It defines the Encopresis such as occasional voluntary or involuntary loss of feces in children over four years old. At this age they have already learned to go to the bathroom; After two years, many children are mature and have received encouragement to control the desire to poop. But like almost everything, it depends on the child's development.
Encopresis can be caused by organic problems that are important to rule out or for psychological reasons, necessary to solve. The diagnosis can be determined from suffering these episodes once a month for three months, being a serious encopresis if it occurs once a day, and mild if it happens less than once a week. In turn, it differs in primary, if the child has never controlled his sphincter and secondary, if there has been a long period of control.
Returning to the causes, an organic pathology such as constipation, can cause the hard stool to be retained in the colon, so it would give way to the passage of semi-liquid feces. In this case, the child is not aware and can happen both day and night. In other cases it may be a lack of education or training to control the elimination of feces, being absent from the appropriate reflex to go to the bathroom at specific times.
The psychological causes can be linked to a challenging system to attract attention, emotional problems, internal tension due to a change of school, the arrival of a little brother, etc. In any case, this problem usually causes shame to children, loss of self-esteem and feelings of guilt, so this topic is usually hidden.
The main treatment is to avoid constipation, if it exists, the diet should be adapted by increasing the content of fibers, legumes, fruits, whole grains and plenty of water and liquids that will soften the stool and relieve possible discomfort when going to the bathroom.
If the problem is psychological, it should be evaluated by the specialist who will help you solve fecal incontinence. In addition, the unconditional support that the child should receive from the parents in any case that produces encopresis, will be a great help so that the self-esteem does not decline.
