Still having bathroom accidents

[8years]

My son will be 10 in a few months and he is still having accidents. I am at the end of my rope. Nothing has worked as far as punishments. We have had him to specialists and there is nothing physically wrong. The closest we have come to finding a physical reason is that when he was six I was googling his problems and found a site about encropsis (sp?) This is when a child has gotten use to witholding fecal matter anf they have staining. We got this cleaned up and any time I have taken him to the dr he is not constipated but still has accidents. The dr said that he could have lost some of the tension in his colon and it may take a while to come back. That was 4 years ago. He is still having issues with peeing an pooping (especially when he is engrossed in something). The only solotion the dr could give me was ritalin. After having the prescription for 6 mos I finally tried it. It seemed to help and some of the issues at school got better (neater printing, remembering to pick up his coat etc.). I don't like him on medication does anyone out there have any ideas???

 

[katattak]

Does he seem to stress over the situation? He may be picking up on your stress too which may make it worse for him.

My only idea is to try and make him use the bathroom at regular times throughout the day even if he doesn't think he has to go.

 

[HaoZi]

Mine is 10 now (just turned) and she still holds it too long then sometimes doesn't make it or gives herself nasty constipation or toilet clogging umm... events. Even adding fiber to her diet (carefully and slowly and spread out so I know she'll be home when it hits) doesn't always help. No advice, but you're not alone.

 

[mazdamama]

Ohhh.....the bathroom business. My younger guy would be so blocked up he wound up with a mega colon. A spinal tether was found a few years ago and surgery to release it was done. Seemed he could not feel the urge. Since then he is often too busy to bother...he gets in there on time )well now he does since Mom started making him clean all up himself) but is in a hurry to get things done. It took time and a stool softener to get him to the pont where he had to go or clean up after himself. Older of the two boys spends alot of time in there with reading material. His problem is he has a problem cleaning himself and soemtimes resorts to towels altough he has flushable wipes and tp. I am learning to pick my battles with these two and this is a battle I am not up to fighting.

 

[Liahona]

difficult child 1 used to get mad at us and then pee in the cornor of his room. We worked on potty training with him for years. He still takes a change of clothes in his back pack to school just in case. The other difficult children were also a struggle potty training, but not as much as difficult child 1. I've put them all on schedules of when to go potty. They have to sit on the potty for 10 min after each meal. I've also had them "sit" right before bedtime. I set a timer and let them take a game boy in with them. Sometimes I've had to go in with them (difficult child 2 likes to smear) and that is never fun. It gets better though after they get the hang of it.