bowel problems with my 7 year old.
By jemkay
@jemkay (19)
Canada
March 10, 2007 7:38pm CST
I was wondering if anyone has had problems with an older child having bowel problems. My son is 7 and still has bowel accidents. We are taking him to the doctor and they keep doing tests and checking his diet and doing medications and such and still no answers. He is begining to get teased at school and I really want to help him but we dont know what to do. I think we have tried all the advise we have gotten so far. from rewards to taking things away, and from ignoring the problem and just dealing with it to making a big deal about it and having to go without doing family outting due to the problem. i dont know what else to do to help him and i dont know anyone that has had this problem before. has anyone had this problem or have a child with this problem that can shed some light on this for us?
3 responses
@scutter (11)
• United States
15 Mar 07
my son suffers from fecal incontinence. The specialist said that boys from age 7 to 10 can suffer from this. What they do is hold their stools so the muscles in the rectum become weak and the stools become hard and when they do finally go, it is usually like diarrhea and the muscles are weak and they can't hold it. Some kids do this because they are lazy and some because of their diet. My son always has had an issue with having a bowel movement on the toilet. So it was easier for him to hold it. The doctor suggested a routine for using the restroom. He now goes and says it feels so much better than being bound up. First of all, I tried discipline. It isn't anything your child is choosing to be disrespectful. You should start with what we called "throne time". Sitting on it for 10 minutes after school and again a half an hour after a meal. Also, I had to tell my son that I had to flush the toilet to ensure he was going. It was a long haul but attitude and consistency helps.
@stacyv81 (5903)
• United States
14 Mar 07
Maybe it is IBS, sometimes brought upon due to stress, do you know if he is having problems at school, such as bullying or what not? I'd consider a psychologist, a lot of health issues are do to things going on in life, maybe he has some stresses he doesnt want to bother you with, the only reason I bring this up is I had IBS as a child due to things I didnt want to share with my parents. Try it, see if it helps...you have nothing to lose here.
@aninspiration (346)
• United States
14 Mar 07
my son did the same thing tho we never did know why we had several test done and they kept saying there was no rason for it he has adhd and is bipolor so i dont know if that had something to do with it or not but at about age 12-13 he just quit and hasnt had the problem since as to the teasing at school i kept extra close in his locker and they would let him take a showe at school and chace an put the cloths in a zip lock back to bring home
