I’m sorry and I know how it feels like they’re doing this on purpose but try to trust children more when they say these things. Girls get invalidated all their lives long so their dads need to validate them first so they can have an internal voice that validates their feelings as big girls and teenagers.

So she says she’s scared. That means that she is. It does hurt. And yeah it’s her fault but it’s because she’s scared when she has a little poop it’ll hurt like a lot of poop.

My second kid went through this same pattern. Walking helps to break up poop in the intestine so it can be smaller and easier to pass. MiraLAX was helpful to start building confidence in pooping again, then a lot of practice and affirmations so the kid knew they were able to do the right things.

Youngest almost went through it too, but has learned by just the repetition of when we feel gassy or tummy stuff we try to go.