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I don't think that my DD quite has encoporesis (liquid stool leaking around when they are constipated), but she has been constipated since starting solid foods and definitely has gone through periods of holding in BMs. When that happens she will sometimes have a small smear in her underwear, but I think it's just a tiny bit of solid, not liquid (I'm sorry - this is incredibly gross).

I have basically been worried about constipation her whole life - so her diet is really good, I make sure she drinks lots of water, etc. I wasn't able to manage it with those measures alone though. I read the Bees whole series and bought both of the books that they recommended (one for adults and one for kids). They've both been helpful and helped me to be ok with giving her a very small amount (one teaspoon) of daily miralax - which her pedi is encouraging as well. It's the only thing that keeper her going and I think we would be in a really bad place without it. One of the reasons that I've been so proactive is that both of my kids struggle with constipation and my mom tells me that I was almost hospitalized as a kid because I was having such a huge crisis with it

@MrsF: oh I know! Glad someone can relate

@HappyBaker: Dr. Tom's books saved both of my kids!!

The one thing I'd mention is that my doctor was not very helpful on the subject of encopresis. The advice he did give was totally off-base! I think functional constipation and encopresis is not all that well understood by most pediatricians, for whatever reason...

@HappyBaker: shoot..I don't off the top of my head but I may have it somewhere, I'll let you know if I find it. I only had success with mixing it with drinkable yogurt but my child is stubborn, so

I'm looking in the book and I don't see a specific recommendation. This link is from a children's hospital and it shows the difference between a "clean out" and a routine dose. I'm not sure I would be quite so aggressive on the initial dosing, and I would never be able to get my DD to drink that much water, but it's an interesting reference at least.

http://www.choc.org/programs-services/urology/bowel-clean-out-with-miralax/

I know that the dose in the table above is the regular adult dose, so I was a little hesitant to go by that. That being said though, you can take a lot of this stuff and be ok - this is what patients' drink for a colonoscopy prep at my hospital and they drink tons. It might take several days to work as well, because it's not a stimulant laxative - just draws water into the colon.

I'm just curious if any of you have tried probiotics with any noticeable effect? Certainly not offering up advice or a recommendation, just genuine curiosity.

I don't think we have this full on, but the rare daytime accidents my daughter has now are always related to constipation.

@MamaG: just seeing this - we tried probiotics for a long time. I really wanted it to be the magic trick. If it helped at all it wasn't nearly enough.