Replies to '07/11 What’s Up, Doc?'

It is not easy to go through what this family is going through.  The parents are frustated and wondering why is this happening.  The children are probably embarrassed and confused.  I have a 5 year old who has been dealing with severe constipation and encoproesis eversince she has been potty trained at 2 years.  She has been treated by a pediatrician who put her on several stool softeners and benefiber.  Also did the having her sit on the potty and push thing after meals and every so often.  Also have changed her diet several times.  First eliminating milk and going to soy then back to milk but only 12 ounces with a pediasure drink that has fiber in it.  She also has been doing laxatives and enemas for a long time--too long.  A 5 year should not know what an enema is or does.  The pediatiricain refered her to a gastroenterologist where she has had a biopsy done of her rectum, a barium enema done and that was no picnic, and lastly a CT scan done which showed her colon was not normal.  Her colon has sharp turns and is in a wavy pattern instead of a box shape.  With her colon like that it is hard for her to feel the urge or push out the stool so it sits in her colon for a long time.  He refered her to U of M but they didnt tell us anymore then we already knew and made it like we had to retrain her which is not the case but not sure if they had the results of the CT scan because he asked if U of M told us the results which they didnt.  We are going back to the gastroenterologist in Sept and we are going to ask for other options to help her get back to somewhat of a normal life.  We have also increased her stool softerner miralax and benefiber and neither seem to be helping her.  She will go for weeks without a good bowel movement unless she is given an enema and she screams at the word and during the process.  I feel horrible when she has to have one.  Her diet also has now been eliminated of peanut butter, cheese, rice and bananas which are supposed to be constipating foods.  It has made no difference.   She is going to be in kindergarten this fall and she also went to head start and the school system knows it is a medical problem but for her sake I hope it can be corrected so children will not make fun of her for her episodes.  We have also done the reward thing which didnt work due to her medical issue.  She has been wearing pull ups when she has bad epsiodes and underwear with liners during the not so bad episodes.  Just want her to be able to feel herself go.