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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffEncopresis occurs when your child resists having bowel movements, causing impacted stool to collect in the colon and rectum. When your child's colon is full of impacted stool, liquid stool can leak around the impacted stool and out of the anus, staining your child's underwear. Encopresis may also be called stool holding.
Encopresis usually occurs after age 4, when your child has already learned to use a toilet. In most cases, encopresis is a symptom of chronic constipation. Less frequently, it may be the result of developmental or emotional issues.
Encopresis can be frustrating for you — and embarrassing for your child. However, with patience and positive reinforcement, treatment for encopresis is usually successful.
- Parenting Corner Q&A: My child is way past toilet training, but he still soils his underwear. What should I do? American Academy of Pediatrics. http://www.aap.org/publiced/BK5_Soiling.htm. Accessed Sept. 10, 2008.
- Stool soiling and constipation in children. American Academy of Family Physicians. http://familydoctor.org/online/famcoden/home/children/parents/toilet/166.printerview.html. Accessed Sept. 10, 2008.
- Berkowitz CD. Encopresis. In: Berkowitz CD. Berkowitz's Pediatrics: A Primary Care Approach. 3rd ed. Washington D.C.: American Academy of Pediatrics; 2008:223-236.
- Stafford B, et al. Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Disorders & Psychosocial Aspects of Pediatrics. In: Hay Jr. WW, et al. CURRENT Diagnosis & Treatment: Pediatrics. 19th edition. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.; 2009. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3398994&searchStr=encopresis. Accessed Nov. 28, 2008.
- Nurcombe B. Developmental Disorders of Attachment, Feeding, Elimination, & Sleeping. In: Ebert MH, et al. CURRENT Diagnosis & Treatment: Psychiatry. 2nd edition. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3291880&searchStr=encopresis. Accessed Nov. 28, 2008.
- Vegetative Disorders: Elimination Disorders: Encopresis. In: Kliegman RM, et al. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 18th edition. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007.
- Ferry GD, et al. Definition, clinical manifestations, and evaluation of functional fecal incontinence in children. http://www.uptodate.com/online/content/topic.do?topicKey=pedigast/10533&selectedTitle=1~14&source=search_result. Accessed Nov. 28, 2008.
