Child with Bowel Problems

S.,

My 11 year old has Encopresis. Miralax is the only thing that works for him. Have you tried that.

Hi S.,
The problem I had with my daughter was that she would hold it, and then have accidents. She wouldn't go for days. We tried reading to her and other rewards, to make her sit on the toilet long enough, sometimes it would work but not always. She told us girls didn't go poop. We had to convince her everyone went. We went through two doctors until we found one who was going through the same thing with her child. She gave us a prescription for Miralax. This helps but we really didn't want her to rely on a medicine to have a bowel movement. So we slowly weaned her from it and eventually she outgrew the problem. It took along time. Be patient. D.

S.,

your post was as if i had written it myself many years ago. When my son was 5 he had encopresis, it had gotten so bad that (pooping his pants at school) they thought he had something more seriously wrong with him, we ended up doing rectal biopsies, and all sorts of other test with him, and found out he has a muscle disease but regardless we finally got his bowels to work, he is now 18 and is doing great. First off you have to know that this is not a easy fix, it takes time. The first thing the gastronolist(sp) had us do was his diet, increasing the amount of fiber was key, as was adding oranges to his diet and lots and lots of water. ( constipation is caused from the colon not having enough water) So i know this sounds funny but heres what the Dr had us do.
breafast: Cup of warm coco and a fresh orange
15 minutes later sit on toilet
Lunch: Any sandwich with out cheese on wheat bread
15 minutes later sit on toilet
Dinner was meat, salad etc.
15 minutes later sit on toilet
my son was to have No pasta, no cheese, only wheat breads and increase his fiber any time i could, Fiber and water are the key to this. they have to learn to use the muscles again. IF tis really bad they get whats called mega colon and thats even worse cause then when they do finally start to poop good they have such a stretched colin the poop basically cant stay in and thats harder to control than trying to get the poop out. It took about a month of making sure that 15 minutes after each meal he went to the toilet and really watching his diet and using stool softners before we started to see a difference then it took about a year before he didnt need reminded and it only got better from there. I had made arrangments with the school and the nurse that if my son did have a accident he could just get up and leave class and go to nurse and the key words were " i need to call my mom" then i would get the call and bring him up another pair of jeans and then the kids in shcool had no idea what was going on. CAuse kids can be so mean and if they ever find out he poops his pants they will beat him up emotionally, kids can be so mean.
anyway if you have any questions or just wanna chat feel free to email me. ____@____.com
Good luck.. keep us posted!

I would suggest him eating some sort of fiber/fiber bars to help with his digestion, but also, I think giving him the power over his problem would help. Get him on a routine of sitting on the pot, even if he doesn't "have" to go. When he wakes up, after lunch, when he gets home, before bed. Just make him sit on it. Give him a watch or clock and mark the times he needs to go sit on the pot and for how long. I know I made my son sit, even when he didn't want to go, and it seemed that eventually, he was able to go at at least one of the times, and it made him feel better. Now he poops like a champ and no accidents :-) If you can think of something proactive to do, that may help, rather than something reactive or after the fact. If does have an accident, just make him clean up after himself (show him how to do it of course). Give him the power over the situation. I wish you luck!

sounds like hes not fully potty trained i had a son that did the same thing but we broke him of that and we made him clean his poop out of his pants and that did it he finally started to go and didnt mess him self, but he sounds like hes not fully pt. boys are harder to train than girls and my son didnt get trained till he was 5 yrs and that is when he started school and i think he only had 1 accident case he was excited about things and it had sliped his mind but we reassured him and he was okay after that.

I am in the same shoes!!
WOW!
I have tried everything too..mine does it at night..let me know what you come up with..I was getting ready to ask for some help on the same subject..
Please take note of my email address..its ____@____.com and let me know as I dont know how to add people to respond to on here.
Thanks so much.
ang

My four year old has just started doing the same thing I guess I really dont know a whole lot to do more than what you are doing. His pediatrition put him on a laxative that you just put in their drink they dont even know it is there it is called Glycolax. Connor doesnt have accidents at school but he does at home so I insist he go in and go potty every 15 minutes.. I think they get so busy playing that they hold it in then when they go in and go potty they just cant get it all out... I dont know but I have been doing the potty every 15 minutes for about a week and he has had only 1 accident and now I make him help me clean it up to. then he may not be so inclined to do it again they dont like to clean it up. sorry I dont have any better ideas for you but just wanted to let you know that there are other parents out there dealing with the same thing.

i also am a stay at home mom. i have an 8 yr old daughter and my son is 5. he is autistic but has the same problems your son has. they started him on mineral oil. and then found out he was so backed up they prescribed miralax daily. i first had to start out with giving him 2 enema's. b/c he's on laxitives now, he's pooping much better but won't use the toilet. i have had to actually pull him out of school and he is being homeschooled until his bowels are under control. i would suggest miralax to your doc. its helped my son greatly. good luck

does he go to the the bathroom before going out to recess? I don't know how long recess is, generally speaking, we will have movements about 30 minutes after meals. And recess could be moving that along if he's running and jumping. I never quite understood why recess was always right after lunch, you body needs some time to recover from eating. just like no swimming for an hour after eating or you can get sick.

Maybe if you can determine that he's just too busy playing, then you know that's it's probably not medical, it's has to do with behavior. My mom said I went through that for about 3 months. I don't remember exactly what we did other than being very consisent about going after meals.

