1st Grader

[Anonymous]

We are in Prince William County, Virginia and have a 1st grader. Goes to the normal school, is pulled out for few minutes each day for special Ed.

Last year, our kid did not have any toilet accident, maybe 1-2 pee accidents.

This year, within the first month he's had 10 accidents, poo and pee.

I believe the teacher reminds him..but...

So we have a been called for a meeting tomorrow by the principal. Not sure what to expect.

I hope they don't have us move him to a special-needs school? Possible? Maybe they could ask the state to fund a assistant for him? How does this work?

Any guidance is appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Ask your pediatrician for a x-ray to check for constipation. In most cases, lots of accidents is a good indication that a potty trained child is constipated.

If it turns out that your child's accidents are due to constipation, it is a medical issue and the school will have to accommodate him, potty accidents and all, until the issue is cleared up. GL!

[Anonymous]

Our son has accidents when he's constipated. As PP suggested, please take your child to the pediatrician.

[Anonymous]

He's not constipated. When he's at home it never happens. This is both, pee and poo accidents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's not constipated. When he's at home it never happens. This is both, pee and poo accidents.

Without a x-ray, no one knows if he is constipated. Constipated kids don't have accidents all the time so even if he is not having accidents at home does not mean he isn't constipated. Please get a x-ray.

[Anonymous]

Could there be something scary about the bathroom? Loud hand dryers or flush? Having to walk down a hallway alone? Why does he say he's having accidents? Is he showing other signs of anxiety?

[Anonymous]

You have been called in for a meeting and don't know what the meeting is about?

[Anonymous]

We have had a similar problem with our first grader. It happened last year in Kindergarten a number of times and is starting again this year. For him, it was just pee. We did see our pediatrician to rule out medical cause. Once that was ruled out, we concluded that either he was having a hard time asking to go (he has a language disorder) or he was waiting too long to go (either because too distracted because also has AD/HD diagnosis or just anxious).

His special ed teacher tried two things. First, a card he could give to teacher or classroom aide if he was having a hard time with asking. Second, they put a timer on and he had to go to visit the potty whether he said he need to go or not. The second option seemed to work best.

Good luck at the meeting. Those meetings can be nerve wracking.

[Anonymous]

It might be that he is scared of the bathroom. My son last year had a couple of accidents and it turned out he was afraid of the bathroom when the door was closed. The teacher said he could leave it ajar, and it was fine after that.

[Anonymous]

We had a similar issue with our kindergartener last year. Turns out the main issue was his anxiety. He wasn't going when the whole class went and didn't ask to go. We talked to the teacher about it and she would ask him to go a couple times a day. We also set up a reward chart at home for using the bathroom at school. No problems so far this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could there be something scary about the bathroom? Loud hand dryers or flush? Having to walk down a hallway alone? Why does he say he's having accidents? Is he showing other signs of anxiety?

He's in the same school...same floor...same restrooms... He can't speak much as he's got a bunch of developmental delays including speech. We really wish he could speak up more...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have been called in for a meeting and don't know what the meeting is about?

All we know is they want to discuss these accidents with us.

[Anonymous]

Today he again had an accident. For four hours they let him continue in class without cleaning him up properly or calling us.

His socks, shoes and tee were soiled.

They dumped his soiled clothes in his bag directly. The inside of his bag and lunch box had poop over it.

All I can is tomorrow's meetings will not be easy for them. We've taken pictures of it all.

Thanks for all the advise.

[Anonymous]

mine is also in first and has also started doing something similar. for him it is an excuse to get out of class. the class work is hard and he knows he is below his peers. so he uses this as an excuse to get out of doing what he needs to be doing. we have talked about it and he knows there will be consequences for doing it again. we also have him seeing a psychiatrist to help talk through the anxiety and get to thr root of these issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Today he again had an accident. For four hours they let him continue in class without cleaning him up properly or calling us.

His socks, shoes and tee were soiled.

They dumped his soiled clothes in his bag directly. The inside of his bag and lunch box had poop over it.

All I can is tomorrow's meetings will not be easy for them. We've taken pictures of it all.

Thanks for all the advise.

This is terrible!! I'm so sorry to hear that this has happened. Please do let us know how things turn out.