Encopresis- new ideas??

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 9:22 am

DS has had enco for 3 years. We get him fully cleaned out only to be full again and having accidents 3 months later.

At this point we need to get to the root cause of why he keeps getting full. Is there any functional doctor or something else we can try to figure it out?

Our doctor is amazing but she just doesn’t have answers. We have tried everything that we can think of.

amother

Cappuccino

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 9:30 am

Having dealt with this myself for a couple of years, I believe you need maintenance for way longer than 3 months.
You got to maintain the clean out for at least a year, so the system can heal and strengthen to do what it is got to do on its own
Hatzlacha

amother

Begonia

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 9:31 am

I can tell you what a functional doctor will tell you without you needing to shell out hundreds:

Gluten and dairy free diet
Minimal grains, low sugar
Probiotics and ferments
Digestive enzymes, betaine hcl and tudca with every meal
Loads of magnesium throughout the day
Epsom salt footsoaks nightly
Treat yeast overgrowth and parasites

amother

Offwhite

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 9:54 am

amother Begonia wrote:

This. Just chiropractor or craniosacral therapist for the structural part.

amother

Pewter

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 10:02 am

He should sit with knees up like on a stool when pooping. You might want to look in to pelvic floor pt. My daughter takes daily laxatives to keep her cleaned out properly. I'm hoping we'll be able to stop it but so far when we reduce she doesnt empty fully....

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 10:47 am

amother Cappuccino wrote:

So we try. We do the same maintenance but by 3 months it’s not working anymore

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 10:48 am

amother NeonOrange wrote:

You need a schedule or make sure he empties daily. Do you have set times he has to sit on the toilet? Usually after supper works best. And he has to sit for 10 minutes, if it’s shorter they don’t empty.

We’ve tried. He’s super stubborn. Refuses to sit.

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 10:49 am

amother Pewter wrote:

Yes we do stools. Also have done pelvic floor pt. Daily laxatives as well. But by 3 months he’s backed up again

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 10:53 am

amother Begonia wrote:

We’ve tried dairy didn’t seem to help much and it’s hard for a little kid. If I knew it worked I would do it. Same with gluten.

Is it the sugar causing the issue? We wanted to test but he’s super stubborn, refuses the drink.

We do probiotics (well I try he’s very stubborn about taking anything).

What are ferments?

Doing magnesium daily.

I don’t know about digestive enzymes, but again he is super stubborn about any meds. Is there something easy to take?

Epsom salt foot soaks- haven’t tried that yet

What do you mean “try yeast overgrowth and parasites?” How do I try?

amother

Begonia

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 11:02 am

amother OP wrote:

I feel really bad saying this because I know how impossible it feels, but there aren't really any shortcuts when it comes to root causes.

You asked about functional medicine, I gave you the [approximate] functional medicine approach. It's always complex. You can't do half hearted diet modification attempts and a magnesium gummy and expect long term changes in a disorder that involves layers of dysfunction.

I'm sorry Sad

and I'm saying this as a mother of children who desperately need these kinds of programs but I'm not doing them because it's just too hard.

There are many alternative "bandaids" but they'd basically be doing what you're doing now, just more naturally. There may be benefit to that, but it'll still just be a bandaid.

Peeling back all the layers takes a lot of work.

amother

Lemonchiffon

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 11:19 am

amother OP wrote:

Yes we do stools. Also have done pelvic floor pt. Daily laxatives as well. But by 3 months he’s backed up again

What laxatives is he on and how do you know he is backed up?

My daughter is 8 and we are dealing with this for years also. Its not fun. She takes 2 ezlax every morning and she does not have any backup. I do laundry once a week and there is usually around 2 pairs of underwaer with a little number two. Its generally because she tries to hold it in as long as possible and only actually goes to the bathroom at the last second after the first drop came out already. She also has a very weak muscle down there from the withholding which does not help.The ezlax makes it that she is forced to go. She can't hold it in forever causing backup - like she does if we not on ezlax.

She also refuses to sit on the toliet at scheduled times like you are officially supposed to, but we are at a manageable place and its not worth making this into a battle.

The plan is to very slowly reduce the ezlax from 2 to 1.5 to 1 etc but the GI wont do that until her underwear is clean for a few weeks straight and that never happens. I am okay with the situation now and really just waiting for her to mature and care more and then we will hopefully see more progress and be able to reduce the ezlax.

amother

Aster

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 11:25 am

Hugs! So not fun to be dealing with this :-(

My son had a very hard time with the sitting so we bought a cheap imitation "Gameboy" from Amazon and he can ONLY use it when he sits. If that's not motivating for your son you need to find something that is (reading a book, listening to a CD, subscription to the Loop, etc.) so the sitting will not be so aversive to him.

I also found that using the positive helped a lot (e.g., "You can have this Gameboy as soon as you're on the toilet. I can't wait to see how it works!" versus "You can't have this unless you're on the toilet.")

amother

Canary

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 11:55 am

amother Orange wrote:

My kids have that from parasites (pinworms). First #1 accidents and if I dont treat it goes on to #2. By now I know already so it doesn't go that far anymore. This and behavior changes are the only symptoms they have.

Do u test for the parasites or just treat them? Been desperately trying to figure out #1 accidents and nighttime wake ups with my daughter but she doesn’t itch down there or wake up at midnight necessarily…

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 11:57 am

amother Lemonchiffon wrote:

He’s on a high dose of exlax and magnesium citrate daily. I know he’s backed up because I know the signs. Pee accidents. Poop accidents and throwing up when he poops. Those signs are always indicative of backup. It’s my clue

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 11:59 am

amother Begonia wrote:

Ok but what does this mean?? Not doing doing magnesium gummy, high dose magnesium in capsule

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 12:09 pm

amother Orange wrote:

This has been going on for 3 years, can it be pinworms for 3 years? None of my other kids have it and he doesn’t itch.also I know it’s a GI backup because we get X-rays. Does this still mean pinworms?

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 12:12 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

You say “these kinds of programs” what does that mean.
You mean no dairy and no gluten?
Has anyone stopped those and found enco stopped?