It is very frustrating when it keeps happening and you feel at the end of your rope.. We had this same prob with our 7 yr old boy about 2 years ago also.. we did the mineral oil trick and also gave it to him right after his meal every time. The thing is being consistent. I think you should have the school nurse give him a tablespoon of mineral oil after he eats lunch and then half hour later or so make him go to the bathroom.. he may miss some recess but it would be worth it. Our doctor said he sometimes didn't get the bathroom in time and it just comes out.. but if you can get a routine in place it would help with some of the frustration..
It sucks I know but ours is 7 now and has past that phase..Don't give up! I feel for you!

A little about me - dad of 4 - 13 yr, 4 yr, and twin girls almost 2.

I have been a school teacher for the past 9 years and have seen a few things. First of all, you need to relax. He can tell that it is a big deal and being nervous or frustrated only makes it worse. The mineral oil is fine, have you tried GlycoLax? It is a powder that you can put in a drink and help keep everything regular. I think that one of the big things to look at is what is happening at recess? I would ask a playground teacher to watch him at recess and see how he gets along with the other kids. Is he having older children around him that may make him feel different than kids his own age, etc? If you are careful in the way you talk to him about what is going on around him at school, you might just find your answer. Another thing to look at is that he is obviously aware of the difference between what he deals with and what he thinks other kids deal with. I you can help him feel safe in his various environments, my guess is that much of the problem will decrease.

I would hope that some of this helps, we've been there and dealt with some of what it sounds like you are dealing with.

Good Luck!!

V.

My son Cameron has had this problem since he was four, he is turning 8 on the 30th of August. I went to the doctor, for what seems like the 1,000th time and they finally told me he has the same thing. They prescribed, Polyethylene Glyco 3350, NF powder for oral solution, and within that next day he was going to the bathroom on his own and it was cleaning him out! The medicine is mixed with gatorade and it works wonders. Please take it from someone that has dealt with this for 4 years. http://www.bing.com/health/article/mayo-126560/Encopresis... check out this site and if you have any questions please feel free to write me... ____@____.com

Have they tried Miralax? It is a perscription but it isn't like a normal laxative, it just softens the stool by drawing water into the colon (I believe). My 4 year old has been on it now for over a year and does really well on it. My almost 11 year old was on it when she was 9 as well.

A.

First of all, I would consider removing him from school and either homeschooling this year or holding him back. I think this must be very hard on his self-esteem. My daughther went through something like this and the steps that our local GI had us take are as follows: First we used an enema to clean her out. Then, we started her on a daily dose of milk of magnesia (play with it until the stool comes out in an oatmeal consistency), MOM is not something that the body becomes dependent on (laxatives are different the body does become dependent - stay away). We did this daily dose (at the same time) for six months because the doctor explained that they have to forget that going to the bathroom can be embarrassing and/or painful. After this my child started taking the chewable fiber tablets or I mixed the fiber powder in her food and drinks. This has to occur daily for my child. Others can maybe switch to every other day. Also, make sure he is getting lots of liquids. I measured out a daily dose of water and juices for her to consume each day. She is doing great now - She is 9 years old and has no problems as long as we stick with her daily fiber. I don't know if you have seen a specialist but I highly recommend you seeing a GI doctor and get his case assessed accordingly. The doctors finally decided that my child's intestines were absorbing to much of the moisture and causing the problems. Her problems started when she was 2 and by following the above steps she was fine at about 4 as long as we continued our daily fiber supplements (consistency is the BIG key here). Also, we would have her sit down about 15-30 minutes after a meal on the toilet - I would read to her for about 10 minutes and then she could get up - this helps create bowel movement habits. Hope this helps and just keep a positive attitude with him.
Good Luck,
Tam
If you have further questions feel free to email me: ____@____.com

OK, this may sound redundant, but my son was having accidents, only with poop though. i tried to solve the problem with all of the great suggestions you got, but nothing worked. i begged him to go in the toilet, and one day he blurted out that he was affraid some one would hear him going. he was holding it until he couldn't any more unless he was at home, because he was embarrassed. so for us it didn't have a single thing to so with juices or laxatives, but finding a solution to his issue, or better yet, figuring out his issue. which i did, with a lot of creativity. i hope this helps and i feel for you.

Wow sounds like us my son is 6 and he is always having accidents in his underware. We took him to the doctor cuz he finally told me that he can't feel it when he gos. They took a X-Ray and he has small poop balls in his tummy so he is backed up. I told her that he don't complain of tummy aches and she said they would have us give him medicine called Miralax a laxative. He still is having problems she says he is probably the kid that is going to always have problems. Good luck I don't feel like I am getting anywhere either. Did the doctor tell u that he will probably have to be on Laxatives pretty much his whole life they did me. Well good luck I know what u are going though.

Hi S., I have an idea for you to try.....I use it with my 6 month old when she gets a little constipated...maybe it can help you! I give my daughter a little bit of Aloe Juice. I order it from this one website...I have checked with my doctor and he says that it is perfectly safe. Aloe is a natural laxative (but a gentle one) and is also a natural antibiotic so it can help fight off colds as well! If you are interested let me know and I can refer you to the website! Hope this helps!

Oh, and the most natural things to do which I am sure you have probably tried already are increasing fiber and fluid intake. I wouldnt suggest trying non natural laxatives because your child can become dependant on them and they can create more problems.

Oh and one last thing.....lol....maybe one of the teachers can take him to the bathroom following lunch everyday and have him sit there for a few minutes. If you know that this is his normal pattern of behavior it might be worth a try!

Good luck and keep us posted.