Home Hot Topics Articles Directors' Choice Awards About Us / Contact Us Activities & Curriculum Activities for Outcome-Based Learning Arts & Crafts Music for Learning Recommended Reading Sharing Boards: What Do YOU Think? NEWSlink Current National News Conference Calendar Topics In Early Childhood Education Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education Job Sharing Board State Licensing Requirements Stay Connected! Each month we'll send you an email filled with articles and ideas for your classroom. Subscribe Now Date: 6/22/2007 11:27:00 AM Author: Lara (LaraMcCully@gmail.com) Subject: This may help... Sorry, my other reply was sent before I was finished by mistake. Like I said, from the age of about 4 (1974), I used to hold in my bowel movements. My parents just thought I was hiding to pass wind. I had been constipated since birth. My mother was too ill to breastfeed me and so I was put on a cow’s milk formula and I believe that to be the start of it all. Anyway, I didn’t have a “soiling” problem because my stool was so hard that I had no soft stool in there to leak out when I held it in. I think once these children have a painful or uncomfortable BM, they begin to hold in their stool. As you keep holding it in, your feeling to go becomes less frequent and then more and more subtle. Soon, you only feel the need to go once a week and the urge becomes so weak that it’s easy and pleasant to hold it in. In fact, I remember actually beginning to really ENJOY the feeling of holding my stool inside me. It was normal to me. When I was an adult, in my early 20’s, I had to have surgery unrelated to my bowel problem. I was told to lose as much weight as I could before my operation. I found a book called “Fit for Life” by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. This is an old book from the 70’s I believe. I read it and it made sense to me as a diet. It was combining food properly, eating lots of raw fruits and veggies and cutting out dairy products and meat of you so desired. So, I went on it for a month. At the end of that month I was 30 pounds lighter, I had way more energy, I only needed 6 hours of sleep a night and low and behold my bowel problems were solved. I think the main factor was that I cut out constipating dairy products, meat which has no fibre and all regular breads, cereals and pasta. What else is there to eat? Whole grain breads, cereals and pastas, beans and lentils, and fruit and vegetables... all high fibre and non constipating. I am 36 now and a single mom. I was married to a man who loved his meat and cheese and reverted back to the Standard American Diet (SAD). I have 2 children, which I brought up on that diet and now I am paying for it. My son soils his pants. He began when he was about 6 and is now 9 years old. I too have all the same frustrations and worries as those on this site. I did solve my son's problem for an entire year. I will tell you what I did during that year. I started giving my son Metamucil. In it’s drink form it just tastes like tang so it was much easier than the lactalose or the mineral oil, which made him wretch. Soon his stool was so fibre filled that he couldn’t deny the feeling anymore. We had a year full of healthy BMs and no soiled underpants hidden throughout the house. Metamucil not only helps keep you regular, it keeps your cholesterol at healthy levels and the fibre acts as tiny sponges that clean your colon and absorb toxins from your body. (No, I don’t own stock in the company) Sadly, he has started holding it in again because his body has become used to the dosage of fibre and his diet is often not what it should be health wise. I guess I am going to have to just suck it up and change our diet back to a healthy one, plus give him a double dose in order to bring back those strong feelings to go. I'll keep you posted. Good luck. Name: Email: Subject

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