“They won’t go to kindergarten in diapers!”…well, actually, they are.

[Anonymous]

A lot more kids are being diagnosed with autism, which is associated with extremely picky eating and issues with food texture (which can cause constipation problems depending what are the kid’s food restrictions). And autism, itself, is also associated with constipation and developmental delays that make it harder for a kid to hit their milestones. Sometimes they have trouble recognizing when they have to go or they don’t have the motor skills to quickly pull down pants/underpants/etc when it’s a potty emergency situation. Idk it’s tough all around. Not sure what the solution is.

[Anonymous]

Long but please read. I’m the preschool teacher poster and constipation is so pervasive that we’ve started developing theories on what is happening.
The pandemic had a huge impact on development and this is just one aspect. Kids who are 5 now were a year old when the pandemic hit.
More time at home amounted to less time climbing, playing, moving in general. Low muscle tone and core strength play a huge part in emptying bowels. Parents were visiting the Doctor less and maybe most importantly, connecting with other parents less. The didn’t know what was “normal.”
Kids who are pooping every day are not necessarily emptying their bowels efficiently. Once the constipation cycle begins, it is very hard to stop without intense intervention. That can sometimes mean increase in water and better food choices, but often includes laxatives used on a very consistent basis. The colon becomes like a deflated balloon and will just get backed up over and over again if the bowels are not moving. By the time someone raises the alarm bell (often a preschool teacher) the problem is bad enough that some kids must return to pull-ups because the prescribed laxatives make bowel control very difficult.
It’s an epidemic and consumes a tremendous amount of teacher time at preschools. If you have a young child, please read about constipation and learn about how frequently kids should poop and more importantly what the consistency of the stool should be.
And please don’t write off tummyaches at bedtime. This is often when constipated kids suffer most, and constipation can cause gas along with nausea.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk

[Anonymous]

Oh dear. My 2 kids poop every day and I thought that was normal! (I do too!). Do you have suggested resources on reading. The internet is full of contradictory advice.

[Anonymous]

This can’t be possible in a regular education K classroom. I say OP is a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh dear. My 2 kids poop every day and I thought that was normal! (I do too!). Do you have suggested resources on reading. The internet is full of contradictory advice.

It is normal. Talk to your GP or NP, don't take information online to heart.

[Anonymous]

The result of child led potty training but the child doesn't lead...

Before disposable diapers, pretty much all kids were trained before 24 months. Lots of parents choose to train later for convenience now as it is much easier to have your child in very absorbent diapers than to manage a young child needing to use a toilet regularly.

And some don't train and do the when the child is ready - which may not happen until there is peer pressure in school to not soil yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Preschool teacher here: constipation is an epidemic and such a real issue. These kids have to be on laxatives for a very long time to undo the damage. That’s why they need diapers. Not because they’re not “potty trained”

Why is constipation so common?

You could prevent a lot of constipation by breaking the milk-drinker-picky-eater cycle. That takes engaged parenting, because a lot of little kids left to their own devices will drink way too much milk.

1. From 1-2 yrs old, it's recommended to get 16oz (2 measuring cups) of whole milk a day
2. From 2-5 yrs old, it's 16-24oz (2-3 cups) of 1% or skim milk
3. Milk is full of sugar, aka lactose. It has other good things, but it's really sweet, and it has a lot of calories. Even skim milk has just about the same calories -- ounce for ounce -- as regular Coke does.
4. Drink more calories, and you won't be hungry. You get picky about food. And then your parents give you extra milk, because it's supposed to be healthy, and at least it's something.
5. Picky usually means less fiber, which is more constipation.
6. The calcium and casein in the milk block the absorption of iron, which means the associated anemia gets treated with iron, and a big side effect of that is constipation.
7. Rinse and repeat.

People are also giving a lot more juice (mostly sugar water), sports drinks like Gatorade or "Vitamin Water" (lots of sugar), or "healthy" premade and sweetened teas like Arizona Ginseng & Honey (doesn't matter, still mostly sugar water). These contribute to constipation because the kids fill up on other calories, get pickier and pickier, yadda yadda.

I think the pandemic exacerbated this because parents are *so* burned out. They were and remain exhausted, and they don't have the bandwidth to have those hard little moments of "no," and enforcing boundaries, and making sure real healthy alternatives are prepared and available. Just about every day is getting through this day with a maybe tomorrow.

