My 5yr. old DD is having almost daily poop accidents--Is something wrong?

No, this isn't a new thing. Her bm's have ALWAYS been soft. I thought it was just one of those 'individual difference' things.

She was allergic to dairy as a newborn. She projectile vomited when I drank cow's milk (organic) and nursed her. Obviously I stopped drinking it and never took it back up. We drink soy or rice milk.

I have had her on a totally vegan diet for months before with no change in her bm's.

She had heart surgery last summer and they gave her lots of stuff at the hospital that she had never had in her system before (like antibiotics), but I did give her probiotics for 6 wks. afterward and I don't remember a change in her bm's.

She does eat some dairy now, never cow's milk, but cheese (organic and raw at home and nasty commercial elsewhere--thanks grandma! : ). I give her yogurt, also. Seven Stars Farms organic/biodynamic, but still pasteurized a little. She does not have dairy every day. I'd say maybe 3 or 4 times a week.

Thank you all for your insight and information. I am open to trying anything, I just want to narrow it down.

Newborns b. movements are soft. Especially when bf. But they usually firm up a bit within a few months but not really firm. My grandson is two and his is not really firm and he is weaned - self weaned at 16 mo. just to clarify.

But this is a different matter. Your dd has trouble holding the poop until she is on the toilet. I am sure it is not because she doesn't want to. Every child wants to be potty trained. That is not the issue here.

A few questions about vaccines: did she have the Hep B vaccine or any other? At birth? Did you have MMR after delivery? Did you have rhogam? I have never heard that sort of reaction to rhogam but it could be from the MMR or Hep B.

Of course antibiotics could have a lot to do with it. Many moms think that giving the child probiotics afterwards takes care of it. It does NOT. The body can never replace the natural flora. Probiotics help but they don't even come close to replacing what is lost.

But you can't change that now. I would still continue to give her probiotics though. I think I would give her baby jarrow for a few years and then switch to a different type.

To be truthful, soy is not a good milk. It is gene manipulated and not worth drinking. She does not need milk if she is no longer bf. She can actually get everything out of food and drink water only. (That's what my grandchildren do and they are very healthy.) I would take her off soy milk, too. I am not familiar with rice milk.

How is her diet overall?

She was homebirthed and has never had ANY vax at all.

Her diet is awesome when she is at home. We eat almost all organic everything and like I mentioned earlier, dairy is always organic and raw (at home). Unfortunately, when she is at her grandparents, they feed her junk; white bread, velveeta, nasty everything. But, she only goes there maybe once a week or once every two weeks.

So are you saying that her intestinal flora is destroyed forever because she had antibiotics? I guess that's true for our whole family then because we've all had them at least once in our lives. That's discouraging.

She can't swallow pills, so is there another good probiotic choice for her? I gave her Bio-K after her surgery and organic pure yogurt when she got back to her normal diet. Is yogurt with active acidophilus cultures enough, or does she need a separate probiotic supplement? Some are kind of pricey. I can make my own yogurt with raw milk if that would be sufficient.

Thanks again to everyone for all your help.

It's the weirdest thing, but since I posted this, she hasn't had a single accident. The day before the OP, we went out for pizza and she had 2 accidents that day. Maybe it is the dairy, at least the schwag commercial dairy.

Jane S, how does organic/biodynamic yogurt from the health food store rate as far as cultures go? Does it still contain lactose? I have read a little about culturing your own and I was under the impression that the longer you culture it, the less lactose it has. Maybe the brand I use is not cultured as long as needed to remove the lactose?? I bought a yogurt maker from the thrift store and I can get raw milk from a local HFS, but I have not made any yogurt yet. Can you give me a link to some foolproof instructions? TIA!

Anyone have advice for getting the grandma that hates me and does whatever she can to undermine our family values to comply with the "No dairy" rule? BTW, she is DH's mom, not mine. My mom is a kindergarten teacher who knows better than to shame a child for having an accident.
And getting DH to talk to her has been fruitless. She hates my guts, so nothing I say will matter and he refuses to keep her from seeing the kids until she 'gets it'. He says that's an unacceptable way to get our point across. So I have been biting the bullet while my kids eat junk food and sugar free candy--UGH! : Sorry this has turned into a MIL rant!

Thanks again to everyone, of course!

RE: store bought yogurt

Not as much as homemade and definately contains lactose. Only yogurt that has been cultured for 24 hrs does not contain lactose. But usually dairy allergies are to the proteins. But the lactose can feed intestinal flora imbalances.

See instructions here: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...&postcount=119

RE: cow dairy

Not that some people don't have issues with dairy (my DS is one of them, he can only do goat yogurt and butter)... but I think it's a big mistake to just think "allergy" rather than "her entire digestive system is not functioning properly".

I'd be more concerned about the white flour in the pizza and other junky foods and what it does to intestinal flora and immune system... which regulates allergies!

The diet we are on, the SCD, allows dairy (yogurt cheese and butter w/o lactose) to heal leaky gut. But again, some do have issues b/c the gut has leaked improperly digested proteins for so long the immune systems starts reacting to them as invaders... ergo dairy allergy. And since I've done a lot of research, it's the pasteurized stuff that creates more of a problem rather than raw b/c it's harder to digest. But I'm probably digressing as usual!

Personally, if my MIL (or my mother for that matter) didn't comply with our strict diet rules, they wouldn't be allowed to see my DS. Period. This could literally last their entire lives, or get worse, if someting is not done about it. I'm thinking Crohn's, colitis, late onset autism (which certainly may not happen in your DD's case, but I know it would in my DS's case so that is where I'm coming from.)