Steve, you need to do some research on "withholding" or encoporesis.
You should not be punishing this kid - at this point, this is not
something he has control over, and what you are doing is not helping.

One of my sons got into this (its surprisingly common) and it is a very
difficult problem to resolve and once its established, it can also take
quite a long time to correct - expect the majority of kids who have it
to the point our sons have/had it to take a YEAR to totally resolve it.


How it gets going in the first place is that at some time, the kid had
a painful bowel movement and got into a pattern of fear where he
anticipated pain and tried to hold bowel movements in. It becomes a
pernicious cycle. The kid holds it in, his bowel gets distended and
stretched and over full....it hurts to go so they withhold more and
more, and ultimately he can no longer tell when he needs to go. Normal
bowel function AND sensation is compromised. The kid really can't help
it anymore at all. One of the signs is frequent tiny movements into
their pants - caused by the fact that the bowel is so full, that the
natural peristaltic action forces out bits of excrement (hey, it has to
go somewhere, and peristalsis is something we have zero conscious
control over, so your kid really, really CANNOT stop this).

What we had to do (with the help of a ped our family doc sent us to) is
get him on laxatives, just as your doctor has done with your son. We
had to carefully titrate the dose until the kid was having at two good
movements a day. We tried at first with mineral oil, and ended up with
ducolax (we had to call in the bigger gun since mineral oil just wasn't
doing enough)The goal was to get his bowel empty and keep it empty, so
it would SHRINK back to a more normal size, and normal function AND
sensation returns. It can take months and months.

Not only does the sensation need to return, but the kid then needs to
learn what the sensation means and learn some new toileting habits. It
took MANY months before our son was able to consistently stay clean,
and many more before we were able to slowly wean him off the laxatives.
LIke I said, this is not a problem that you can cure quickly, and it is
not something you will get anywhere with by punishing the kid (in fact,
if you read some articles on the subject, you are going to make it
worse by doing that).

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04160/328357.stm
http://www.aboutencopresis.com/
http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotion...ncopresis.html

Mary G.
Mom of three (been there, done that, and I know its really frustrating).