Overflow Soiling

When your child has become severely constipated, their bowel is impacted with poo. Overflow soiling is the outcome of this impaction.

Prolonged constipation dilates your child's bowel and affects normal sensation and reflex action in the rectum and anus. The job of the bowel is to continually draw water from the stools. New stools are constantly added (which haven't yet had any water drawn from them) and are able to bypass the hard, big poo impaction present in the bowel, exiting through the anus as watery stools. Because of the loss of normal control and sensation, this liquid seeps out without the child knowing.

A Visual Guide to Overflow Soiling

diagram of bowels explaining overflow soiling

How To Stop Overflow Soiling

In order for the overflow soiling to cease, your child will need to fully empty their bowel. This is known as dis-impaction. It is important to ensure all of the stools sitting in the bowel have been flushed through, usually through large doses of laxatives.

This is the only way to stop overflow soiling. If your child is under the care of our service you will have been given a tailored treatment regime. Following the advice our specialist nurses give you will ensure that your child's overflow soiling stops and through regular maintenance medications, will hopefully not return.

This then gives your child's bowel a chance to recover and shrink back to a normal size.