Encopresis

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Has anyone heard of this? I just discovered it last night (feeling a little guilty)..

BM issues are pretty common with autistic kids. I know there have been questions about this before, though maybe not with the technical term for it.

We do not have that particular BM problem, but we have others. So my question is, do you have an idea of what is causing it? My son will not go #2 anywhere but home. so we have to keep that in mind when going places. Also he tries to hold it in when doing fun things. I basically have to watch for non-verbal cues and prompt him to go, pretty often. It may be that your son has similar issues but maybe worse than what we have, and it is causing constipation.

I looked this up on Wikipedia, and it also suggested that the constipation could be influenced by diet and gave some dietary recommendations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encopresis

Dietary changes are an important management element. Recommended changes to the diet in the case of constipation-caused encopresis include:

reduction in the intake of constipating foods such as dairy, peanuts, cooked carrots, and bananas
increase in high-fiber foods such as bran, whole wheat products, fruits, and vegetables
higher intake of water and liquids, such as juices, although an increased risk of diabetes and/or tooth decay has been attributed to excess intake of sweetened juices
limit drinks with caffeine, such as cola drinks and tea
provide well-balanced meals and snacks, and limit fast foods/junk foods that are high in fats and sugars
limit whole milk to 16 ounces a day for the child over 2 years of age, but do not completely eliminate milk because children need calcium for bone growth and strength.


It also recommends stool softeners and other interventions. I am not a doctor, so I would recommend you consult one to see if any of that would be appropriate for your child.

Hi, welcome to the club. We have been dealing with this for years in our 9-year old. Currently we're following the Mayo clinic protocol which uses stool softener s for 6-9 months. Jury is out on whether or not it will help, but the idea is that the rectum gets stretched out, so it needs that much time for the rectum to regain its shape, which will allow the internal muscles to get stronger.

We did not have luck with dietary interventions.

Please let me know if you find something that helps.

Best,

Well so far, I'm trying to get my son to wear liners so he can remove the problem before it because a socially embarrassing "moment". He wears them s-o-m-e-times but he has mixed feelings about them. 1) he feels like he's wearing a diaper and it's for "babies" 2) he started urinating in it, which increased the problem. Come on kid!!

So did you take your child to see a pediatric gastroenterologist or do you just suspect he may have encopresis. If the latter I'd strongly suggest you see a doctor to get confirmation.

We, too, have been dealing with this in our 9yo LF ASD/MR DS for several years but just got the diagnosis. I'm wondering what took us so long as well but I've read so many conflicting stories on the Internet involving Candida yeast overgrowth. I could tell stories that could turn your hair white but I decided to move forward and scheduled a long-overdue visit with a pediatric gastroenterologist who'd seen him before. He confirmed part of what I'd read on the Internet. Now we just have to set aside a day for the prescribed treatment, but I think it's going to take a little longer and am looking for alternatives that include a change in his diet, which has been a point of major contention within our family and our entire treatment team but because of this I feel it needs to reexplored.

We have the same thing. He wears pull-ups at night and resisted for a long time. One day I spoke to him privately about wearing "protection" and told him no one ever has to know. I also fibbed a little and told him lots of kids wear them at night. He wears them as long as we call them protection.

I only suspect. I googled the info and it made perfect sense to me. What will a pediatric gastroenterologist do exactly? Is your child's diagnoses "Encopresis"?

Would you mind elaborating on your post .. candida.. stories? My son does have yeast overgrowth.

UPDATE:
My son told me that he doesn't use the washroom at school because he "doesn't feel safe".. that worried me a lot because WHY?? He said because he doesn't want someone to barge in on him and the locks in the boys bathroom don't work very well. Having said that, it also sounded like a lot of excuses (because he doesn't feel safe) and when I suggested him using a nurses room's washroom, he was pretty happy about that. I'm thinking maybe it's due to a biological clock issue. Meaning, if he needs to have a BM in the afternoon, he will run into this problem. If he needs to have a BM in the morning, then he will use the washoom at home.. except he isn't able to wipe himself properly (a big concern).

We've talked about appropriate/inappropriate touching and how he can come to me anytime, if something happened, etc. He claims nothing has ever happened to him (and I have to believe him). It's hard to hear him say he "doesn't feel safe" though.. especially when he can't explain why.