My DH is notorius for loose stools and making giant messes. Either I get the pleasure of cleaning them up (YUCK!) or the adult daycare calls and wants him picked up. If I give him immodium then he's constipated for days. But when I stop the immodium, then LOOK OUT! THERE SHE BLOWS! I feel like I can win. He's got to be able to stay at daycare because i work full-time and cannot afford to quit. Sure could use some good solid advice from anyone that's experienced the same problem.
oops i meant to say give cheese in his diet to help with the loose stools.. he should eat more fiber in his diet too. i give the kellogg protein bars in stawberry or choc peanut butter on a regular basis due to the 'plugging' nature of the granolas in them.. giving a couple of these high protein bars should help counteract loose stool each day if its ongoing and you need immodium regularly then mayber a call to his dr to see if any of his meds may be producing it. some meds are notorious for diahhreah as a side effect.
immodium does work maybe half the dose you are giving or a quarter to see how a change in dose affects him. if hes gets stopped up then senokot S is a good choice for loosing him back up. but with all meds check with dr first -
if hes in daycare and makes messes outside his clothing then maybe some Sanipants= they are rubber plastic pants with elastic legs that can help 'contain' within the bounds of the depends.
good luck. you may need to experiment with doseages. to see which works best.
Buy a couple of packages of Archway Coconut Cookies. I've read this recommendation over the years in so many places and found that they work. Evidently coconut is good for this purpose, but don't eat too much.
PrisR: I wrestled with this problem for several months before we found out that it was a side effect of aricept. The dr didn't tell us that this might be a problem so I looked it up on line. It's funny when I told the dr our problem and what I had found out about aricept, he said 'Oh Yes' that might be possible.
I used immodium and senokots alternately. I mean one in the morning and a different one at night. Did a lot of experimenting with the amounts. Made the situation better sometimes, but, never whipped it until we discontinued aricept and started the exelon patches.
Dean.. I remember those brief Aricept days. Full of rages, paranoia and flaming balastic diarrhea. Pulled that med pretty fast. I thought it was rough dealing all the pee I deal with. Now I see it could be worse. I have no answers, Patt. Just empathy. What a mess and how horrible to have to deal with it daily.
Patt, I would check with his PCP. I am dealing with the same issue for myself right now. The Dr. has done testing to rule out some bacterias and celiac disease. However, after some experimenting with my diet, I am fairly certain that it is food related--probably either a gluten sensitivity or fructose malabsorption. I don't think that it is a good idea to just keep on giving Immodim on a daily basis. Something is causing it, you need to find out what that is. If he is having ongoing loose stools, he is not absorbing nutrients as he should.
My DH had diarrhea from Zoloft and maybe the Aricept. After both of these were discontinued, his diarrhea stopped. He had the problem for almost a year. It was so bad it was difficult to go anywhere. He was so afraid he would have an accident. I thought it was going to be a problem from the FTD but it wasn't, thank God.
Bev: I know what you mean about going out when this is the problem. But, my DW could care less if she had an accident with our friends or anywhere else. Even tho that is not now a problem, she has no regrets about anything. Spilling a glass of tea doesn't bother her at all. It's like she just forgets about it.
If any of you give your LO Activia, go to google and search side effects. I gave my DW Activia (Dcotors instructions) for GERD and fought this battle for a year and a half. I could have written every negative post on google! I took her off and she was back to normal in a matter of days! DickS