Some parents just aren't handling their child being uncomfortable, upset , or disappointed. All these things take energy to help them manage, too! When you can kind of cross your eyes and say to yourself that "it's vitamins!" or "at least it's from fruit!" or "milk is good for you!" -- well, it helps you get through one more day and tell yourself you are still doing good parenting.

It's not because parents don't love their kids or don't care about trying. It's the avalanche of the child making choices that snowball, and the parents hoping they found a way to get by, and all of us still suffering from a devastating event that has left everyone with more on their plates and less energy to tackle it.

That's my take.

As someone who grew up in an era of “got milk” and capri sun and koolaid everywhere, and who was regularly told by adults that water was less healthy than juice, I have trouble believing that this is both a new problem and caused by too much milk and juice. It might be one or the other, but not both.

Did you miss the burned out part? Because I think you missed the burned out part.

Presumably your parents weren't also having you drink a predominance of your calories instead of also eating a variety of foods, some of which had fiber. If they did, and you were never constipated, then you've got a gold plated colon right there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The result of child led potty training but the child doesn't lead...

Before disposable diapers, pretty much all kids were trained before 24 months. Lots of parents choose to train later for convenience now as it is much easier to have your child in very absorbent diapers than to manage a young child needing to use a toilet regularly.

And some don't train and do the when the child is ready - which may not happen until there is peer pressure in school to not soil yourself.

Agree
This is an American problem.

[Anonymous]

That is outrageous. Our culture of whiny excuse making is falling apart at the seams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Preschool teacher here: constipation is an epidemic and such a real issue. These kids have to be on laxatives for a very long time to undo the damage. That’s why they need diapers. Not because they’re not “potty trained”

But if the parents hadn't allowed a steady diet of chicken nuggets and mac and cheese in the first place, it wouldn't have happened at all. Lazy parenting.

This. Lousy parents let the kids dictate food, potty training, everything.

[Anonymous]

Disposable diapers and pull-ups work too well. It wicks away way too much moisture so kids don't feel uncomfortable or even feel much moisture. That immediate sensation of moisture helps kids with potty training.

Too many pediatricians aren't checking for impacted stools when kids are having potty training issues at age 4 and over. We get notes from doctors saying the kinder or first grade kid is anxious and they need a 504 for something related to toileting when they are still in pull-ups. Sometimes the pediatricians and/or nurse practitioner write- school should give counseling for anxiety related to toileting. Yet when we ask the parent has the doctor checked for impacted stools? Did the doctor even discuss starting a regimen in order to clear out the impacted stools using enema/laxative and/or take an x-ray? The parents say no, they just wrote a note.

It's a medical issue that needs to be aggressively treated when a kid is in kinder and first grade and even second grade and the kid is still pooping in a pull up at school where their classmates can smell them. Of course other kids are going to shun them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who changes the diapers? The nurse?

+1 there’s no chance I’d want teacher time allocated to diaper changing.

And if I was the nurse, I’d require the kids to change clean themselves then simply check them to make sure they’ve done a good job. There’s no physical reason why they can’t do that, so I’d require that they do. Require a pull up or simply help them fasten the diaper

RN here. This. I'd also want a chaperone present for the final spot check, due to the litigious climate that we're in.

[Anonymous]

Guys, OP is a troll. I know this b/c she never came back. Also because no one (not even current teachers) have been able to answer the many questions about who is going to change the diapers. This is fake, fake, fake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I get it…you shouldn’t have to deal with that (literal) crap. And if it is just that the parents were too lazy to potty train, then that’s unacceptable.

However, I am also the parent of a child with an intellectual disability who has gastrointestinal issues, and it is possible that he won’t be potty trained by the time he starts kindergarten. I hope his teachers will be accommodating. The kids involved may well have special needs that have not yet been diagnosed. I’d reserve judgement until you meet the families.

That's asking too much of a regular ed kindergarten teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot more kids are being diagnosed with autism, which is associated with extremely picky eating and issues with food texture (which can cause constipation problems depending what are the kid’s food restrictions). And autism, itself, is also associated with constipation and developmental delays that make it harder for a kid to hit their milestones. Sometimes they have trouble recognizing when they have to go or they don’t have the motor skills to quickly pull down pants/underpants/etc when it’s a potty emergency situation. Idk it’s tough all around. Not sure what the solution is.

It's why we have special education classes for some pre-k and kindergarten kids.