My Nephew Has a Medical Condition, My Sister Needs Help

here is a link to the condition.
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/encopresis/article_em.htm

I would use pull ups instead of underwear and have her take him to the toilet quite often. The article suggests using stool softeners, laxatives and so on so make it less painful. It suggests the problem starts when the child holds it in for too long over an extended period of time which can cause hardening of the stool and then pain when going to the bathroom, therefore the child tries to hold it longer to avoid the pain. Eventually the colon stretches out which prevents him from being able to feel the normal sensations of needing to have a bowel movement. Then leaking can start and so on. I think she should aggressively seek specialist care for him, not just family doctor. This can go on for years if she doesn't get him treated now. Good luck.

We are not going to be able to tell you what to do about the medical condition that your nephew has but I am sure that the Doctors are going to be talking with your sister and suggesting things that can either cure this condition or at least make it more liveable.In the mean time, your sister needs to start treating his underwear as if it were diapers...in other words...rinse them out in the toilet...then put them into covered diaper pail until she is ready to wash them. I can only imagine how much money she is spending on new underwear everytime this poor little boy has an accident!!! I would also suggest that your nephews Mother and Father make sure that they keep their reactions to this situation to a minimum. This is nothing that your nephew can help, and he is probably already feeling ashamed and embarrased. They also should try and not discuss this with the rest of the sisters and brothers, or really with anyone else, or there is liable to be some hurtful things said or some teasing of your nephew.
Give your nephew some extra hugs and kisses...I am sure he can use them right now!!
R. Ann

A friend of my daughters has a problem that she can't control her bowels and poops her pants (this happened to us when we took her to Six Flags). She is 8 years old and she takes medication to help (Dad forgot the medication on the morning that we took her to Six Flags - Mom wasn't home). Anyway, they control her problem with medication and they said that when she is older she'll have surgery to correct the problem. I don't knwo of any more details, sorry. But my Grandmother also baby-sat a boy with the same problem, he had the surgery (he's now in college) and is fine now. I also worked with a lady that had a son that had a nerve problem in his lower back that kept him from knowing that he needed to go poop. All were fixable - I would suggest that your sister talk to her doctor and if he can't help her then for her to find another doctor. There is no reason for this little boy to go through life like that. Can you imagine how hard it will be for the little guy once he's in school? Please urge her to find a doctor that can help her! Good luck and God Bless!!

I assume he has encopresis which my son also has. Your sister needs to get him into the GI group at Children's Mercy. It may be as long as a 2 month wait so she shouldn't delay getting him in. Also, if she thinks he is getting better she should still go to the appointment. Here are my suggestions.

1. Clean him out over a 2-3 day period. You do this by giving him large doses of Miralax so that his bowel gets completely cleaned out. Probably 4 capfuls daily for 2-3 days. Put it in gatorade or juice. His poop should be very watery by the last day to make sure his bowels are completely clean. My son calls it his pee poop.

2. After the cleanout, he should take a capful of miralax daily to ensure he is pooping 2-3 times daily of soft poop. I suggest that they schedule time on the toilet 20-30 minutes after mealtimes. Don't have him sit for more than 5 minutes. If he isn't sucessful, have him try again 45 minutes later.

3. Try a rewards with him. For a successful BM, maybe he could get a piece of candy or something. Also, use a sticker chart. Figure out something he really wants and have him work towards it. I would start with 5-7 days of clean pants to get a reward. Don't make it consecutive days as this will frustrate him. You can then make the time period longer with a bigger prize.

She needs to get on top of this now as it will get harder once he gets older. We are now seeing a psychologist for my son who is almost 7 and he says if we are fixed by 8 we will be okay.

As far as the underwear goes, I disagree with some of the other posters about pullups or diapers. I know it gets old cleaning out the pants and we too have thrown alot of underwear away. We eventually started taken the underwear out to the yard and using the jet spray on the hose to clean them out. This worked very well.

I may be rambling on but I know how your sister feels. We have been dealing with this for over a year now. If you or your sister would like to talk to me about it, please let me know. I feel like I am the poop queen and I know it is hard to get the doctor's time and attention.

I forgot to mention. You will need to titrate the Miralax up and down until you get the right dosage for him to have 2-3 soft bowel movements per day. We had to add in some benefiber at the end to make the stools firm enough for him to feel. Also, if he is having accidents once you have cleaned him out, he is not getting enough miralax. What happens is the watery stool gets around the solid stool that is in the bowel. We saw Kathy Christensen who is a Nurse practitioner in the GI clinic at Children's mercy. They have several NPs so you might get someone else but please get on their calendar.

I agree to treat the underwear like diapers with regard to rinsing in the toilet, then washing, etc. As your sister taken her son to Children's Mercy? I know that's where I would go, at least for diagnosis and treatment plan advice. Both your sister and your nephew will need extra hugs.

is he too big for any kind of pull up? It might not be cheap, but it's probably better than buying underpants all the time.

also, I dont know about him, but my daughter poops on a schedule, pretty much every day between 6:15 and 6:45 she has to poop. Your sister can try to see if he's pooping around the same time every day, and if so, set him on the potty and have him go, or what we did, was just start sitting her on the potty before she went to bed and having her try to poop, which is how she ended up on the poop schedule she did. Hopefully that made sense.

Hi R., my neice had the same problem only with her urine. She was constantly pottying on herself even when she was 8. All the moms that said to get your sister to make an appointment to Mercy, are absolutely correct. After visiting Mercy for about a year (they live in Springfield) they had a handle on the problem. With medications and excersizes she is now a normal 13 year old. Please have her make an appointment now with a specialist. This is not normal and may be a medical condition with his nerves (that was her problem). This needs to be taken care of before he starts school, unless she plans to home school. Thankfully my neice is homeschooled with her siblings and was never teased when she had an accident. Good luck and God Bless.

Does he have encopresis? there are physicians (ue=sually pediatric gastroenterologists) who work with this and medicines you can take to help. It isn't quick but it can be solved.
MaryS

Has she taken him to a pediatric doctor that specializes in these gastric issues? Some of these conditions are treatable. In the mean time, why can't he wear a pullup or some other type of training pant? That would be much less mess for her. GL!

Good Morning R., As the other Mama's said, have your sister look for a Dr. with treatment recommendations. There is no reason in the world now for this little guy to have to go through this. For us Mom's who are now Gr mama's if we used cloth diapers with our kids we were always rinsing them out in the toilet and putting them in a pail to wash later. It would be terribly expensive if we threw each one away if we didn't like doing that.

Sometimes Corbin has accidents still but his is because he has held it in so long that is hurts to poop and he trys not to. His mama was throwing out his underwear to, until I spoke with her about it. Now if he seems constipated or something we give him extra juice or more water, less milk for a day or so.

I would definitely have your sister take him to a childrens Specialist and get opinons on treatments for this little guy. No reason for this to be a problem for him or his family. And Never make a big deal about it as he can't control what is happening.

God Bless you and yours
K. Nana of 5

What has his DR. said about his condition?What is it called and is there any surgical procedures to fix it.

I'm sorry, but I have no advice regarding treating the medical condition. As for the underwear, though, she should just wash it. Dump out whatever poop she can in the toilet and wash the underwear on hot. It will be fine. I cloth diaper, and that is what I do with the diapers. No one wants to hang out with poop, but as moms we have to get over that and touch a little grossness sometimes. In my opinion, it beats getting puked on.