Teens and bowel movements
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Anonymous
| My daughter, 14, is active in after-school sports and showers after getting home. She uses the toilet before showering and sometimes forgets to flush. I have lifted the lid on numerous occasions to find a rather large BM. At first I thought it might be constipation-related, but have seen the same large size on consecutive days. She seems to be regular, with one BM a day. I do know that she doesn't like going #2 at school, and usually gets the urge for a BM after lunch but will hold it in until she gets home. Honestly, with her after-school sports activities I don't know how she manages to hold it. The thing I'm most puzzled about is the size of her BMs: 1-3 well-formed stools, which are long (not quite a foot, but close to it) and firm but smooth on the surfaces (sorry about any gross-factor). It is definitely adult-sized. Maybe it is just her metabolism. At this stage I don't want to be a nagging mom, but I'm just wondering if other parents have noticed an increase in BM size as their children get older. |
Anonymous
| I hope to god I am not worried about my kid's stools once they are in kindergarten, let alone high school. |
Anonymous
| I think we have reached a new low for helicopter parenting. |
Anonymous
| I really, really would not give it another thought!!!! |
Anonymous
| ....personally, I would be more concerned that she is not flushing. What is up with that?! |
Anonymous
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So you assume everyones poop should look like yours?
She's a different person, with a different colon. Of course it's different. |
Anonymous
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Sounds healthy to me -- like she eats a lot of fiber. Is she vegetarian?
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Anonymous
| I'm sorry but this kind of sounds like those weirdo pervy posts. Who really posts about their 14-yo daughter's poop? Like call the doctor if you REALLY must know. |
Anonymous
Actually, the range of normal is quite large, and believe it or not, a high schooler is old enough to have colon cancer or other serious troubles. So, this isn't really helicoptering, but parenting. I would talk to your daughter about flushing, though. |
Anonymous
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Helicopter parenting would be asking your child not to flush until you have had the opportunity to check her BMs.
If you see it, you see it and I suppose if it looked weird it'd be natural to wonder. I can't imagine calling my child's ped though to ask her! Advice on an anonymous forum, yes. |
Anonymous
| That's what my poops have looked like for as long as I can remember, so I think it's normal, not colon cancer or anything else. I understand how you saw this once, but after that your kid needs to be flushing and on their own on poop, it's been months since I saw my 4 year olds poop because she knows to flush. |
Anonymous
OK, this made me LOL. |
Anonymous
Oh dear god, no, I am not going to click on that link! |
Anonymous
LOL! I tried to find text, but I couldn't. I remember the show well, and how Dr. Oz was describing healthy poop. It shouldn't float -- I do remember that much. But it should curve in a long S. |