5 yo pooping in the tub?

[MrsTittlemouse]

My dd has been pooping in the tub, just a little bit, at least once a month for the past few months. I was fine and compassionate at first, but now I am just really annoyed. I dealt with it with kindness before, but now I want to seek out consequences. DH just cleaned the tub out with bleach, I would have had her clean the tub, but I would never let her use bleach. Should I have her clean something else?
She is in control of her pee and her poop and I feel like pooping in the tub is not acceptable to us anymore. She never did it when it would have been acceptable, as a toddler. SO, if anyone has advice, please help!
She is a sweet kid, but also smeered the car with mud today right when we had finally gotten dressed up and were ready to go to a family dinner. Isn't she too old for this kind of thing?

[SeekingJoy]

I have a 4.5 yr old DS. If he did, I would probably just have him scoop it out and flush it. No big deal. Then we would probably stick to showers for a while.

I don't bleach diapers or underwear or the bathtub regularly. I don't even bleach the toilet when I clean it, so I wouldn't bleach the tub. That wouldn't be an issue for us.

Before you turn to consequences, you might want to find out *why* instead of assuming she is doing it to annoy you. A dear friend used to punish his daughter for her accidents. When she was almost 8 they finally learned she has a birth defect requiring surgery that caused her chronic uninary and bowel problems.

[MrsTittlemouse]

Well, her accidents aren't chronic, so I really doubt that she has medical issues related to going to the bathroom. We actually never use bleach and happened to get some over the winter after an incident. It really isn't part of our normal cleaning routine. The way it has been happening isn't really scoopable.
I do agree that I need to find out why it is happening. I also feel like- wtf?

The toys that were in with her got thrown out. I always pull them out after an incident, but then they never get cleaned the way they should.

I think I will give her showers for a while, that is a great suggestion.

[tanyam926]

Showers are a good idea. Just say, "Until you can stop pooping in the bathtub we are going to take showers".

Could you talk to her about why she is pooping in the tub? If she all of a sudden feels the need to go after sitting in warm water then maybe stay w/her for a few minutes then ask her to sit on the potty. Or if it's a time of day thing, maybe have her sit on the potty while the bathwater is running.

You said it's once a month, could it be related to something that she eats infrequently that is causing diarrhea or something? Just thought I'd throw that out there.

When my 4 yr old ds2 started peeing his pants a lot I was really frustrated too but I told him that I needed to remind him to go to the bthrm throughout the day since he couldn't remember. After a couple days of that the accidents stopped.