Child taken to hospital with constipation 'because school's strict loo roll policy left her too scared to go to the toilet'

Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email

A schoolgirl was hospitalised with constipation because her school’s toilet roll policy left her with such bad anxiety she couldn’t relieve herself when she needed to, her mother has claimed.

Kitchener Road Primary in Cardiff does not put toilet paper in the pupils’ toilet cubicles. Instead, the children aged four to 11 must take what they think they need from a single tissue dispenser in the public area before going in.

If they need more, they have to go out again.

This means some have soiled themselves and others are too anxious to relieve themselves properly, said mother Fahmin Khanum.

Fahmmin said her four year-old daughter was admitted to the University Hospital of Wales for three days last month with agonising stomach pains which medics eventually diagnosed as constipation, something the child had not suffered from before.

“She was not clearing her bowels properly in school because of the toilet paper policy. It was a traumatic experience,” said human resources manager Fahmin, 32.

“My daughter is quite independent from going to day nurseries before starting school in September and she was potty trained at two and half and had not had problems before.”

It was only when Fahmin went into the school in Kitchener Road, Canton, for parents’ evening last week that she said she discovered the cause of her daughter's problem.

ICYMI: Our weekend newsletter Don't miss WalesOnline's best reads with our latest newsletter. A curated selection of stories delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Sign up here

The four year-old, who is in the reception class, was so worried about not taking enough paper into the cubicle that she was not relieving herself when she needed to at school.

“At parents’ evening I went to the toilet and there was a single tissue dispenser and my daughter counted out five sheets and went to the toilet. There are no tissue dispensers in the cubicles.

“I spoke to the head teacher and she told me it was so that children don’t block the toilets using too much toilet paper.

“My daughter was not clearing her bowels properly in school because of the toilet paper policy.

"This caused her to end up in hospital 100%."

Fahmin said her daughter was now getting anxious using the toilet at home and school as a result and has soiled herself at least once at school because she didn’t take in enough paper first time.

“Last Monday when I went to collect my daughter the teacher told me she had soiled herself.

“You can imagine you run out of toilet paper and you know you might need to take your pants down and go to the public area and go back in, or pull you pants back up and soil yourself going out to get more paper.

“This is what happened to my daughter and she then had to go and tell a teacher infront of other children that she had soiled herself.

“This is not just about my daughter, it’s about all the children.

“It’s a health and safety issue impacting on children’s welfare and it’s awful for the children’s dignity,”

Fahmin, a human resources advisor at Cartrefi Cymru Co-operative, which works with people with learning difficulties, and her husband Afjul Ali, have written a formal letter of complaint to the school's head teacher Ruth Jackson.

Following her complaint the school has now said it has reviewed its policy.

A spokeswoman from the school said: “We have reviewed our policy and will soon be installing dispensers in all our cubicles. We will be contacting parents shortly to let them know of the change.”