Jam is currently 5 years old.
I realized recently that a ridiculous amount of my time each day goes towards reminding Jam to drink liquids. This has forever been a problem. The kid just doesn't like to drink and I think it's something he inherited from me and somehow related to SPD. I also hate drinking anything. Eating, no problem. But I could happily go through a day without drinking anything more than my one daily tall vanilla latte.
Of course, it does take me three hours to finish that one latte because, while it is tasty, it's still something I have to swallow and the physical act just feels... not pleasant.
But I really need Jam to drink liquids, particularly since he developed functional constipation, or encopresis, a few years ago. For the longest time, we thought he was just constipated because bowel movements were always so uncomfortable for him, taking upwards of 40 minutes of straining for the smallest nugget of poop.
Well, it finally dawned on us that he'd actually been spending all that time straining to keep the poop in!
So as soon as we realized that he'd been withholding, we talked to him about needing to let the poop out and to not hold it in. And that's all it took- he willingly started to let it out. But the damage was done. It had already been more than a year of withholding and he'd since lost his muscle ability to actively push the poop out. Or maybe, with the hypotonia and his SPD interoceptive issues, he'd never had it. That kind of seems more likely, but who knows?!
But the good news is that we've been working on it and it's been a long, slow process. Jam's been on laxatives for over a year now and we really need to get him off of them. We'd held off on toileting until he was more mature and comfortable with the idea and now we're there and he's coming along really well. Except when it comes to poop. He only tends to go: 1) right when he gets up in the morning, 2) while in a standing position, and 3) in a pull-up. Not good. And while he can feel when the poop is moving down the pipe, he says he can't really work his muscles to help push it out, instead just waiting for it to basically fall out.
Again, not good.
I'm the first to admit that once he started pooping regularly from the laxative, I took a break from the whole thing and got a little complacent. But by now, his rectum should have shrunk back to a regular size so we're going to slowly, so very slowly, begin to lower the laxative dose so that the poop starts forming more solidly instead of the usual peanut butter sort of consistency. The other piece is having him actually sit on the toilet (instead of standing) first thing in the morning when he tends to poop so he can practice pushing and building up the sphincter muscle.
And, all the while, making sure the constipation doesn't start up again. Hence, pushing the fiber. And the regular physical exercise. And all the prompts to drink.
A few things that have been helpful in the drinking department include: 1) letting him use straws to drink everything (which is good for his oral-sensitivitities anyway), 2) BPA-free water bottles with grips (since he tends to drop and spill things a lot) and, gasp.... 3) sweet drinks.
Something I'd previously avoided like the plague.
Jam's drink of choice is Vitamin Water Zero which comes in a variety of flavors and which uses a stevia-based sugar substitute. I hate that he only wants to drink something sweet. And I'm too scared to look up the health facts for Vitamin Water Zero and the Truvia it uses because I'm sure it's not the healthiest product in the world. But the fact is he's willingly drinking so much more now than he ever has in his five years. Hopefully, after we get the constipation cleared up for good, we can start weaning him off it and back to regular water.
Wish me luck!