe our frustration. We went through bottle after bottle of carpet cleaner (and hired professional cleaners to come out several times).

We were upset with ourselves--and we were upset with her because we didn't know that she wasn't pooping on the floor on purpose. I had left her without a diaper on, and she truly could not make it to the bathroom.

When we modified her diet and took out the food irritants a few months after she turned 3, our daughter was--for the most part--poop potty trained.

Now pee trained? That's a different story for a different post.

Although, if your child has been potty trained for some time and suddenly starts having a lot of urine accidents coupled with constipation, do not discount it as merely behavior.

This has actually been happening with our daughter since we all had the norovirus in April. A friend sent me this article that talks about how constipation in children can result in urine accidents. It happened to her son--who is also highly sensitive to the same foods as my daughter.

Although many children with food sensitivities will have the main symptom of diarrhea, constipation is also a symptom. My daughter got into a package of non-gluten-free saltine crackers when we were all sick. The next few weeks she started wetting her pants multiple times a day and was constipated.

We are still somewhat dealing with this issue, and we are actually hoping to get her in with an urologist sometime next week to confirm whether or not the wetting is a new habit OR if there is something else still messed up in her little system.

In another post, I will talk about how she was not really emotionally ready to be trained at 2 as well. (Whoever said right before a new baby comes is the time to train was SO wrong! Most children regress when a big life change happens!)

I will end this post with this: If your child has either chronic diarrhea or constipation, now is not the time to jump into potty training. No child should suffer either. These are not normal digestion patterns. If your doctor shrugs off your child's digestive issues, get a second opinion from another doctor.

I found this chart very helpful in evaluating my daughter's digestion.

And when we finally found out we were not crazy and something was indeed wrong, it was a relief...because there was something we could do about it.

Trouble with bedwetting? Try Trilight's bedwetting formula.

*Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. If you have concerns about your child's digestive system, discuss these concerns with your trusted medical professional.

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