Celebrating poop

When you have a child with spina bifida your whole life seems to revolve around poop or the lack of it. For those of you that have suffered with constipation or had a child that has suffered with constipation you will be able to appreciate this post much more fully than those who have not. :) My son, who is now 7, has spina bifida, part of having spina bifida is having what is called a neurogenic bowel. Basically the natural peristalsis of the bowel is severely impaired or nonexistent. Most children with spina bifida need to be on a daily laxative along with daily suppositories or enemas, or cone enemas which is basically irrigating the bowel to produce a bowel movement.

Carl James has been suffering with constipation pretty much since I started supplementing nursing with formula. Breast milk is a natural laxative but as soon as we added even a little bit of formula he started to get constipated and it has  only worsened over time. We recently went to the doctor and they told us since March he has gained 20 lbs (it's December right now). I had noticed over the last several months that his stomach just kept growing and the constipation was getting worse and worse. We have been in contact with the spina bifida clinic and changing his bowel regimen but it is a slow process and an adjustment in schedule which always takes time to implement. So I was and am curious how much of that 20 lbs is dried up fecal matter.

His regimen now is to take 1 1/2 pills of Senna every night and then do the cone enema in the morning. Here is what the system looks like.....

I start by having my son remove his diaper and sit on the toilet. Then I fill the bag up with 500 cc of water and add 1tsp salt. Then I lubricate the cone and insert it in and open the valve to let the water flow. We leave the cone in for a while to allow the stool to soften and then we remove the cone and have him push.

 

This is where we hang the bag. It's nice décor don't ya think? ;)

 

We have been doing this off and on for a couple of years but in the last few months it has been a daily routine. He wasn't receiving any relief and so we changed things up and still was only receiving minimal relief. So here is the part I am excited about....I have always thought that sitting on the toilet (working against gravity) was counterintuitive but I knew he would whine and complain about laying down in the tub but it was finally worth the fight. So I looked online for cone enema solutions. I was surprised to find many. As I was scrolling I found one that involves using lemon juice. When I am feeling a little sluggish I do something called a liver cleanse which is

 

The 1 Tbsp of Fresh Lemon Juice

1 drop of Lemon oil

1 drop of Peppermint oil

 

I always go running to the bathroom half an hour after this. So I figured lemon just made sense. So we changed our routine a little and had him lay in the tub on his left side. I added the juice of one small lemon to his cone enema bag and we also decided to wait a full 5 minutes before pulling the cone out. At first there were  not much results and so we decided to move onto his morning bath but then we realized we needed to move to the toilet and wow!!!! Can I just say WOW! Never have I been so happy to have a clogged toilet! It seems silly to be happy over a bowel movement especially a large smelly one but I was in tears!!! It had been so long and he has been so bloated. The doctors said the x-ray (of his bowels) looked good and he had hardly any stool in there but my mommy  gut new better. You shouldn't be able to watch someone's stomach grow over months (unless they are pregnant). He shouldn't fit into pants one week and then not the next.

 

If anything, my child having spina bifida has helped me appreciate the small things in life. Even if it is that I have the ability to relieve myself regularly :)

 

(I apologize to those of you that were offended or grossed out by this but I know we are not the only ones suffering this fate and I wanted to post not only my success but also my gratitude for something finally working!)