My son is nine years old and still ruins his underwear with little squirts and sometimes entire movements of poop. When we ask him why he can't make it to the bathroom, he says that he'll be doing something and it just starts coming out too fast for him to get to the bathroom in time. He has been doing this continuously since he was potty trained. He hates going to the bathroom in public places and will sometimes just poop in his pants if he thinks a bathroom is too "yucky". We are pulling our hair out trying to figure out how to cure this problem. Help!

Charity

my daughter has this problem, she's 12 years old and she poops maybe once a month. we gave her an enema once, but she was traumatized. she is constantly using laxatives and sometimes you can hear her screaming from the bathroom when she doesnt. once i had to go in there [remember she is 12] and i had to squeeze her abdomen while she pushed. it didnt work

my son is 14 and hasnt pooped for almost 2 months. we took him to the doctor and he just told us to give him a fleets enema. i bought it, but i am way too grossed out to give it to him, and he wont let his dad or anyone else give it to him. the doctor told us that he doesnt want him to give the enema to himself, he might misuse it. i arranged an appointment with his doctor to give him a 2 quart enema at his office, but my son simply refused to go, and i had to cancel. HELP!

There is real good information regarding older children and bowel constipation problems. Try Doctor Scotts Question & Answers public email
doctorscotts@yahoo.com Worked for us.

Try giving your children Metamucil products. There are a variety to try-- some come in tablets, others in powders to mix with water, and others are bars. This will keep them regular, and will therefore encourage them to pass a bowel movement at home.

Good point anonymous coward person. I had to use Metamucil with my daughter for over a year due to problems with pooping, and it was a wonder. There's also this stuff called Cholase that the hospital can give your child in a prescription. It's probably like corn syrup or something.
Both worked very well......hugging bunnies since 1969

My 13 year old child, is constipated , and she said when she pushes it hurts very bad and she cant do it , and it is making her feel like she is going to vomit if she doesnt go , she said but it hurts so bad that she cannot go . how can she go fast with less pain doc?

Either this kid from the letter is mentally retarded or has serious psychological issues. Has he undergone any sexual abuse? You might look into this.

my daughter is 12 years old and she poops 1-2 times every 2 months. she is constantly using laxatives and they don't really work. she refuses to use enemas..we gave her one once at the age of five because she was constipated and she was traumatized. she screams when she poops because they can get 2-3 inches wide, and up to 15 inches long! i once tried to give her a suppository at age 7, and i managed to slip it into her rectum. it worked, and i repeated the procedure maybe two more times, using my fingers to shove these oversized rectal pills into her butt. soon she rebelled against this..unsuprisingly. now she slathers her anus with lubricant and uses laxatives, but wont allow anything into her body through her butt. it's a problem. but i just wanted to let you know.

When i was a kid, i wouldn't poop either. My mom first spanked me a lot, because i would poop in my panties in the car a lot. She then decided to give me enemas and put me in diapers. That really got me going becuase the enemas i couldnt hold, and the diapers made my bottom look really big and awkward, and it was embarrassing. So I started going and she stopped diapering me, but then i stopped going again, so she would use ginger root stuff on me. Basically she would make a little somewhat rod like ball out of ginger root, bend me over and ram that thing up my butt hole. She would hold it there and slap my right buttcheek/thigh until i started trying to push it out with my anus muscles, and when i did she would pull it out and i couldn't stop, so i would just poop and poop. then she'd usually spank me or put the gnger root in me several times and make me keep it in or poop it out on demand as practice and punishment. now my BF does that job... but he doesnt do it as punishment.

You people are fucked up... seriously.

Hello,
My four year old son has problems going to the bathroom. Everytime he poops he clogs the toilet...thats before the toilet paper. The poop is so big and they hurt him so much. He goes every 4 days or so. We eat good and keep him hydrated. This just seems so unnatural. I honestly can say Ive never seened poop this wide in my life. Ive been to the doctor for his physcial and stuff..I somehow keep forgetting about this (Ihave 3 small kids)...Please help..I don't want him to go to the doctor if he doesnt have to..do you have any possibilities of what this might be?

You might calling the doctor; you might not need to take him in, yet.

My kids' pediatrician's office will take phone calls; there's a PA and an NP, and if they can't answer the question, they'll ask the doc and call back.

There's got to be something that he can eat or drink to make his poops more frequent (and smaller!)

Good luck!

Amy: interesting post. I never considered using a ginger root suppository as a laxative before - I always thought it was just used for punishment, because of the intense burning sensation it induces. For that reason I've never taken one and never given one to my daughter (although I am an advocate of the soap-stick suppository). Now I'm thinking I should try this - where do you get the ginger root from?

My daughter is 15. She has ADHD and depression, and also has bowel problems. She has had trouble since she was little. Shes really embarassed by this. I t takes her up to 3 hours to poop, and it comes in little pellets. Ill hear her crying from her bathroom and sometimes (even though she doesnt want this) Ill have to go in there and comfort her. Shes always straining, and I helped her keep a stool diary for the doctor. Shes also really depressed beacause of this, and feels she wil l never be "normal" I reassure her that its a very common problem, but it never helps. Shes embarassed that it hurts so bad she needs her mommy to come in and sit with her. I hate to see my child in so much pain. When she was 8, she soiled the bed alot. She got older and started actully using the toilet. When she was 11, She started bleeding due to constipation and anal fissures. Shes afraid to give herself a suppository and Ive tried for her........but we cant do it often. Its so diffrent from when she was little now. In 3 years, shes gonna be an adult.............. I really dont know how to help her. Advice?

