Differences in toileting habits between children with chronic encopresis, asymptomatic siblings, and asymptomatic nonsiblings

No studies have compared toileting-specific behaviors of encopretic childre n with those of asymptomatic children and have controlled for environmental factors such as parental attitudes, parenting styles, and bathroom facilit ies. This study prospectively examined the toileting habits of 86 chronical ly encopretic children compared with those of 27 asymptomatic siblings and 35 asymptomatic nonsiblings. Although encopretic children experienced signi ficantly more soiling than did controls, the total number of daily bower mo vements passed in the toilet (+/-SD) was comparable in the three groups (.9 2 +/- .76 in encopretic children compared with 1.14 +/- .43 and 1.08 +/- .4 7 in siblings and nonsiblings, respectively). Encopretic children experienc ed pain with defecation more often than did controls. During the 14-day stu dy period, encopretic children complained of pain on 2.75 +/- 4.03 days com pared with .58 +/- 1.84 days among sibling controls and 2.31 +/- 3.21 days among nonsibling controls. The mean pain score in encopretic children was . 76 +/- 1.00 compared with .05 +/- .15 and .26 +/- .38 among siblings and no nsiblings, respectively. All three groups of children sat on the toilet wit hout parental prompting the same number of times each day. In summary, chil dren with chronic encopresis do not seem to avoid toileting, and they exhib it toileting behaviors that are very similar to those of asymptomatic sibli ngs as well as to those of nonsibling controls.