You may not have the same sort of struggles that Lamar experienced with her mother, but if you're new to providing this kind of care for your family member, one of the first things you can do is help him develop a regular schedule for having a bowel movement. To do this, keep track of when he usually has a bowel movement and schedule a toilet visit before he would ordinarily have the urge to go.
About an hour after a meal is a good time to remind him to go to the toilet, says Carol Jones, a family caregiver consultant with the Mountain Caregiver Resource Center in Mount Shasta, California. "If he's having a breakfast of cereal, coffee, juice, and water with pills, within an hour you're going to have to take him to the bathroom," says Jones. She also suggests that you give him plenty of privacy, especially if he uses a wheelchair or is unable to move around on his own.
Don't rush him, she adds. "Give him as much control as possible, because this is another way he's losing his independence, another function that he has to hand over to someone else."
Like DragonFly, my father is refusing all solid foods and is subsisting (quite well, actually) on Ensure and pudding, neither of which have any fiber, and was having weekly episodes of fecal incontinence. He would wear diapers for the 24 hours or so after each episode, but then would insist on returning to boxers. His doctor suggested adding fiber to his diet. We were able to bulk up his stool, and eliminate most of the fecal incontinence, by adding fiber (Benefiber) to his Ensure, and by offering him daily milkshakes with bananas or peaches added in. We started seeing improvement with 9-12 grams of supplemented fiber. We have all been delighted by the condom (external) catheter, which has solved the urinary problem. For whatever reason, Dad finds this more "dignified" than the diapers.
my mom in law dosent realized when she has a bowl movment or pees in her dyper. she has dementia, and only, dose this at night while she is sleeping. her doc said in sleep her muscles relax. during the day she might pee, once, when I take her to the bathroom,every other time she dose not go.She is on an ensure diet. thats ALL she will consume. if it wasent for her ensures, she would not be with us today.
I have been taking care of my husband since 1992. He is incontinent for bowl and urine. I use a male external catheter and drainage bag for urine. I use a dulcolax suppository every night for bowel. It works Very Well!!. Only 1 accident in a year. He does NOT wear diapers.
Hi anonymous, Thanks for your comment. All the tips listed in this article are still applicable to fecal incontinence. If you do a search engine (Google, Bing, so on) search for "fecal incontinence products," you should find some helpful results. I hope that helps, take care! -- Emily | Community Manager
I would like to know specifically what underwear protective garment is suitable for FECAL incontinence. All articles are geared toward urinary incontinence.
Just diapers? Please talk to your doctor...there are new minimally invasive treatments now available on for bowel control disorder (bowel incontinence). The doctor needs to determine the cause of the incontinence then can recommend treatments. One effective and FDA approved one just introduced this fall is call Secca Therapy. Go to www.secca-therapy.com.
I have dealt with this incontinence issue while taking care of my mother. The article really hit the nail on the head. Watch the diet and make changes accordingly. My mother is diabetic and all the sugar-free foods were adding to her diarhea. Yogurt, rice crackers, bananas all helped slow things down. I also eliminated all the dried fruit, which she loved. We also put her in Depends which was helpful. The suggestion that helped the most was taking her to the bathroom 1/2 hour after each meal and letting her sit there for as long as she wanted (which is a while). That has helped her decrease the accidents a lot. She also has a little lactose intolerance so we give her Lactaid at all meals that have milk products in them. The other thing that wasn't mentioned in the article that we do is to put diaper rash cream on her bottom a couple times a day (especially before bed)so if she does have an accident and sits in it for a while, it doesn't irritate her bottom. This also helps for urine incontinence. This has really helped with redness on her bottom. You really have to take a many facetted approach and try all the suggestions in the article.
You could also try Bed Pads. you can lay them on the bed at night time. http://www.ionmeds.com/Adult%20Diapers%20Home.htm
My mother had an incontinence problem. I think that the best way to handle it is Adult Diapers. I get hers at http://www.ionmeds.com/. Hope this helps