Encopresis-has anyone dealt with it?

lucky

Mon, May 09 2005, 12:45 am

My son, 7 yrs old was diagnosed w/encopresis. He can not control his bms therefor always dirties himself and it is very smelly.I am at my wits end. This is going on for 3 years. he is regressing instead of making progress.
I have seen ped. gastro. says muscles are working fine. I do think it is phsycological but I had him evaluated by the local school,(the only place I can have a yiddish therapist)and they did not accept him. He is very bright k'h. and is at the top of his class in learning and socializing.any info would really help.

also, At least I have a place to vent!all I do is clean him and his dirty clothes. sometomes I feel like ive just aboout HAD it.

lucky

Mon, May 09 2005, 6:04 am

If he would be bothered by his being dirtied, he probably would be half cured. HE COULDN'T CARE LESS. I use pull ups at home to make it a bit easier on me. In the morning he is fine. so at least it does not affect his going to cheder.

amother

Wed, May 11 2005, 12:23 am

One of my sons had encopresis. He seemed to have had it because of psychological problems-someone tried to rob my husband when he was taking him to the bathroom when he was younger. He outgrew it but I can't remember how-either when he went to sleepaway camp or when my husband said he was flushing the robbers away. The smell was terrible and it was very frustrating but nothing I did seemed to help. I think the doctor also said to try adding more fiber to his diet, like metamucil.

lucky

Wed, May 11 2005, 11:23 pm

Adding fiber to his diet is something we have tried. we have also tried neg. and pos. approaches. punishing is useless,and he has no problem cleaning himself.he has gotten loads of toys and stuff from grandparents for keeping clean say for a week. but he always falls back to the same.
I am planning to see a different pediatric gastro. Maybe hashem willing, he will be the good shliach to help my son.

I am surprized that so few people know about encopresis. It is not a very rare thing in kids. maybe it also goes under another name.

indianamom4

Wed, May 18 2005, 11:38 pm

I have a friend who has a son with something similar. She also had some behavior problems with him. Have you thought about changing him to a gluten-free diet? I know that it sounds crazy and impossible, but it may make a huge difference in your lives. I have to cook gluten-free for one of my kids and it is not simple, but once you get the hang of it it isnt so bad. You can PM me if you have any questions.

indianamom4

Tue, May 24 2005, 2:19 pm

I dont really know how the gluten is related, but I know that my friends son did not have celiac disease but was successful at becoming trained after taking gluten out of his diet.

chavamom

Tue, May 24 2005, 2:48 pm

My youngest son had a problem with bowel withholding which is related to encopresis.

This is the way it was explained to me (and they told me that the treatment is the same for encopresis as for my son's problem - the only difference is that my son was in diapers). Part of the problem is they have an 'issue' with having a bowel movt. - maybe they are afraid of the toilet, maybe they had a movt. that hurt, etc. In the beginning they try not to go, but this creates several problems. They get constipated, and then when they have to go it hurts so they reist more and it becomes a cycle. In the meantime, the lower bowel gets stretched and becomes 'desensitisized' to the message to have a bowel movement creating even MORE of a problem.

The solution that I was offered that worked really well for my son is that he got 'benefiber' (a soluble fiber that disolves and is undetectable) in his drinks a few times a day and a daily dose of mineral oil. It makes witholding all but impossible and breaks the fear/witholding/pain cycle. They will not become 'addicted' to mineral oil btw (not able to have a movt. without it).

Motek

Mon, May 30 2005, 3:04 pm

lucky wrote:

Are you concluding it's psychological by default - because the dr. sees nothing physically wrong with him, or do you have a specific reason for thinking it's psychological? Do you think you know why he's doing this?

I know nothing about your personal homelife, of course, so maybe the following won't be relevant, but I'll tell it anyway in case it's helpful.

The son of a relative of mine had this same problem. But this wasn't the only thing going on in his life. He wasn't a happy kid. His parents' chinuch methods leave a lot to be desired. He was unhappy at school and at home.

again, you might very well be wonderful mechanchim, so hope you don't my writing about someone else's situation

lucky

Mon, May 30 2005, 11:18 pm

Since he stays clean in school, I think it is a way of getting attention. In school he is a leader of the class, at home he is the little boy with lots of older siblings to boss him.
I think it is psycological cause there are weeks that he is fine, and then it just starts again.(and it is usually at times when I have a hectic week.)

Motek

Wed, Jun 01 2005, 3:12 pm

lucky wrote:

there are weeks that he is fine, and then it just starts again.(and it is usually at times when I have a hectic week.)

so then it sounds like you know what's what and it's a matter of giving him the attention he needs

sad to say, in the case I wrote about, the boy was not restricting his "accidents" to when he was at home - definitely did not help him win popularity contests!

amother

Mon, Jan 09 2006, 12:01 am

Anybody still out there with this problem? We've been dealing with it for over a year. He's been tested by a pediatric gastroenterologist, and she said he has poor muscle tone and can't feel when he needs to go... It caused a lot of problems socially (other kids don't understand, obviously). It's also about to drive me out of my mind cleaning up after him. He's been on a metamucil type supplement all this time. It has helped somewhat, but not perfectly. The worst is the social aspect. I feel so terrible for him. He really can't help it, but honestly, what are you going to do to a bunch of 2nd graders to make them be more sensitive? It's an impossible situation.

unexpected

Thu, May 05 2011, 12:02 am

We have been dealing with this for a while now. According to most proffessionals I have spoken with it usually boils down to a power struggle. The only thing to do is stay as calm as possible, try not to react and give the kid his space. My kid is 8 and is doing much better than he was. Unfortunately, we are starting now with the 4 yr old. I find that the more relaxed I am, the better we are at this. We started improving when I insisted he clean up after himself, wrap and throw out the underwear when it was REALLY bad, or put it in the washing machine and take a shower before he comes downstairs.
That, together with really biting my tongue and not expressing disapproval when he was smelly (which was always) seemed to have some effect. Unfortunately, this was not something I could have done with a little kid, obviously. And there is the problem with Brachos made in his vicinity.
This is a really torturous problem for families, also bec. you think that everyone thinks you don't clean your kids. It can be very embarrasing.
Good luck!