This is definitely not the first time I have blogged about Noah and his numerous issues with his bowels.
In fact, if you follow me on Twitter you have most likely read the many tweets in which I lament over failed attempts at potty training, my frustration with Noah's fear of poop, and the many medical tests and interventions he has endured in hopes of treating his attempts to withhold stool.
For over a year Noah has purposefully attempted to prevent himself from pooping.
Noah's doctor and other experts in encopresis (the medical term for fecal withholding) all agree that the problem typically starts when a child has an occurrence of constipation and the resulting pain scares the child into associating all bowel movements as being both a bad thing and a PAINFUL bad thing. The child then purposely holds in the stool and refuses to pass it either on the toilet or in a diaper. This results in stool becoming impacted and backing up into the colon which can then cause a myriad of dangerous health problems.
There are 2 ways of dealing with this issue. The first involves an enema and works rather quickly and the second involves very high doses of Miralax and works more slowly. Considering Noah has already been suffering with this issue for over a year now I decided that taking the route of a treatment that works more slowly would emotionally harm him less than attempting to subdue him long enough to administer the enema.
The great thing about Miralax is that I can mix it into whatever he is already drinking and it has no taste, color, or texture. Its completely painless to give it to him.
Too bad the result of the drinking can't be too.
We started OPERATION ROTO-ROOTER on Tuesday morning and by that evening the poor fella's hind end was in full faucet mode. However, by Wednesday morning he was so much happier and obviously in much less pain.
Currently we are on 3 of the clean-out stage and things are moving along about as well as you would expect (pun intended). Today I will gradually begin weaning back the Miralax dose by 1 teaspoon per day until I can get Noah down to 2 regular, pain free bowel movements per day.
I'm not going to hold my breath.
Poor Noah has a long road ahead of him. Treatment of encopresis typically takes a year to break down the vicious cycle of constipation, medically-induced cleanouts, and then the building back up of impacted stool. Much of the treatment is psychological and involves taking baby steps to help the child overcome their fear of pooping.
It saddens me that any child has to suffer with this problem and that there are other mothers out there like me at their wits end begging, pleading, bribing, and otherwise willing their child to do their business on a regular basis.
I would go so far as to assume that most mothers with a child suffering with encopresis don't care where our child eventually decides to initiate their bowel movements.
They can do it in the toilet, behind a tree, or even in a diaper.
First thing in the morning, after lunch, or even in the middle of the night.
Just for the love of all that is sacred and holy take a dump, son!
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I highly recommend the following bloggers and their blogs if you would like to read more about the struggles of encopresis and how it effects children and their caretakers. Both are raising children on and off the autism spectrum and have a wonderful sense of humor.
Sarah over at Planet Josh recently wrote post titled, Poop-Wiki.
Stimey from Stimeyland has blogged about her son's struggles with the big BM not once, but 11 times!
