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Raising Our Kids | |||
Raising Our Kids
Taking Control of the Potty Training Days
By Robin Green For many parents just emerging from the Terrible Twos, the next stage has the potential to make that one seem like a walk in the park. Toilet training! Some children ease through it, but others can turn their entire household on its ear for an extended period of time. According to Dr. Fred Daum, pediatric gastroenterologist and professor of pediatrics at New York University's School of Medicine, it's all quite simple. The entire difficulty revolves around one issue and that issue is control. Dr. Daum, who is a consultant to a new company aptly called All About The Toilet, strongly believes that parents must take the control away from their children and bring it back to them. "Children who are in control are out of control," says Dr. Daum. "They need structure and someone to make big decisions for them." So how does he regain this control for parents and thus toilet train their children? All About The Toilet gets to the cause of the problem. Dr Daum believes he is not actually teaching children how to use the toilet, but dealing directly with the issue of bowel retention. He considers this retention to be a behavioral problem in much the same way as eating or sleeping issues, designed by the child to control the family. Families often become obsessed with the child's toileting and devote untold amounts of time and energy to bathroom issues. Siblings are often put on "poop patrol" and the child becomes the center of attention for all family members. To help resolve this retention, Dr. Daum recommends a program whereby the child takes relatively high doses of a vegetable-based laxative at a prescribed time every day, usually around noon. Six or seven hours later, the child has no choice but to sprint for the bathroom, as retention is no longer an option. This can go on for many months, until the child has the hang of going to the bathroom on his own volition. A large percentage of Dr. Daum's clients are children on the autistic spectrum, or those with obsessive compulsive disorders or other behavioral problems. Treatment plans are built around the child's particular issues and are monitored closely by Dr. Daum. A family who wants to work with Dr. Daum must first attend an hour-and-a-half meeting that involves the entire family, during which the child's history and current circumstances are discussed in detail. The family also provides Dr. Daum with a list of all people who are involved tin the child's daily life, including teachers, therapists, babysitters, grandparents, etc. To ensure consistency, Dr. Daum contacts each person and makes sure they are all on board. The next stage of the program involves finding appropriate dosages of the laxative and having it administered by the school nurse during the week and by the parents on the weekend. Dr. Daum is in close contact to be sure the dose is neither too high nor too low and to monitor progress. "I take it as my burden is to see that it works," he says. Parents who have participated in the program can back up this claim. Christina Monaghan of Larchmont has a four-year old child who was very difficult to toilet train. Her third child, following two easy trainers, was retaining his stool and was the only child in his preschool class still in diapers. Dr. Daum put the child on a relatively high dose of laxatives at the same time each day. After several weeks, he was completely toilet trained and was ultimately weaned off the laxatives. "His whole temperament changed," says Monaghan. "He felt better both physically and emotionally. Dr. Daum worked with us on a daily basis until our problem was solved." The Liuzzo's of Mohegan Lake can now boast of "60 days of totally clean." Their eight-year-old son, who is on the autistic spectrum, was wreaking havoc in the family with his lack of toilet training. Susan Liuzzo is thrilled about her son's results and feels that Dr. Daum took much of the burden away from her. "Every doctor gives you advice, but they're not there in the trenches," she says. "Dr. Daum was with us every step of the way and worked closely with my son's school, therapists and pediatrician." Over the past 30 years as a physician, Dr. Daum has worked with more than 20,000 children with stooling problems and feels his success rate is high. But is long-term usage of laxatives in children safe? According to one Westchester pediatrician, "I don't question the safety of extended use of vegetable-based laxatives in children. However, I do recommend proceeding with caution with this type of program and would only consider it in extreme cases" For more information on All About The Toilet, parents can call Dr. Daum at (914) 584-7790. |
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