jen
hi nicole, i'm going through the same thing with my 5 yr old son. start reading up on this. it will all start to make sense. long story short, at sometime your goddaughter has decided that she doesn't want to "poop" anymore(pain or phobia or other reason) and she has gotten herself so constipated that she could have accually lost "sensation" so she truly can't feel the need to go to the bathroom. our pediatritian had us put my son on mineral oil and milk of mag (and enemas which i didn't have the heart to do) til we got him "cleaned out". now, this did prove effective for a couple of weeks. he was going all by himself and it was great but now i have to keep him on a regimented schedule. he sits EVERY night on the potty and goes( usually within 10 min) and we can keep it under control this way. However, this won't work until you get your goddaughter "unconstipated". i didn't mean to be so lengthy, but it takes a while to explain. if she truly has encopresis, this can be confirmed simply by an x-ray of her stomach to see how constipated she is. i wouldn't go this alone. if she has a good pediatritian, he should help her with all this. hope this helps some!! good luck.