It Snuck Out Again: The Real Reason Behind Your Child's Accidents
From Parenting Like a M*ther by Lindsay Wolf-Owczarek
April 3, 2026 · 39 min
About this episode
This episode discusses the physiological reasons behind children's bladder and bowel accidents with expert Calista Powell.
In this episode, I'm joined by someone I genuinely love collaborating with — Calista Powell, a pelvic floor physiotherapist at Pine Integrated Health Center here in Edmonton. And I'll be honest, before I became a psychologist and before I had kids, I would have assumed that a child having bladder or bowel accidents past a certain age was either a behavioural problem or a parenting problem. I was completely wrong — and this conversation challenged that assumption in the best way. Because what looks like defiance or laziness is almost always something happening in the body. And there is real, effective help available. Calista walks us through what's actually going on physiologically when kids struggle with accidents, why constipation is so much more complicated than most of us realize, and how anxiety and stress can create a cycle in the body that's really hard to break on your own. She also explains exactly what appointments with a pelvic floor physiotherapist actually look like for kids — because I know a lot of parents are nervous about that — and spoiler: it's nothing to be afraid of. I also share some of the ways I approach this in my own psychology practice, including why I…
People in this episode
Host: Lindsay Wolf-Owczarek
Guest: Calista Powell
Topics covered
- child accidents
- pelvic floor physiotherapy
- enuresis
- encopresis
- parenting support
- anxiety and stress
Keywords
- child accidents
- pelvic floor physiotherapy
- enuresis
- encopresis
- parenting
- constipation
- anxiety
- stress
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Pine Integrated Health Center
Places: Edmonton
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