Kasey, keep taking her to the doctor and get her a good counselor.

And buy Metamucil. Try to get a prescription for Cholase. I can't believe her doctor doesn't have her on it already. Does the doc hear from you, too?

If she keeps up on fibers and water, it will help.

_______
.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com

_maybe he has a real fear of the brown stuff?poor kid...______
fartqueen

thanks:)

Kasey, I almost forgot. If you can get your child to eat prunes or drink drinks that you've put some prune juice in, she'll be more likely to dump it out.

_______
.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com

She drinks apple juice, which helps a little bit, but ill buy prunes. Im gonna ask her doctor about the cholase stuff, and im looking for a counselor. Gawd, im so stressed about this all. im the single mother of 5 girls-Alyssa is 19, Heather is 15, Kirsten is 10,Mariah is 7, and Jolie is 2. Giving Heather all this extra attention has really taken toll on my younger ones-- thats why im hoping we can just deal with this and move on with our lives.

I hope everything will be alright. If you're lucky, cholase or milk of magnesia will be something that you can get on prescription and have covered by your insurance. Every little bit helps.

Exercise also helps quite a bit to get things working, but if she's depressed, she might not want to do anything. Keep up abreast of how you guys are!

_______
.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com

Thanks for the support. Yeah, she is depressed, but i think exersize is a good idea. She goes to the dr. tommorow so I should be able to ask about the meds.

If you don't have enough magnesium in your diet you will get constipated. American diet is nearly always very short on magnesium. Most multivitamins contain little or none of it.
Digestive enzyme pills from the health food store can also really help move things along.

All of you, take your kids to a doctor!
Fecal impaction, anal fissures and worse
can result from chronic constipation of the
kind you describe. If you explain this,
(include all the gory details), maybe they
will let you take them.

New stuff out that you can get over the counter called Miralax. You can google it to read more. It WILL help. You can use it daily (my doctor told me to use it daily) and it will not cause dependency. Helped me a lot. I feel normal now.

To the original poster - sounds like your kid has some mental issues. Get him to a doctor asap.

First, anyone with this condidtion needs medical attention, or they will evenually become impacted and develop chronic constipation. Second, it sound like the kid in this letter certainly has some sort of emotional problems.

Any parent with a child that has this condition. It is going to take lots of support, understanding, and patience to break the child of this behavior. Outside intervention is also a neccesity. But beware! most professionals will automatically blame the parents for the problem.

It is entirely possible that repeated mental, physical, or sexual abuse from outside of the home can cause a child to behave like this.

HI, I HAVE A 4 YEAR OLD THAT IS HOLDING HIS POOP IN.I USED TO GIVE HIM SUPPOSITORIES,BUT HE RUNS WHEN I TRY TO GIVE THEM TO HIM NOW.He hold in sometimes for like a week.What other type of laxative you think is good for a 4 yr old?And how common is this in kids & is it normal?Is it hereditary,because i think i used to do it too. any info appreciated thank you.

My parents used to play a game to make me eat (I pooped like a race horse) when I was little. They would make like the spoon was an airplane, and my mouth was the hanger. It worked. You might try something similar, only the plane can be on a bombing run or something.

A bombing run?! We dont want to teach the kid turd terrorism at such a young age do we prairie!
_______
The Thunderous Crapper 63 Enjoying home toilet advantage since 2004!

hey tony, you should probably take him to a doctor. are you sure he's holding it in? or is it possible he's constipated? i think it probably makes a difference, since one is behavioral and the other is physical.

by the way, i don't blame him for running away from suppositories. they probably make laxatives for kids. i wouldn't give him anything made for adults. in fact, you probably shouldn't give him anything at all until you talk to a doctor and/or determine whether his problem is behavioral or physical.
_______
i love poop.

PD, great idea, the hole 'spoon is a plane' thing worked for me. As a variation though, when I stayed over at my Gran's, she used to say 'the spoon is a train' (entering a tunnel), surely, the eventual result would be that the train came out of the other end of the tunnel, plop!

_______
like a constipated accountant- I worked it out with a pencil.

Fortunately (probably) my grandma wasn't alive when I was born. Knowing the little bastard that I was, I probably would have pulled my diaper down, bent over and said "how 'bout this tunnel grandma"

Strange place to stick a spoon though eh?

_______
like a constipated accountant- I worked it out with a pencil.

tony, you can hide about an ounce of prune juice in a glass of apple juice, and the kid will never know. Prune juice helps a great deal.

_______
.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com

Tony, I believe the suppositories are the least harmful/most convenient and fast-acting remedy out there. I know how tough it is trying to give them to a kid who's putting up a fight - we've all been that kid, after all - but it's something we have to get on with.
Don't give him a chance to panic and struggle against it - just put him over your lap and do him, save your consoling and explaining for when it's all over. He needs this to help him do a smelly - and it'll make him do a big one in minutes!

Raggedmama wrote : "just put him over your lap and do him,"

Don't know about the rest of you, but that particular phrase frightens me.

BP, damn straight! The last time I was 'done' over a knee, It cost me 50 quid!!!! That worried me greatly, I'm sure I could have got it for 20!

_______
like a constipated accountant- I worked it out with a pencil.

What were you doing with 50 squid? Oh shit, sorry...dust on my glasses...never mind.

How about simmering ginger root in milk will that work as a laxative or do actually have to put it in the anus? Try using a chive the long green onions,that works for real.. Place it a bout half an inch in the anus wait about 2-5 min and there it goes!!