Ok - My 3.5 year old typical son still poops in the pool and he is potty trained. I asked his doctor and he said that it is a very relaxing environement - especially for boys. He also said that he is probably having so much fun that he just doesn’t want to get out - - very true.

What we have been doing to avoid having the accident in the pool is letting him get in and swim for 5-10 minutes then have him go try to use the potty. He usually does have a bm at that time. If he doesn’t, I tell him if he does have an accident in the pool we will have to get out. That didn’t work in the beginning - so we stuck to it and pool time was over. He has gotten better about realizing he has to go if in the pool since we started this process. We also had issues with him in the shower / bath.

[My two year old daughter with DS] doesn’t have too much of an issue in the pool, but we do have bm issues in the bath / shower so we’ve implemented the same process - in, out to try to use the potty (and she usually does) then back in. She still has accidents in the bath / shower but not as frequent. Don’t know if that is much help, but it has worked for us.

I don’t know much about it being serotonin but I do have a suggestion and opinion. In my mind it’s probably mainly just a matter of the low tone, slow moving gut, and the water acts as an enema stimulating the slow moving backed up poop to come out.

For Evan, who because of spina bifida also, has bowel problems, we do an enema before being in a pool or before going anywhere we don’t want him to go. Actually, we are trying to do enemas daily now and I don’t know why I didn’t do it ages ago. It’s much easier than dealing with a mess and enemas are known to be healthy, safe and good for you so . . . until those kids are totally potty trained this is something you might consider doing especially for pools, and maybe even for school, etc. We just use water and soap –I buy those little disposable plastic enema bottles that you can buy at any pharmacy and I reuse them over and over refilling with water and sometimes a little soap. Works great and Evan’s urologist recommends this. I researched enemas online and saw nothing bad about them –they do recommend squeezing that bottle of water slowly in so as not to force things and possibly damage.

I have to assume that you have read nothing else on this site, or you would not have written that. I refer you to the links in the sidebars and in the header.

Sigh.

So let me say this here, to all the moms of 2 1/2 year old sons. Therapy is great. Nutrition is great. Go for it and reach for the sky!

But there is more to life and motherhood than therapy. Your child is a person first, and an object of therapy last. You are a mother first. You have a family, a whole family which exists for far more than therapy. When therapy takes over your life, when you are overwhelmed with guilt for not “getting it all done”, then you need to stop being a therapy mom and focus instead on being a mother who has a heart-to-heart connection with her child.