Encopresis

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Hi,
I may have asked this before on this forum, but honestly I don't remember so I hope you don't mind my asking again.

My 8 year old has Asperger's/HFA and has been struggling with encopresis for years and we don't know where to turn for help. He had a work-up by a pediatric GI and his digestion overall is fine. He's been working with an OT for years, and more recently with a child psychologist who specializes in children on the spectrum. We've tried eliminating items from his diet, and we've tried Miralax. We have also tied stimulants for focus, but ijt has had no imapct on his bowel issue. We had some short-term success with miralax and when we removed gluten from his diet, but nothing long-term. What am I missing? As I said to my husband this morning, we don't even know what kind of professional we need.

Anyone been down this road?
Thanks,
Judith

Due to a physical birth defect I suffer with this every day.
While I have found some things that improve my overall situation, I still have really bad days.
I also have times where my system "resets" and I have to go about discovering my sensitivities all over again.

About the only sesitivity I've had for any length of time is to garlic powder/garlic salt/dehydrated garlic, as well as those three forms of onion too. Not the real veggies, but the processed stuff. Which is in nearly everything (though luckily must be listed in ingredients as seperate from the catchall 'spices').

My suggestion is to try and cut out processed meat products (hotdogs etc) that have too many non-naturals.
As well, I've found that keeping my electrolytes balanced helps - get the docs to check his potassium levels on a really bad day.

Also to add to diet:
Tomato (lycopene) seems to help me, though it darkens the stool.
Yogurt seems to help (a very small bit every day).
Vitamin D (Fish) at least once a week.

And believe it or not, I find that drinking a LOT of milk helps; calcium slows down the peristaltic movements of the digestivve system (the push forward stuff) and gives the bowel a chance to form proper shaped stool. At least that's my theory.

Hope some of this leads you on the right direction. Not everyone is the same, so what works for me might not be perfect for you. I'm going to be interested in how this thread continues. Maybe I'll learn something in here that helps me out too.

Ps:
there are blood tests to check for gluten intolerance, though you have to have a decent amount of gluten in yoour diet building up before the test or you'll get a bum answer.

Also:
! !) Be cautious of all these "feeed them whole wheat bread not white" advice people.
I cant handle whole wheat bread AT ALL. Causes legarthy, cramps, and sometimes bleeding, as well as the dihorrea.

! !) Try removing cereal from his diet for a while. I love (adore?) Cheerios and Mini Wheats, but I know both give me serious issues for the next two days. I stick to Rice Crispies and sometimes Corn Flakes and do much better.

I don't know about this specifically but my daughter does have celiac, so I thought the suggestion to have him tested is a good one. He needs to be eating gluten when he is tested-they draw blood and look for antibodies. The GF diet takes up to 6 months to eliminate all the gluten from the system.

After that test is done perhaps you could try an elimination diet as it could be a chemical intolerance. http://failsafediet.wordpress.com/the-r ... -failsafe/

Others have had good luck with Feingold and Paleo diets.

My mother has IBS and has had good luck with the low FODMAPS diet. Her issues have stopped on the diet. http://ibs.about.com/od/ibsfood/a/The-FODMAP-Diet.htm

I feel your pain. We've been struggling for years too (encopresis as well as enuresis, coupled with some kind of attention disorder).
We've seen specialists at dedicated clinics who have given us all kinds of advice, laxatives etc, but it all does jack.. well, you know.
The pain of having him known as "that kid who smells like poo" is immense. And he's not even our Aspie!

The only thing we can do is try to get him to drink lots of water and sit on the toilet at approximately the right time each day (impossible when he's at school and playing!), but that's fixing symptoms not problems. I just hope that his digestive system matures before his liver takes damage from the crap doctors pump into him.

I actually live life slightly dehydrated at all times in order to slow the digestive process.
Then I drink my liquids once the busy phase of the day is over.

Note: I don't recommend this, I'm just sayin'

Note: Gastrocolic reflex = The body naturally wants to expell waste at the same time as it accepts new food/drink.
This reflex can be used to an extent, with carefull planning, to encourage proper clearing; say for example you give the kid a pb and j sandwich half an hour before 'play with the other kids' time. The body will make a poopy sometime vary close to the snack, and hopefully that poopy will give your kid about 2 hours of free play before the undies get the next 'free play'.