My 17 year old son does not always go to the bathroom

Post Reply New Topic

We would like to report that we have been working on retraining his body so this will be taken care of. We did see the doctor, but she just confirmed what we already got from this site. Everyday evening after dinner, he takes his laptop to the bathroom to sit for a while. This seems to work. All week things have gone like clockwork. Thanks for all of your help.

nice to hear he's doing better

the miralax itself could be causing the leaking. try a different stool softener. maybe sennacot.

he needs to be taught the stepbystep sequence for cleaning himself up at home, and for when he is out.

pantyliners will help with the streaking, but he still needs to get cleaned up. miralax poo is very acidic and will give him a bum rash quick.

I have problems in that area. I'm also living on my own and I hold down a part-time job, as well. I also wear protection and sneak off to the washroom, when it sneaks up on me, so that nobody would ever know that I had an accident. I also have a fancy bag that I carry my goods in.

I knew there were adults who have difficulties in this area. He is doing well as long as we prompt him to schedule a "sit down" time, but he still hs difficulty when we are not around. Overall he has done very well over the years. In fact recently we have an eval done because we are thinking about college and his autism rating (which use to be midrange) was very low. The psychologist expressed concern before the eval was tallied that he may not score with in the range for the disability. After it was tallied he still was in the range but the score was very low for autistic characteristics.
I think this is an area that will improve over time as well. At least his ability to manage it successfully without us will improve.
Thanks again for your reply.

I'm glad he's doing better with the toileting. Sounds like you are a mom that really cares about her kid. Good for you!

Just wanted to add that we've dealt with encopresis with my daughter too for the several years, since she was a toddler. (She's 6 now.) It's mostly under control because I have her sit on the toilet with books at designated times of the day, and she's on Miralax. When I took her to a pediatric gastrologist last year, he said that in fact she probably couldn't feel the stool leakage. He said that what happens is they hold it so long, the BM gets impacted and stretches out the colon, reducing sensation. The stool that leaks out looks like diarrhea, but is in fact like an "overflow" that goes around the impacted BM. In fact, when she was a toddler, I thought she was having diarrhea. It took us over a year to figure out the opposite was going on. I think she just didn't like soiling her diapers, so she started holding it in. It makes me think we should have tried early potty training for number 2, like they did in the "old days."